The Democratic People's Republic of Shumi is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its compulsory vegetarianism, keen interest in outer space, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate population of 700 million Shumians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Guangzhou. The average income tax rate is 90.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The powerhouse Shumian economy, worth 66.8 trillion Yuan a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Trout Farming, and Basket Weaving. Average income is 95,445 Yuan, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Third world countries are rich in "I Love Guangzhou" t-shirts, 10-year-olds who struggle with integrating by parts are considered slow learners, pedal-powered removal vans are a popular Maxxmas gift for the children of separated parents, and there have been sightings of people walking around dressed in nothing but leopard-skin g-strings for 'religious reasons'. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Shumi's national animal is the Panda, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Shumi is ranked 227,162^nd in the world and 1,187^th in The Communist Bloc for Largest Retail Industry, scoring -7.56 on the Shrinkwrap Consignment Productivity Index.