LYCOS RETRIEVER 
China: China National
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[A]ll land in China is owned by the State or state-controlled entities. Individuals and firms, including foreigners... can own and transfer long-term leases for land use, subject to many restrictions, as well as structures and personal property. To obtain land-use rights, the land user must sign a land-grant contract with the local land authority and pay a land-grant fee up front. The grantee will enjoy a fixed land-grant term and must use the land for the purpose specified in the land-grant contract. The maximum term of a land grant ranges from 40 years for commercial usage, 50 years for industrial purpose, to 70 years for residential use. China’s Property Law, passed by the National People’s Congress in March 2007, stipulates that residential property rights will be automatically renewed while commercial and industrial grants should be renewed absent a conflicting public interest.
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On January 1, 1912, the Republic of China was established, heralding the end of the Qing Dynasty. Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party), was proclaimed provisional president of the republic. However, Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who had defected to the revolutionary cause, soon usurped the presidency by forcing Sun to step aside. Yuan then attempted to have himself instated emperor of a new dynasty, but died of natural causes before securing power over all of the Chinese empire.
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Yüan had died in 1916 and China was disintegrating into rival warlord states. Civil war raged between Sun's new revolutionary party, the Kuomintang, which established a government in Guangzhou and received the support of the southern provinces, and the national government in Beijing, supported by warlords (semi-independent military commanders) in the north. As cultural ferment seethed throughout China, intellectuals sought inspiration in Western ideals; Hu Shih, prominent in the burgeoning literary renaissance, began a movement to simplify the Chinese written language. Labor agitation, especially against foreign-owned companies, became more common, and resentment against Western religious ideas grew.
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After its victory in the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong, gained control of most of the Mainland China. On October 1, 1949, they established the People's Republic of China, laying claim as the successor state of the ROC. The central government of the Chinese Nationalist Party led by Chiang Kai-shek was forced to retreat to the island of Taiwan that it had occupied at the end of World War II and moved the ROC government there. Major armed hostilities ceased in 1950 but no peace treaty has been signed.
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In 2006, China raised the profile of its anti-corruption drive by sacking high ranking officials, including the Shanghai Municipal Communist Party chief, who concurrently had been a member of the Party’s Politburo. The National Audit Office continued to inspect accounts of state-owned enterprises and government entities. China ratified the UN Anti-Corruption Convention in 2005 and participates in APEC and OECD anti-corruption initiatives, but has not signed the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery.
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In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland. The Kuomintang fled to the island province of Taiwan, where it reestablished the Nationalist government. The Nationalist government controlled only Taiwan and a few outlying islands but initially retained wide international recognition as the rightful government of all of China. Today, most countries recognize the PRC on the mainland as the official government of China. However, Taiwan and mainland China remain separated by different administrations and economies. Therefore, Taiwan is treated separately in Encarta Encyclopedia.
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