United States of China ( zh, t=中華合眾國, s=中华合众国, hp=Zhōnghuá Hézhòngguó) is a political concept first devised in the early 1920s by

Chen Jiongming Chen Jiongming, (; 18 January 187822 September 1933), courtesy name Jingcun (竞存/競存), nickname Ayan (阿烟/阿煙), was a Hailufeng Hokkien revolutionary figure in the early period of the Republic of China. Early life Chen Jiongming wa ...

of a federalized

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

modeled closely after the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. Given the political, social and linguistic realities of China in the

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

period, Chen Jiongming believed that a federalist approach was the only feasible way to eventually establish a united,

democratic republic A democratic republic is a form of government operating on principles adopted from a republic and a democracy. As a cross between two exceedingly similar systems, democratic republics may function on principles shared by both republics and democrac ...

. Beginning with

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

as a model state, he wanted to organize a "United States of China in the manner of the American experience" through negotiation with federalists from all parts of the country.The New York Times, p22, 27 June 1922.
/ref> The introduction of

Special Economic Zones A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

since the 1980s have led to the development of several distinct regional economies within the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, such as the

Pearl River Delta The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Mac ...

Yangtze River Delta The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD, or simply ) is a triangle-shaped megalopolis generally comprising the Wu Chinese-speaking areas of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. The area lies in the heart of the Jiangnan reg ...

, and the

Bohai Circle The Bohai Economic Rim (BER) or Bohai Bay Economic Rim (BBER) is the economic region surrounding Tianjin (Tientsin). It also includes areas in Hebei, Liaoning and Shandong surrounding the Bohai Sea. This region has undergone major economic and i ...

. Several of these regions have economies the size of small developed nations. Some scholars who use the term United States of China argue that during the process of

Chinese economic reform The Chinese economic reform or reform and opening-up (), known in the West as the opening of China, is the program of economic reforms termed " Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "socialist market economy" in the People's Republic of C ...

the People's Republic has evolved into a de facto federal state in which these economic regions have wide discretion to implement policy goals which are set by the PRC central government and in which provinces and localities actively compete with each other in order to advance economically.

References

External links

Allen T. Cheng "The United States of China: How business is moving Taipei and Beijing together"
- Asiaweek, July 6, 2001

sup> ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060906045837/http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~yqian/93-4.pdf .pdf version/sup>
Democracy and Its Limits in Greater China
Constitutional law Politics of China Federalism in China Proposed countries {{constitutional-law-stub

See also

References

External links