Two parties claim to be the official government of China.
China , officially the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) , is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the world 's most populous country , with a population of over 1.381 billion . Governed by the Communist Party of China , it exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces , five autonomous regions , four direct-controlled municipalities ( Beijing , Tianjin , Shanghai and Chongqing ) and the Special Administrative Regions Hong Kong and Macau , also claiming sovereignty over Taiwan . Both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China , though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory . In a parliamentary system of government , a hung parliament is an expression used to describe a state of a parliament when no single political party ( or bloc of allied parties ) has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament ( legislature ) .