China is a city in Jefferson County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,260 at the 2020 census. It is allowance of the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area.

China was first known as “China Grove”, for a water stop for the Texas and New Orleans Railroad that sat amidst a grove of chinaberry trees. In the 1860s a little community grew a propos the water stop, and substitute a few miles away named Nashland. A declare office past the name “China” was standard there in 1893. When flare destroyed the China Grove depot in 1906, the railroad rebuilt in the larger Nashland area, but retained the customary name “China” as the read out of the depot. The Nashland name office misrepresented its publicize to China hurriedly afterward. It wasn’t until 1971 that the (now-merged) community voted to incorporate as the city of China, Texas.

During World War II, a little branch camp was built for German prisoners of raid who were detailed to China from the larger Camp Huntsville in Walker County, Texas (now a ration of Sam Houston State University). These prisoners helped to maintain rice fields while local farmers were serving in the military.

The chinaberry trees that gave the community its publish are scarce in the area today. In fact, two trees that were transplanted to the front lawn of the city’s civic puzzling in the mid 1990s are some of the only enduring examples. However, several local China and Meeker natives have taken to cultivating and nurturing additional and transplanted chinaberry trees.