Republic
1912-1949 |
1912-1916 |
|
Power falls to President Yuan Shikai, a Qing
general-turned-dictator; his warlords will dominate China until 1928. |
|
1914 |
|
Japan occupies German-controlled Shandong Province. |
|
1915 |
|
Japan makes Twenty-one Demands for further Chinese
concessions. |
|
1919 |
|
May 4. Chinese hopes for post-World War I restoration
of territorial integrity are dashed by the Treaty of Versailles; the May Fourth movement
seeks to resist foreign imperialism by revolutionizing Chinese culture; this leads
to the reorganization of Sun's Nationalist Party, the Guomindang (GMD). |
|
1921 |
|
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is established;
Mao Zedong (1893-1976) is one of a handful of Party organizers. |
|
1923 |
|
CCP members join GMD as individuals, forming
the First United Front. |
|
1924 |
|
Soviet aid and advisors to GMD's Whampoa Military
Academy train GMD/CCP leadership for national unification, headed by Chiang Kai-shek
(1886-1975). |
|
1926 |
|
GMD/CCP's Northern Expedition is launched against
warlords. |
|
1927 |
|
In the White Terror, Chiang Kai-shek virtually
wipes out the urban-based CCP. CCP remnants flee to the countryside. |
|
1927-1937 |
|
Nanjing Era. GMD is in power for a decade. |
|
1931 |
|
The Mukden Incident initiates Japan's occupation
of Manchuria. |
|
1932 |
|
Japan attacks Shanghai. |
|
1934-1935 |
|
The CCP is expelled from Jiangxi Soviet on Long
March; Mao becomes primary leader of the CCP. With Zhou Enlai (1898-1976), Zhu De
(1886-1976), Peng Dehuai (1898-1974), Lin Biao (1907-1971) and others, Mao creates
the foundations for revolution at Yanan (1935-1947), in northwestern China. |
|
1937-1945 |
|
World War II in China. Japan invades; The Rape
of Nanjing in 1937 forces Chiang's government to Chongqing. Uneasy Second United
Front is formed against Japan. |
|
1942 |
|
China's Rectification campaign uses thought reform,
not purges, to promote party policies. |
|
1946 |
|
The CCP creates the People's Liberation Army
(PLA). |
|
1946-1949 |
|
Civil War. The CCP is victorious; Chiang and
remaining GMD forces flee to Taiwan. |
People's Republic of
China
1949-present |
1949 |
|
October 1. The People's Republic (PRC) is formally
established in Beijing as a democratic dictatorship based on the coexistence of four
democratic classes.
December. Mao visits the Soviet Union in his first journey outside China. There is
major alignment with the Soviets despite
limited advantage to China. |
|
1950 |
|
Territorial consolidation (except Taiwan). Troops
enter Tibet (by 1951).
The economy is rehabilitated.
New laws are put into effect, including the Agrarian Reform law (often-violent redistribution
of landlords' holdings, completed by 1953), and the New Marriage law (promising new
rights to women).
The Three Selfs movement requires Chinese-Christians to cut ties with foreigners.
The Resist America and Aid Korea campaign is waged against Western, especially American,
influences.
October. Chinese "volunteer" troops secretly enter the Korean War; counteroffensive
is launched in November. |
|
1951 |
|
Two new campaigns are launched: the Suppression
of Counterrevolutionaries campaign, and the Three Antis campaign (against corruption,
waste, bureaucratic
abuses). |
|
1952 |
|
The Five Antis campaign is effected: a mass movement
against the bourgeoisie. |
|
1953 |
|
Drive begins for collectivization in agriculture
(completed by 1957, with nearly 800,000 collective farms).
July. Truce in Korea.
The First Five-Year Plan is proposed, using the Soviet model for heavy industrial
development; with advisers and loans, the Soviet influence is strong.
December. In the first major purge of CCP, regional leaders Gao Gang and Rao Shushi
are ousted.
First modern-style census: population approximately 582.6 million. |
|
1954 |
|
Constitution is implemented; Mao becomes Chairman
of the PRC. Business enterprises become "public-private."
Zhou Enlai plays prominent role in Geneva during talks to settle the Franco-Vietnam
War. |
|
1955 |
|
All private enterprises are socialized.
Anti-Hu Feng movement: famous writer who questioned CCP control over culture is jailed
as counterrevolutionary (until 1979).
Zhou Enlai represents China's enhanced position in the international world at Bandung
Conference of Afro-Asian States. |
|
1956 |
|
China's industrial output increases enormously.
Higher education is revamped, with an emphasis on technical education and a downgrading
of the liberal arts.
May. Mao delivers One Hundred Flowers speech, calling for more openness in cultural
and scientific inquiry. Anti-Rightist campaign promptly follows criticism of the
CCP; China's intellectuals are harshly suppressed. |
|
1957 |
|
The Soviet Union agrees to assist China's nuclear
development.
The Socialist Education movement emphasizes "redness"-loyal adherence to
Communist ideology-over expertise.
August-November. Socialized agriculture is effected in the creation of People's Communes,
incorporating 98 percent of the farming population; claims of production increases
are wildly exaggerated.
November. Mao makes a second trip to the Soviet Union; the Sputnik satellite is seen
as evidence that the Socialist system is destined to overthrow the capitalist system. |
|
1958 |
|
The Second Five-Year Plan sets goal of a 75 percent
increase in industrial and agricultural production.
February. The Great Leap Forward movement's unrealistic aim is to achieve huge increases
in production by 1960; frenzied attempts are made to increase steel production with
backyard furnaces. |
|
1959 |
|
Indications of hunger in the countryside are
followed by an outbreak of major famine (20-30,000,000 deaths from starvation by
1962).
Khrushchev begins withdrawal of Soviet experts, frustrating China's atomic development.
March. Tibetan uprising is brutally suppressed. Dalai Lama flees to India.
August. The CCP is split when Defense Minister Peng Dehuai is dismissed for criticizing
Mao's Great Leap Forward and the People's Communes; Lin Biao becomes Defense Minister.
Mao gives up chairmanship of state, but remains party chairman. |
|
1960 |
|
China is critical of Soviet revisionism and idea
of peaceful coexistence; a major rift occurs between China and the Soviet Union.
Remaining Soviet advisors are recalled from China. |
|
1961 |
|
February. A production of Wu Han's play Dismissal
of Hai Rui from Office is staged, a thinly disguised critique of Mao's purge of Peng
Dehuai and a cry against tyranny. |
|
1962 |
|
With an economic retrenchment and stress on practical
policies, Liu Shaoqi (1898-1969) and Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) downplay Maoist policies.
Lin Biao uses Quotations from Chairman Mao (the "little red book") to inculcate
correct behavior in the PLA, giving rise to cult of Mao. The fictitious Diary of
Lei Feng, a heroic tale of a soldier, is used in the campaign to promote Mao's ideas
of revolutionary commitment.
September. Mao calls for a new Socialist Education movement to emphasize class struggle
in cultural life.
November. There is a unilateral Chinese cease-fire on Indian border after years of
clashes over delineation of borders. |
|
1963 |
|
Mao's Rural Socialist Education movement is implemented.
Jiang Qing calls for a ban on traditional drama. |
|
1964 |
|
China protests US bombing of North Vietnam, claiming
that an attack on North Vietnam would be the same as an attack on China.
October. China enters the nuclear age with a successful test of the atomic bomb.
The East is Red, an extravagant operatic celebration of CCP history and Mao's role
in it, is staged.
1964 census: population approximately 694.6 million. |
|
1965 |
|
September. Mao calls for criticism of reactionary
intellectuals, with little response.
November. Mao moves to Shanghai to organize hard-line radicals, including his third
wife, Jiang Qing, a major critic of recent cultural tendencies. Shanghai journalist
Yao Wenyuan attacks Wu Han's play as "anti-Party poisonous weed," for undermining
Mao's view of the masses as the primary force in history. |
|
1966 |
|
February. Lin Biao enlists Jiang Qing to develop
cultural policies for the PLA.
Mao's May Seventh directive: the PLA is to be a "great school."
May 9. China makes its first thermonuclear test.
May 16. Politburo decides that the Cultural Revolution groupmust attack bourgeois
elements in the CCP, the government, the PLA, and cultural circles.
Spring/Summer. Important figures in Ministry of Culture are purged; attacks are made
against Wu Han and other writers; radical protests
on campuses. First appearance of Red Guards, who proclaim Mao as their "great
teacher, great leader, great supreme commander, and great helmsman."
Mao, fearing the bureaucratization that befell the Soviet Union economy and society,
encourages urban youth to criticize and reform the CCP from below.
Mao at first restrains the party, police, and army from interfering. As the youth
began to splinter and fall into factions, Mao calls on the military to repress them,
only to have it collapse along factional lines as well.
September. Quotations from Chairman Mao is published for the general public.
Fall/Winter. Schools are closed amid huge struggles. China's youth are urged to destroy
old customs, old habits, old culture, and old
thinking; to attack teachers, leaders, and parents. There is an outpouring of violence,
with widespread mass criticisms, imprisonment, sadistic
torture, and killing. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, major party leaders, are purged.
Population: approximately 750 million. |
|
1967 |
|
January. Radical struggles continue in Chinese
cities. The PLA is instructed to side with the "left-wing masses."
February. The Shanghai People's Commune is established. Mao allows PLA crackdown
on militant radicals.
June. China explodes its first hydrogen bomb.
Summer. China's cities are in chaos. |
|
1968 |
|
Widespread campaigns are waged against "bad
elements."
July. Mao signals an end to the extreme radical phase of the Cultural Revolution.
December. Mao announces a directive to send educated urban youth to the countryside
for re-education by poor and lower-middle-class peasants. |
|
1969 |
|
Border clashes with the Soviet Union over Zhenbao
Island in the Ussuri River and in Xinjiang Province.
Lin Biao is chosen as Mao's successor.
December. US trade embargo against China is partially removed.
Population: approximately 806 million. |
|
1970 |
|
January. At Warsaw talks, China indicates a willingness
to discuss substantive issues at a higher level with US.
April. The first Chinese satellite orbits successfully.
August. Mao issues new instructions for the CCP: downplay ideology and reduce the
PLA's role.
Mao doubts Lin Biao's loyalty.
October 1. American journalist Edgar Snow is invited to the twenty-first anniversary
of the PRC. This is seen as a signal to President Richard Nixon. |
|
1971 |
|
Screenings of model dramas The Red Lantern and
The Red Detachment of Women, models of leftist patriotic cultural works.
April. US table-tennis team is invited to China ("ping pong diplomacy").
July. Henry Kissinger meets with Zhou Enlai in private talks.
September. Lin Biao is killed in a plane crash in Outer Mongolia, allegedly after
an attempted coup against Mao.
October. Taiwan's seat in the UN is given to the PRC.
November. Publication of the first book of classical literature since the start of
the Cultural Revolution: on the Tang poets Li Bo and Du Fu.
Population: approximately 852 million. |
|
1972 |
|
February. President Nixon visits China, with
the Shanghai Communiqué signifying a basic realignment of foreign policy for
the US and China; US recognizes the principle that Taiwan is part of China.
Population: approximately 870 million. |
|
1973 |
|
January. Struggles between radical and moderate
factions in the Party leadership. Radicals, led by Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, gain the
upper hand and begin a campaign to criticize Lin Biao and Confucius as a way of attacking
the moderates, led by Zhou Enlai.
April. Deng Xiaoping, protégé of Zhou, reappears as vice-premier, and
addresses UN General Assembly.
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra visit China.
Population: approximately 892 million. |
|
1975 |
|
April. Chiang Kai-shek dies in Taiwan.
May. In a Politburo meeting, Mao warns Jiang Qing and her associates against maneuvering
as a "gang of four." However by fall, radicals convince Mao that moderates
want to repudiate him and his work.
December. President Gerald Ford visits China and meets with Mao. |
|
1976 |
|
January 8. Premier Zhou Enlai dies.
February. Hua Guofeng (b. 1921) succeeds Zhou as acting premier. A campaign is waged
against "capitalist roader" Deng Xiaoping.
April 5. The Tiananmen Incident: violent clashes break out in Beijing and elsewhere
between authorities and demonstrators mourning Zhou Enlai.
April 7. Hua is appointed premier; Deng is dismissed from all posts.
July 6. Zhu De dies.
July 28. In one of history's worst earthquakes at Tangshan, 300,000-600,000 people
are killed.
September 8. Chairman Mao dies. A coalition of political, police, and military leaders
forms to oppose radicals.
October 6. The Gang of Four is arrested.
Population: approximately 925 million. |
|
1977 |
|
May 24. Building of Chairman Mao Memorial Hall
in Tiananmen Square is completed.
July 21. Hua Guofeng is confirmed in leading posts; Deng Xiaoping is restored to
secondary positions. |
|
1978 |
|
November. Posters on Beijing's Democracy Wall
accuse Mao of having supported the Gang of Four.
December 18-22. The Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress focuses on economic modernization-the
Four Modernizations (industry, agriculture, defence, science/technology); this begins
Deng's Revolution, a fundamental reorganization of Chinese economy, society, and
culture. |
|
1979 |
|
January 1. US-China diplomatic relations resume.
January 7. China denounces December 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.
January 28-February 5. Deng Xiaoping visits the US.
February-March. Chinese invade Vietnam.
March. Democracy advocate Wei Jinsheng is arrested; in October he is sentenced to
fifteen years in prison for counterrevolutionary activities.
April. US Congress passes Taiwan Relations Act. US commits to resisting force against
Taiwan.
July. The Party plans to establish four Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for export.
December. Political posters are banned; the 1978-79 pro-democracy movement ends.
Students and scholars travel abroad, particularly to the US.
Responsibility system in agriculture is implemented, reverting responsibility for
land to individual farmers. Communes are phased out in the ensuing years. |
|
1980 |
|
February. Liu Shaoqi is posthumously rehabilitated.
February 29. Hu Yaobang is elected Party secretary-general.
March-April. China is admitted to International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
September 10. Zhao Ziyang replaces Hua Guofeng as premier; Deng Xiaoping and others
resign vice-premierships due to old age.
Revised Marriage Law is put in effect to reduce population growth with later marriages:
earliest age for marriage is now twenty-two for men, twenty for women.
October 20-December 29. The Gang of Four and several others are tried and convicted
for their role in the Cultural Revolution. |
|
1981 |
|
June 29. A Party communiqué cites the
Cultural Revolution as a disaster, and criticizes Mao's role and the policies of
his last years. |
|
1982 |
|
July. Third national census: China's population
is over one billion.
September. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visits China to discuss the future
of Hong Kong. Deng Xiaoping and associates occupy most positions of Party and state
power. |
|
1983 |
|
May. Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, directed
by the playwright, opens in Beijing.
July 1. Deng's Selected Works are published.
Plans are made for a large-scale Pearl River economic zone.
A report is issued stating that economic crimes are at a record high.
September. Regulations are made governing joint ventures in China.
October. China is approved as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
A campaign is launched against "spiritual pollution" from the effects of
Western influence. |
|
1984 |
|
January. Premier Zhao Ziyang makes an official
visit to US.
April. President Ronald Reagan visits China.
June. Deng promises that Hong Kong's socio-economic system will remain the same after
its return to China: "One country, two systems."
December 19. Prime Minister Thatcher and Premier Zhao sign Sino-British Joint Declaration
on Hong Kong; Hong Kong will return to Chinese jurisdiction on July 1, 1997. |
|
1985 |
|
March. Deng proposes "socialism with Chinese
characteristics." Zhao Ziyang cites changes in wage and price systems essential
to economic reform.
May. The Party orders modernization in education.
June. Deng reports the intention to reduce the PLA size by one million within two
years.
July. The Party issues a report on large-scale smuggling and other economic crimes
in Hainan.
September. In a major shift, the Party's power is transferred from elder leaders
to younger, better-educated ones; sixty-four resign.
October. The Bolshoi Ballet performs in Beijing.
December. China's first public demonstrations against nuclear testing take place. |
|
1986 |
|
March. China becomes a member of the Asian Development
Bank.
April. US agrees to supply high-technology aviation equipment to China for military
modernization.
April 21. A new law, to be implemented by 1990, requires nine years of compulsory
education for all.
July 12. Military clash on Sino-Soviet border.
July 28. Mikhail Gorbachev calls for resumption of friendship between China and Soviet
Union.
September 26. Shanghai Stock Market reopens after nearly forty years.
September 28. Party attacks "bourgeois liberalization" that undermines
Socialist system and promotes capitalism.
October. Government encourages foreign investment in China.
November-December. Thousands of students demonstrate for democracy in Beijing and
many other cities. In Hefei, Anhui Province, they rally in response to a speech by
astrophysicist Fang Lizhi who says that democracy is "not granted but won."
December 2. Bankruptcy law is approved.
December 26. In Beijing, demonstrations that lack prior approval are banned. |
|
1987 |
|
January. The People's Daily attacks bourgeois
liberalization, saying that the success of the reform depends on Four Cardinal Principles:
leadership of the CCP, Marx-Lenin-Mao Thought, people's democratic dictatorship,
and the "socialist road."
Hu Yaobang resigns as CCP general secretary; he is replaced by Zhao Ziyang. The CCP
expels Fang Lizhi and People's Daily reporter Liu Binyan for opposing the Four Cardinal
Principles.
March 26. China-Portugal agreement is signed for return of Macao (under Portuguese
administration since 1557) on December 20, 1999.
July. The CCP reports widespread corruption in the Party.
September-October. Demonstrations are held in Lhasa for Tibetan independence; clashes
with authorities lead to arrests and deaths.
October 6. The US Senate condemns Chinese actions in Tibet. China protests US interference
in internal affairs.
November. Zhao Ziyang names Li Peng acting premier. |
|
1988 |
|
January 14. The CCP sends condolences to GMD
in Taiwan on death of Jiang Jingguo (son of Chiang Kai-shek).
July 3. Li Peng encourages Taiwan to invest in mainland China.
August. Politburo decides to allow most commodity prices to be regulated by market.
September 17. Li Peng indicates his willingness to normalize relations with Soviet
Union. |
|
1989 |
|
February 1-4. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze visits (the first Soviet state visit since 1959).
February 25-26. President George Bush visits.
March. Anti-Chinese demonstrations in Lhasa erupt in violence; martial law is declared.
Li Peng acknowledges that inflation and price hikes threaten China's modernization
program.
April 15. Death of Hu Yaobang is followed by student demonstrations for Hu's rehabilitation
and for democracy. Official mourning on April 22 sparks large student demonstration
in Tiananmen Square.
April 27. Demonstration is held in Tiananmen Square for democratic freedoms, calls
for government accountability and cleanup of Party corruption.
May 4. Massive demonstrations are held in Beijing and other major cities to commemorate
the seventieth anniversary of the May Fourth movement. Calls are made for freedom
of the press and democracy.
May 13. Beijing demonstrators vow to occupy the square until demands are met; they
begin a hunger strike.
May 15-18. Gorbachev visits (the first visit of a Soviet leader since 1959). Deng
and Gorbachev announce normalization in Sino-Soviet relations.
May 19. Zhao Ziyang meets with demonstrators on Tiananmen Square.
May 20. Martial law is declared for parts of Beijing. The PLA refuses to move against
demonstrators. Li Peng's overthrow is called for.
May 30. Tiananmen Square demonstrators construct Goddess of Democracy, statue inspired
by the Statue of Liberty.
June 3-4. Beijing massacre: widespread violence throughout the city.
June 5. US provides sanctuary in Beijing for Fang Lizhi; the Bush administration
suspends US-China military contacts and sales.
June 9. Deng praises China's military for suppressing counterrevolutionaries, and
pledges to continue post-1978 open-door policy and reforms.
June 10. Arrests of leaders and participants of demonstrations begin.
June 24. Zhao Ziyang is dismissed from all high Party positions; he is replaced by
Jiang Zemin as general-secretary.
August 24. The People's Daily promises punishment according to the law for demonstrations'
leaders only, not ordinary participants.
November 9. Deng announces his intention to resign as chairman of Party Military
Affairs Commission; Jiang Zemin is to replace him. |
|
1990 |
|
January. Martial law is lifted in Beijing. Nearly
six hundred arrested student-movement participants, having confessed, are released.
April 4. Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the PRC is adopted.
The law, designed to ensure a fifty-year continuance of Hong Kong's economic system,
will be effective July 1, 1997.
April 7. Asia's first regional communications satellite is launched.
April 23-26. Li Peng visits the Soviet Union.
May 1. Martial law ends in Lhasa, Tibet. |
|
1991 |
|
GDP grows at a role of 7.5 percent. In the most
rapid growth of any major world economy, China's GDP will average 11 percent per
annum through 1997.
Population: approximately 1.152 billion. |
|
1992 |
|
January. Deng makes "southern tour"
to Shenzhen and Zhuhai SEZs, and to other cities to defend open-door economic strategies
against hard-liners.
Major Yangtze River and border cities open to foreign investment.
Zhu Rongji becomes one of the chief leaders in China's economic growth; GDP grows
by 12 percent.
Population: approximately 1.167 billion. |
|
1993 |
|
Wei Jinsheng is released early from prison as
part of Beijing's unsuccessful bid for the Olympic Games in the year 2000. (Wei is
re-arrested and sentenced in 1995 to fourteen more years in prison.)
GDP grows by 14 percent. |
|
1994 |
|
February. Deng's last public appearance.
May. President Bill Clinton ends link between China's human-rights record and Most
Favored Nation trade status.
GDP growth rate is 12 percent, inflation 24 percent.
Zhu Rongji's austerity plan is designed to slow down China's economy. |
|
1996 |
|
Democratic elections are held in Taiwan; PRC
rockets landing nearby bring US naval response.
Reduction of inflation to 6 percent; GDP grows by 10 percent. |
|
1997 |
|
February 19. Death of Deng Xiaoping at age ninety-three.
July 1. Hong Kong is returned to Chinese jurisdiction.
October. Jiang Zemin visits the US to discuss human-rights issues, a nuclear accord,
and a promise of Chinese tariff cut to address trade imbalance.
November. Wei Jinsheng arrives in US after his release from prison. |
|
1998 |
|
March. Li Peng is replaced as premier by economic
reformer Zhu Rongji.
April. Prominent dissident student leader Wang Dan is released from prison, and arrives
in the US.
China's economic growth drops sharply to below 8 percent per annum.
June. President Clinton visits China.
August. Major flooding occurs on the Yangtze and other rivers.
China wins world respect for economic role in Asian crisis.
Population: approximately 1.21 billion. |
|
1999 |
|
Population: approximately 1.243 billion. |
