The Democratic People's Republic of Blue Tang Islands is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Supreme Leader Edward Heavilton with an iron fist, and renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, public floggings, and hatred of cheese. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, devout population of 10.14 billion Tangs are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The relatively small, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Industry, and Defense. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Tangsand. The average income tax rate is 17.4%.

The thriving Tang economy, worth 739 trillion Dragoons a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Gambling industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Basket Weaving, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is 72,944 Dragoons, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.0 times as much as the poorest.

Movement-triggered sensors mean that for every door that closes another one opens, dangerous criminals are often 'accidentally' sent on one-way trips to Maxtopia, epidemiologists happily announce that the reported incidence of depression is close to zero percent, and news editors who eschew the state-approved superlatives for describing Supreme Leader Edward Heavilton tend to disappear. Crime, especially youth-related, is relatively low, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Blue Tang Islands's national animal is the Blue Tang, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is The Lady With the Eye of Gold.

Blue Tang Islands is ranked 237,004^th in the world and 77^th in St Abbaddon for Nicest Citizens, with 3.13 average smiles per day.