Manchuria is a name first used in the 17th century by Japanese people to refer to a large geographic region in Northeast Asia. Depending on the context, Manchuria can either refer to a region that falls entirely within the People's Republic of China or a larger region divided between China and Russia.

The region that falls entirely within modern China is now usually referred to as Northeast (Dongbei) in China, although "Manchuria" is widely used outside China to denote the geographical and historical region. This region is the traditional homeland of the Xianbei, Khitan, and Jurchen (later called Manchu ) peoples, who built several states within the area historically (however, no term for "Manchuria" exists in the Manchu language which originally referred to the area as the "Three Eastern Provinces"