Word.ws English Dictionary

mainland China

mainland China proper noun: the People's Republic of China, viewed as the general geographical region administered by the PRC in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War (as opposed to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan which are coastal and insular areas).

Proper noun (1)

mainland China

  1. The People's Republic of China, viewed as the general geographical region administered by the PRC in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War (as opposed to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan which are coastal and insular areas)
    • Had my Government remained on the mainland, there would never have been such calamities as the Korean War and the Communist occupation of northern Korea and northern Indo-China. The place to begin combating Communism in Asia, therefore, is mainland China.1957, Chiang Chung-cheng (Kai-shek), “Conclusion”, in Soviet Russia in China: A Summing-up at Seventy, New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 348
    • In 1953 the city had only 20% of the total value of mainland China's industrial output, but this was officially claimed to be 368% higher than that of 1950.1968, “SHANGHAI (SHANG-HAI)”, in Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 20, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 346, column 2
  2. Also used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see mainland, China.
    • “Tourists could come to Hainan before going to places such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Singapore, and shop offshore duty-free products which could be directly delivered back home, each person can purchase as much as 100,000 yuan (US$15,255),” Shen said.
      Tourists from Southeast Asian...2022 April 26, Luna Sun, “China’s Hainan free-trade port tipped to deepen Asean ties, but island must ‘brave’ uncertainty”, in South China Morning Post, archived from the original on 26 Apr 2022

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Mainland China

Mainland China

  1. Alternative letter-case form of mainland China.
    • Under this strategy we would mine the major harbors and, perhaps, bomb port facilities and even consider blockade. In addition, we would attack systematically the rail lines between Hanoi and Mainland China.1971, Lyndon Johnson, quoting Walt Rostow, “The Making of a Decision: Vietnam 1967—1968”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 367

mainland China meaning in Arabic, Malay, Indonesian and Persian

mainland China in Arabic

the People's Republic of China as understood by its geographical position
بَرّ اَلصِّين اَلرَّئِيسِيّ barr aṣ-ṣīn ar-raʔīsiyy

mainland China in Malay

the People's Republic of China as understood by its geographical position
tanah besar China

mainland China in Indonesian

the People's Republic of China as understood by its geographical position
Tiongkok Daratan

mainland China in Persian

the People's Republic of China as understood by its geographical position
ماچین Māčīn
More languagesFewer languages
mainland China in Thai
จีนแผ่นดินใหญ่
mainland China in Vietnamese
Trung Quốc đại lục

Examples of mainland China in a sentence

  • And mainland China potentially posed the greatest threat to peace during the final third of the twentieth century.1978, Richard Nixon, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 282:
  • The gravesite is "temporary," as before his death Chiang had requested his body be returned to his native province of Zhejiang in mainland China.2004, Phil Macdonald, National Geographic Traveler: Taiwan, National Geographic Society, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 122:
  • It’s hard to imagine now, but there were once three mountainous, verdant islands between Macau and mainland China.2021 November 21, “On Chinese islands next to Macau, great stories of pirates, typhoons and war played out”, in South China Morning Post...
  • Hong Kong and mainland China are among few places in the world still aiming to suppress every COVID-19 outbreak, but the Omicron variant has proven tough to keep under control.2022 February 12, Twinnie Siu, Marius Zaharia, Jessie Pang, Anne Marie Roantree, “Mainland China to help overwhelmed Hong Kong with COVID...

Forms of mainland China

alternative formMainland China

Origin of mainland China

From mainland + China.

Words formed from mainland China

Questions about mainland China

What does mainland China mean?
Mainland China means the People's Republic of China, viewed as the general geographical region administered by the PRC in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War (as opposed to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan which are coastal and insular areas).
What is mainland China in Arabic?
Mainland China in Arabic is بَرّ اَلصِّين اَلرَّئِيسِيّ (barr aṣ-ṣīn ar-raʔīsiyy). See Mainland China meaning in Arabic.
How do you use mainland China in a sentence?
And mainland China potentially posed the greatest threat to peace during the final third of the twentieth century.
What part of speech is mainland China?
Mainland China is a proper noun.

Words near mainland China in the dictionary

  1. maining
  2. Mainit
  3. Mainite
  4. Mainites
  5. mainland
  6. mainland China
  7. mainland Chinese
  8. mainland clouded leopard
  9. mainland Europe
  10. mainlander
  11. mainlanders

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mainland China (page history and authors); Mainland China (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mainland China.wav.

Cite this entry: “mainland China.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mainland_china. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.