Chinese Empire

The  referred to the ancient imperial system which governed China for many centuries.

History
The Empire was founded in the 3rd century BC by Qin Shi Huangdi, who unified China and became the first Emperor under the Qin dynasty. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang, The Eleventh Tiger, AUDIO: The Emperor of Eternity, COMIC: The Immortal Emperor) He had his capital in Xian. (PROSE: Marco Polo)

In the 17th century, the Manchu dynasty usurped the Empire from the Ming dynasty. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

The Empire's collapse began around the 1860s as a result of the Opium Wars, in which China fought Britain and France. (PROSE: The Eleventh Tiger, The Nightmare Fair, AUDIO: The Nightmare Fair)

The decline of the Empire created a power vacuum in Asia. Prior to 1900, both Japan and Russia annexed regions of China. China's military might was dwarfed by the strength of the Royal Navy in Fragrance Harbour and the United States troops garrisoned in the Philippines. Yet in its weakened state, parts of southern China became economically dependent on these foreign powers. (PROSE: Warring States)

The last remnants of Imperial China were swept away in 1911 when Sun Yat Sen's Nationalist alliance ousted the boy Emperor Pu Yi and the Kuomintang came to power. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang) China became a republic. (PROSE: The Night is Long, and Dreams Are Legion)

According to the Sixth Doctor, the Chinese Empire at the time of its collapse was corrupt, making it an attractive playing field for powerful beings such as the Celestial Toymaker. He opined that it would have been to the Toymaker's benefit if the Empire had lasted for a few hundred more years. (PROSE: The Nightmare Fair, AUDIO: The Nightmare Fair)

With the empire gone, the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek, faced a new threat from Chinese Communists who began challenging the Nationalists for power. In 1931, amid China's internal crisis, the Japanese Empire invaded the northern Chinese province of Manchuria, precipitating a series of events which led to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang) After the defeat of Japan at the end of the Pacific War of World War II, China fell to the control of the Communists circa 1951. (PROSE: Endgame)