China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), was a pre-War country in East Asia and the world's most populous country. China emerged as one of the world's earliest civilizations, in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, or dynasties going from 21st century BC to 20th century AD. Dynastic rule ended in 1912, when the republic replaced the Qing dynasty. China as a whole was ravaged by Japan during World War II, and the subsequent Chinese Civil War resulted in a division of territory in 1949, when the Communist Party of China established the People's Republic of China, a unitary one-party sovereign state on the majority of China, while the Kuomintang-led nationalist government retreated to the island of Taiwan. China slowly rose to prominence during the 21st century, eventually usurping the Soviet Union's position on the world stage. This arrangement continued until the Sino-American War when the United States nearly toppled the People's Republic of China in a devastating war. However, the Great War brought an end to both states and to civilization in general. Now, China is split between numerous squabbling warlords, tribes, and dynasties.
