At 3,705,751 square miles, China is just larger than the United States. Because mountains or desert covers much of China, the majority of people live in the east, where rivers and plains allow for productive agriculture. While summers are warmer and winters are colder, China's climate is much like the United States. Monsoons cause frequent summer floods. China's geographic features are vastly different between regions, ranging from the Himalayan Mountains to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (the "roof of the world) to subtropical islands (Peoples 65) (Geography 320).

The Chinese have one of the world's oldest continued civilizations, spanning some five thousand years. From early on, China was ruled by a series of dynasties. Some were ruled by native Han (such as the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644), and some were established after nomadic tribes from the North (the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911) conquered China. A revolution inspired by Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911. In 1912 Sun Yat-sen established the Kuomintang (KMT) political party in an effort to unify China (Peoples 65).

"Background Notes: China, October 1998". U.S. State Department, Official Web Site.

"Peoples Republic of China". Culturegrams, Vol II. Bringham Young University, 1999.

Davis, Zachary. "91023: Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Issues in the 104th Congress".

Leventhal, Paul. "Proliferation: Show China We Mean Business". U.S. AND CHINA

While the Chinese initially welcomed communism, the periods of the Great Leap Forward (1958-1961) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) had disastrous effects on the country. More than 40 million people starved or were killed during Mao's rule. After Mao died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping came to power and gradually moved away from Maoism. His more moderate policies led to foreign tourism, a more liberal economy, private enterprise, growth, trade, and education. However, the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and a subsequent government crackdown derailed China's open-door policy (Peoples 65).

China became a major international arms exporter during the 1980s. Beijing joined the Middle East arms control talks, which began in July 1991 to establish global guidelines for conventional arms transfers, but announced in September 1992 that it would no longer participate because of the U.S. decision to sell F-16A/B aircraft to Taiwan (Background).

, Chian

Some common words found in the essay are:
Treaty September, Nonproliferation China, Communist Party, Tiananmen Square, China Chinese, Cooperation Implementation, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Middle East, Deng Xiaoping, Zangger Committee, peoples 65, nuclear weapons, nuclear nonproliferation, nuclear cooperation, zangger committee, qing dynasty, sun yat-sen, communist party, october 1997, background china,
Approximate Word count = 868
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)