The Anglo-Saxon Social Model - The Expanded Universe

[Rattigan]

A general question, is the smaller response to this update than the previous two an indication that people didn't like TTL's ROTS? Too close to OTL, perhaps?

Very nice!
I like what you've done with the lightsabers - making the colours into a more metaphysical sort of thing.

The bleeding is something I took from the new canon Vader comics but I also thought it ties in well with ROTJ, where Luke opens up to his rage in order to defeat Vader but his saber colour doesn't change symbolising his apotheosis as a new form of Jedi.

Very nice work on Star Wars- only complaint is that it needs more Wookiee!

Well the final battle in ROTJ takes place on Kashyyyk TTL and Peter Mayhew is a series regular on the Heir to the Empire tv show so I hope that evens it out...

 

[Johnharry]

It seems while whether this world is better is objective in many ways, with some places being "worse" than OTL and others "better" an objective observation is this world is more multipolar.

The US, Commonwealth are close to on par with each other in the modern age.

Soviet Union survived.

Brazils a wealthy nation with probably considerably more global influence TTL.

China and India "similar to OTL" but even in OTL they are major powers in their own rights.

There isn't much a Pax Americana.

Especially with a strong nation down south

 

[Rattigan]

Burma, officially the Konbaung Dynasty, is a country in southeast Asia. It is bordered by Bengal and Assam & Nagaland to the west, Tibet to the north, China to the northeast, Indochina to the east and Thailand to the southeast. It has coastlines on the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest. With a size of 676,578 square kilometres, Burma is the second largest mainland southeast Asian state by area. Its capital city is Mandalay and nearly half of Burma’s over 53 million people live in the Greater Rangoon Capital Region, one of the largest metropolitan economies in the world.

Early civilisations in Burma included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma and the Mon Kingdoms in Lower Burma. In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language, culture and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the territory. These kingdoms fell to Mongol invasion in the 13th century, leading to a warring states period until the territory was reunified by the Taungoo dynasty in the 16th century. Alaungpaya founded the Konbaung dynasty in 1752, which continues to rule to this day.

At the time of its rise to power the Konbaung dynasty had to contend with imperial pressure from both France and the United Kingdom, including unequal treaties and forced concessions of territory. The country lost the Anglo-Burmese War in 1824-1826 and a British protectorate was declared over the territory as part of the final peace treaty. Despite this, Western political rule over the country was relatively light and skilful political management meant that the country was able to encourage British economic investment without leading to direct political rule. Burmese government was centralised and transformed into a modern unitary absolute monarchy in the reign of Thibaw Min (1878-1916). Burmese troops fought in the Great War alongside troops from British India.

A bloodless revolution in 1932 saw Burma adopt a parliamentary system of government, sidelining the monarchy. Burma would later be a major battleground of the World War, facing both a Chinese invasion and a Commonwealth counter-invasion, with the territory being the site of vicious guerilla warfare by long-range penetration groups. When India was granted independence in 1948, the British also ended the formal protectorate over Burma. Although Burma was initially a member of the Commonwealth, it chose to leave the grouping when formal bureaucratic and legal structures were instituted in 1953.

Burma’s subsequent history is marked by alternating periods of democratic and autocratic rule, the latter often in close collaboration with the military. These governments are conventionally numbered from the First Constitution to the contemporary Sixth Constitution. The First Constitution, arguably democratic at its inception, became increasingly autocratic as Premier Ba Maw increasingly centralised power around himself until his regime’s collapse in 1960 following a student uprising. This was followed by a year of political instability under the Second Constitution until a military coup in 1961 paved the way for the inception of the Third Constitution under Aung Sun in 1963. As Premier, Aung Sun oversaw a period of rapid economic growth nicknamed the “Miracle on the Irrawaddy Delta” which saw Burmese companies become world leaders in industries such as shipbuilding and automobile manufacture.

However, despite economic advances, Aung Sun was criticised as a ruthless dictator and in 1972 he extended his rule by creating the Fourth Constitution, which gave the Premier dictatorial powers. Discontent culminated in his assassination in 1979, which created a political vacuum that was filled by a military government under Sein Lwin that promulgated the Fifth Constituion which declared martial law over the country. Discontent at Lwin’s despotic rule culminated in widespread anti-government protests that saw Lwin forced into exile and a new, democratic, Sixth Constitution introduced in 1987. Mandalay hosted the 1988 Olympic Games, which was widely regarded as a significant boost for Burma’s global image and economy.

Under the Sixth Constitution, the country has gradually stabilised into a liberal democracy and is now regarded as one of the most advanced democracies in the world, with a particularly high level of press freedom. The country is also notable for its high level of social mobility. Economically, Burma is a highly developed country and the world’s 21st largest economy by GDP. Its citizens enjoy some of the world’s fastest internet connection speeds and a dense high-speed railway network. Burma is a global leader in the automotive and shipbuilding industries, with Parrot being the second largest automobile manufacturer in the world and the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company and DawPone Shipyard being the 14th and 16th largest shipbuilding companies in the world, respectively. In the 21st century, Burma has been renowned for its globally influential pop culture, particularly in cinema. In 2020, Burmese director Christina Kyi became the first director to win Best Picture at the CGAAs with a film not in the English language, for her film The Only Mother, a story of a family that moves into a colonial-era haunted house.

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

Sixth Republic

I'm assuming that should say under the sixth Constitution rather then Republic.

 

[Ogrebear]

I wonder if the Burmese regret leaving the Commonwealth?

 

[Rattigan]

I'm assuming that should say under the sixth Constitution rather then Republic.

Goddamnit. Thanks for catching that.

I wonder if the Burmese regret leaving the Commonwealth?

Probably not many of them by 2020 tbh, if for no other reason than Burma as a whole is sitting pretty sweet by then. Where you have active "should've stayed in the Commonwealth" sentiment it would be in places like Bengal or Sierra Leone...

 

[Rattigan]

 

[Rattigan]

The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the Commonwealth and comprises the seagoing commercial interests of Commonwealth-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, one of the first Commonwealth-wide regulatory bodies. King George V first formally bestowed the title “Merchant Navy” on the British and Commonwealth merchant shipping fleets following their service in the Great War, but the term had been in use informally before that date. A number of other nations have since adopted the title for their own commercial shipping fleets.

For much of its history, the Merchant Navy has been the largest commercial fleet in the world. In 1940, it was the largest in the world with 33% of total tonnage. Although the Commonwealth remains the largest in the world, as of 2020, the percentage of total tonnage has decreased to 23.5%. This includes ships either directly or indirectly owned or managed by a British company or parent and amounts to nearly 12,000 ships of 100 GT or more.

As a signatory to the STCW Convention, Commonwealth ships are commanded by Deck Officers and Engineering Officers. Officers undergo 3 years of training, known as a cadetship at one of the 29 approved maritime colleges around the Commonwealth. Successful completion of the course results in a qualification in marine operations or marine engineering. The costs of a cadetship are usually met by sponsorship from a Commonwealth shipping company. The crews on Commonwealth ships are known for their diversity, a legacy of the extent of the British Empire and the availability of crew in different ports.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency also maintains a series of annual maritime shipping statistics which are published on an annual basis every September. This includes total gross and deadweight tonnage per national flag. Compiled in collaboration with Lloyds of London and other notable international shipping interests, the list is generally considered definitive.

 

[Ogrebear]

Cool Merchant Navy flag for the Soviet Union there...

 

[Rattigan]

Further information on the individual Commonwealth manufacturers can be found here, here, here and here.

 

[Rattigan]

 

[Rattigan]

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire is an American science fiction television series and part of the Star Wars franchise. The show was developed by George Lucas and executive produced by Lucas and his wife Marcia Lucas, with Timothy Zahn acting as head writer. The pilot for the series was released as a film in a limited number of cinemas before being shown in three parts in December 2003 on NBC. It was then followed by four regular seasons and two television movies, both of which had limited cinema releases, before ending its run in October 2009.

Heir to the Empire is set five years after the events depicted in Return of the Jedi (1983) and deals with Leia Organa’s (Carrie Fisher) and Luke Skywalker’s (Mark Hamill) attempts to stabilise the New Galactic Republic and a new Jedi Order against the assaults of the ruthless Grand Admiral Thrawn (Richard E. Grant) and Captain Gillad Pallaeon (Christopher Lee), both former officers in the Imperial Navy. Harrison Ford reprised his role as General Han Solo for the television film Dark Force Rising (1998), in which a New Republic fleet is ambushed by Thrawn and destroyed, with Solo himself being killed. Other important characters include master smuggler Talon Karrde (Jamie Bamber), ace pilot Hera Syndulla (Katee Sackhoff), Galactic Senator Garm Bel Iblis (Edward James Olmos), Dark Jedi Joruus C’baoth (Cress Williams) and assassin-turned-Jedi Mara Jade (Jean Smart). In addition, Peter Mayhew, Jeremy Bulloch, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker reprised their roles from the original trilogy. In the final series, the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong race is introduced as new antagonists, forcing the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant to put aside their differences and come to a compromise.

The first three seasons and two films garnered wide critical acclaim both at the time of its run and in the years since, including a Peabody Award. It received 19 Emmy nominations for its writing, directing, visual effects and in other technical categories, winning three. However, the final season and third film received a more mixed reception, with many criticising the show’s shift in tone and themes. In 2019, The Times placed the show on its list of “The 20 Best TV Dramas Since The Sopranos” and it is commonly regarded as a landmark show in the 21st century “golden age of television.”

 

[UrbanNight]

Excellent stuff. I wish I could actually see it.

I think the last film should be "Specter of the Past".

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

During a odd moment the letters mixed in an uncanny way and I read that Baron Cohen was playing Talon Karrde. Spooky.

Well, better having as Karrde than as Jade.

 

[Dr Dee]

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire is an American science fiction television series and part of the Star Wars franchise. The show was developed by George Lucas and executive produced by Lucas and his wife Marcia Lucas, with Timothy Zahn acting as head writer. The pilot for the series was released as a film in a limited number of cinemas before being shown in three parts in December 2003 on NBC. It was then followed by four regular seasons and two television movies, both of which had limited cinema releases, before ending its run in October 2009.

Heir to the Empire is set five years after the events depicted in Return of the Jedi (1983) and deals with Leia Organa’s (Carrie Fisher) and Luke Skywalker’s (Mark Hamill) attempts to stabilise the New Galactic Republic and a new Jedi Order against the assaults of the ruthless Grand Admiral Thrawn (Richard E. Grant) and Captain Gillad Pallaeon (Christopher Lee), both former officers in the Imperial Navy. Harrison Ford reprised his role as General Han Solo for the television film Dark Force Rising (1998), in which a New Republic fleet is ambushed by Thrawn and destroyed, with Solo himself being killed. Other important characters include master smuggler Talon Karrde (Jamie Bamber), ace pilot Hera Syndulla (Katee Sackhoff), Galactic Senator Garm Bel Iblis (Edward James Olmos), Dark Jedi Joruus C’baoth (Cress Williams) and assassin-turned-Jedi Mara Jade (Jean Smart). In addition, Peter Mayhew, Jeremy Bulloch, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker reprised their roles from the original trilogy. In the final series, the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong race is introduced as new antagonists, forcing the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant to put aside their differences and come to a compromise.

The first three seasons and two films garnered wide critical acclaim both at the time of its run and in the years since, including a Peabody Award. It received 19 Emmy nominations for its writing, directing, visual effects and in other technical categories, winning three. However, the final season and third film received a more mixed reception, with many criticising the show’s shift in tone and themes. In 2019, The Times placed the show on its list of “The 20 Best TV Dramas Since The Sopranos” and it is commonly regarded as a landmark show in the 21st century “golden age of television.”

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Oh no...you haven't butterflied the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica have you...?! Although I'd be happy to butterfly certain things in the last two seasons of said show...but not the whole thing

 

[Ogrebear]

I think it is unlikely that AltMe would like the Yuuzhan Vong any more than OTL me does so probably really disliked this- even if he watched it anyway.

Would be nice to see how Chewbacca dealt with Han's death.

 

[Rattigan]

Tibet, officially the Kingdom of Tibet, is a country in Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the west, Xinjiang to the northwest, China to the north and east and India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Assam and Nagaland and Burma to the south. With an area of 1,948,400 km2, it is the 16th largest country in the world by surface area but, with a population of just over 5.2 million people, it is also the most sparsely populated in the world, with a population density of 2.7 people per km2. This is mostly down to its harsh and rugged terrain and position on the Tibetan plateau, the highest region on Earth. The country is nicknamed “the roof of the world” or “the land of snows.”

Tibet lies between the core areas of the ancient civilizations of China and India but is shielded from both by extensive mountain ranges, including the towering Himalayas. Modern humans appear to have permanently inhabited the region from around 21,000 years ago and the first large-scale civilization emerged with the Zhangzhung Kingdom in the west of the region in the 5th century BC. The Yarlung Dynasty eventually established control of the region and expanded their state, creating the Tibetan Empire that flourished from the 7th to the 9th centuries. The empire would subsequently go through extended cycles of decline and renaissance until being conquered by the Mongols in the 13th century and incorporated into the Yuan Empire. Tibet was independent again while the Ming Dynasty was in power in Beijing but was brought under Chinese rule once more by the Qing in the 18th century.

By the early 20th century, however, Qing power was on the decline and Tibet found itself on the border of British India to the south. In July 1905, concern about potential Russian encroachment led to the British despatching an expeditionary force. However, misunderstandings between Tibetan forces, the British government in Calcutta and the British commander on the ground led to the outbreak of hostilities. In subsequent clashes, the British captured Lhasa the following year. This led to the signing of the Treaty of Lhasa in 1907 and the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1908, which confirmed the territory’s status as a British protectorate.

Under British rule, Tibet was not formally integrated within the British Raj but the Dali Lama was nonetheless granted a nine-gun salute in the fashion of the princely states. Due to its position along the frontier of the empire with both China and Russia, Tibet saw a great deal of British capital investment in railways and infrastructure. Many British people arrived as soldiers, civil servants and construction workers and dominated commercial and civil life in the protectorate. George Orwell, who lived in Tibet for five years from 1922 to 1927, wrote the book Himalayan Days about his experiences as an imperial officer in the country.

With concerns over Chinese revanchism under the Kuomintang government, there was a military build-up in the territory over the course of the 1930s. During the World War, the Tibetan front was the sight of some of the bloodiest and most inconclusive fighting. Between 1942 and 1945, the Jinsha River saw twelve battles between Chinese forces on the one hand and a combined Commonwealth, Indian and Tibetan army on the other. Around 1.5 million casualties were suffered by both sides without any real tactical advances on either side until the Twelfth Battle of Jinsha saw a decisive Commonwealth victory, with over 250,000 Chinese POWs captured.

The experience of Tibetan soldiers during the War and the privations suffered by ordinary Tibetans on the home front led to a national awakening in the immediate postwar period that led to increased calls for independence. In 1959, the 14th Dali Lama announced a nonviolent campaign to end British rule in the region, inspired by the earlier campaigns in India led by Monhandas Gandhi. This led directly to the independence of the country in 1962.

Since independence, Tibet’s political system has combined elements of parliamentary democracy and Buddhist theocracy. Much day-to-day government business is managed by the Kashag assembly and the Kalon Tripa is the formal head of the government. However, the Dali Lama retains supreme authority to pass and repeal laws at will, appoint and sack government ministers and call elections. The government is considered by some observers to be anti-democratic and authoritarian, with significant constraints on human rights and civil liberties in the name of the official Buddhist religion.

In the 21st century, the Tibetan economy remains dominated by agriculture but since the 1980s this has been accompanied by expansion of industry and tourism. Modern Tibetan industry has developed with mining, construction, handicrafts and medicine as important sectors. British-era infrastructure underwent substantial modernisation in the first years of the 21st century, which helped to grow the economy, particularly the tourism sector. For the past decade, Tibet has averaged around 10,000,000 tourist visits a year.

Tibet does not place highly in international rankings of major economic or military powers. However, it maintains diplomatic relations with a number of important countries and exerts significant soft power around the world through the position of the Dalai Lama and the Pachen Lama as the two most senior figures in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. It has close economic and military ties with Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal, an arrangement often referred to as the “Himalayan Brotherhood.” It is also a member of the United Nations, the World Bank Group and the International Clearing Union.

 

[Rattigan]

Excellent stuff. I wish I could actually see it.

I think the last film should be "Specter of the Past".

Thanks for catching that.

Oh no...you haven't butterflied the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica have you...?! Although I'd be happy to butterfly certain things in the last two seasons of said show...but not the whole thing

I'm afraid so.

I think it is unlikely that AltMe would like the Yuuzhan Vong any more than OTL me does so probably really disliked this- even if he watched it anyway.

Would be nice to see how Chewbacca dealt with Han's death.

Ford only agreed to return for the first movie on the condition that Han Solo was killed off in the first act. Chewbacca's grief and attempts to find a new purpose in life is an important plot through the first season and onwards.

 

[Rattigan]

Just to say that I will put up a few more country inboxes and rankings up over the next week or so and then I'll be going on a bit of a hiatus. This TL won't be completely gone and I hope to return with something bigger in the new year. In the meantime, I might occasionally return with an update if something in particular tickles my fancy and I won't be locking the thread so please feel free to ask any and all questions and I promise an answer. Thanks to all of you who have been with me since I began the original narrative thread, which strikes me as an astonishing level of commitment...

* * *​

Italy, officially the Kingdom of Italy, is a country in southern Europe consisting of most of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands. A federal constitutional monarchy with Rome as its capital, the country covers a total area of 279,809km2 and shares land borders with France, Switzerland and Austria to the north and with the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy also has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and a maritime exclave in Tunisian waters (Lampedusa). With just under 60 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous country in Europe.

Due to its central geographic location in southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has historically been home to several important peoples and cultures. Beginning in the classical era, Phoenicians, Cathaginians and Greeks established colonies on insular and southern Italy, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited the central and northern portions of the peninsula (respectively). A tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which eventually became a Republic and subsequently conquered and assimilated the rest of the peninsula as well as parts of Europe, Africa and Asia to become the Roman Empire. At its height, in the 2nd century AD, the Roman Empire achieved a level of economic prosperity that would not be achieved again in Europe until the 19th century.

Under the interlinked pressures of economics, demographic and institutional decline, along with the effects of recurrent barbarian invasions, the Roman Empire in the West collapsed in the 5th century and, for the next one-and-a-half thousand years, the Italian peninsula was divided between competing regimes. In the north and central regions, the peninsula was dominated by numerous rival city-states and maritime republics which served as major trading hubs with Asia and the Middle East. The central band of the peninsula was under the control of the theocratic Papal States and southern Italy remained largely feudal and underdeveloped, partially as a result of a succession of Roman, Arab, Norman, French and Spanish invasions of the region. However, the prosperity of much of the peninsula declined in the 18th century with the opening of new trade routes which bypassed the Mediterranean.

Rising Italian nationalism during and following the Napoleonic Wars ushered in a period of political upheaval in the 19th century. Italy was almost entirely unified in 1861 under the rule of the House of Savoy, ending centuries of political division. Following unification, the economy rapidly industrialised and the country acquired a colonial empire but the fruits of development were uneven, with most of the growth being confined to the north while the south remained impoverished, fueling a large and influential diaspora. Italy entered the Great War on the side of the Allies in 1918, playing a key role in the defeat of Austria-Hungary on the Balkan Front. However, the country was perceived as receiving a poor share of the spoils at the subsequent Treaty of Paris and this, combined with Italy suffering under the effects of the post-war recession, ushered in a period of political turmoil. Governments alternated between liberal technocratic regimes, military rule under Armando Diaz and dictatorship under Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Elections in May 1934 saw a coalition of socialist parties take power, which was interpreted by many as a rebuke to the monarchical regime. King Victor Emmanuel III abdicated the following day but the new socialist regime was almost immediately overthrown by a military-backed fascist coup which brought Rudolfo Graziani to power. Making irredentist claims to various territories in the Mediterranean, Italy entered the World War on the Axis side but this ended in defeat and the country under American and Commonwealth occupation.

A new constitution, returning the House of Savoy to power in a federal constitutional parliamentary monarchy, was instituted following a referendum and new elections in June 1946. Political power came to be constitutionally competed for between the centre-right Christian Democracy Party and the left wing Italian Communist Party (the latter of whom formally repudiated the Soviet Union in 1949 and made partial rapprochements with the monarchy and the Catholic Church in the 1950s). Under a mixed economy combining free market economics alongside social policies to establish fair competition, the Italian economy rapidly expanded over the course of the 1950s and 1960s.

Although the immediate postwar decades were dominated by Christian Democracy, a general leftward turn in Italian politics saw Enrico Berlinguer become President of the Council of Ministers at the head of a moderate Communist government. However, the assassination of Aldo Moro in 1988 by far-left terrorists signalled a rightward turn. The Communists would not return to power until 1998 under Romano Prodi after a significant moderate faction had taken power within the party. Since 2005, politics in Italy has been dominated by a succession of technocratic centre-right governments under Corrado Passera.

Today, Italy is a great power with a strong economy. It has the 10th largest GDP in the world, while also having the highest GDP per capita (ban52,559) of any country in the top 10 and the only country in the top 10 to have a population of under 100 million people. It is a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors with a number of companies, such as Fiat (automobiles), Fincantieri (shipbuilding), Telefonico (telecommunications and IT) and Monte di Paschi (banking), being world leaders in their field. A highly developed country with a very high standard of living, Italy offers social security and a universal healthcare system, environmental protections and free tertiary education. Italy is also a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G20, the International Clearing Union and the World Bank. Known for its long and rich cultural history, Italy is also the top tourist destination in the world, with over 89 million tourist arrivals in 2019 and 55 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

 

[Rattigan]

China, officially the Republic of China, is a country in East Asia. It is the world’s most populous country, with a population of around 1.1 billion in 2020, and the sixth largest, with an area of just over 4 million square kilometres. It shares land borders with Manchuria to the northeast, Mongolia to the north, Xinjiang and Tibet to the west, Siam and Indochina to the south and the city-states of Macau and Hong Kong on the southeast coast. It additionally shares maritime borders with Formosa across the Formosa Strait, Korea in the Yellow Sea and with Japan across the South China Sea.

One of the world’s first civilizations arose in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The Qin Dynasty united the core of modern China in the 3rd century BC, inaugurating a series of absolute and hereditary monarchies, called dynasties, that would persist, through a series of expansions, fractures and reunifications, for over 2,000 years. The Han Dynasty, which ruled from 206 BC until 220 AD saw some of the most advanced technology of its day and continues to be regarded as a Chinese golden age. Notable inventions in this period include papermaking and the compass. Under the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Silk Road brought trade to as far afield as Mesopotamia and the Horn of Africa. After a period of decline in the face of European empires and several failed efforts at reform, the Qing Dynasty collapsed in 1912, bringing dynastic rule to an end.

The decade and a half after the fall of the Qing was a period of turbulence, with two republican governments and two attempted imperial restorations, alongside numerous regional warlords, rising and falling. In December 1927, the General Chiang Kai-shek inaugurated the militaristic Third Republic, nowadays more commonly known as "Kuomintang China", that managed to secure central control over the territory of contemporary China, albeit at the cost of accepting continued Japanese and Soviet occupations of Manchuria, Mongolia and Turkestan. Kuomintang China would be a key member of the Axis during the World War. Despite initial successes against the Japanese in the north and the British in the Pacific, China eventually suffered defeat and two atomic bombings. Following the Chinese surrender, the country’s east coast came under Allied occupation.

However, disagreements between liberal, conservative and communist factions in the Chinese government soon led to the outbreak of civil war in 1948. Following international talks in 1952, democratic elections eventually took place in 1953. The present Chinese system divides power between the directly-elected President and the Premier, who is chosen by the members of the Legislative Yuan. The makeup of the cabinet is then decided by agreement between the President and Premier. Presidents serve four-year terms and Premiers serve five-year terms, meaning that the holders of each office are often held by people from different parties. Since the World War, the main parties in China have been the centre-right Progress and Development Party and the centre-left Democratic Socialist Party.

After the World War, China’s economy grew steadily but she played little part in world affairs until the late 1960s. From that point, Chinese influence and presence at the United Nations has greatly increased and it has taken an important lead in regional affairs. Notably, she led a military action in Indochina in 1974 to end the country’s civil war. Since the 1990s it has been consistently one of the world’s three largest economies, alongside the Commonwealth and the United States.

In 2020, the ICU lists China as the world’s third largest economy with a total GDP of around 15.7 trillion bancors. China has been a permanent member of the UN Security Council since 1971 and has formed the Group of Three alongside the Commonwealth and the United States since 2001. China is often regarded as a superpower because of the size of its economy and its significant regional and global diplomatic influence. However, crime, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population being unemployed and/or living below the UN poverty line.