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Timeline of Modern Chinese History
Introduction: The timeline below represents
only a fraction of China's long history and culture-a history
that the Chinese themselves are well aware of and which we need
to recognize in order to understand our relationship with China
today. The modern history of China is significant in that it
represents a period of unprecedented conflict both within China,
and with the world outside. The years of turmoil spanning two
generations interrupted economic growth, but also reaffirmed
to Chinese leaders the need to regain China's position in the
world. Their success has been stunning-but in the context of
history, should not come as a tremendous surprise.
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1664-1911: Leaders of the Manchu Ch'ing
or Qing Dynasty follow the pattern of isolationism
practiced by their predecessors in the Ming Dynasty.
However, during this period China is increasingly influenced
by the West and a "newly modernized Japan." During the decline
of the Qing dynasty westerners arrive in China seeking trade
and colonial empires and use military force to compel the Chinese
"to accept humiliating compromises to its traditional system
of society and government." The Qing Dynasty attempts to institute
reforms that prove to be ineffective and are overthrown in favor
of a republic in 1911.
1839-1842: The British defeat the Chinese in
the Opium Wars, an attempt by the Chinese government
to prevent British merchants from illegally exporting opium
to China. As a result the Chinese sign The Treaty of
Nanking, which not only provides advantageous trade
conditions to the British, but also opens the door for other
Western nations to demand and receive the same treatment.
1894-1895: China loses the First Sino-Japanese
War to Japan. The conflict, which begins as a struggle
for control over the natural resources of Korea, both "mark[s]
the emergence of Japan as a major world power and demonstrate[s]
the weakness of the Chinese Empire."
1911-Present: Following popular uprising, The
Republic of China is officially established in 1911
but "warlord rule and civil war continue for nearly forty more
years, accompanied in 1937-45 by a war with Japan"
1913: "Thirteenth Dalai Lama
proclaims Tibetan independence. Conference at Simla, India,
among the British, Chinese and Tibetans divides Tibet into two
parts: Inner Tibet, far eastern provinces to
be controlled by China; and Outer Tibet, to
remain "autonomous." Chinese expelled from central Tibet but
do not sign agreement. Britain and Tibet sign, canceling pro-Chinese
provisions."
1914-1918: World War I precipitates a "free-for-all
struggle between Chinese warlords," which is escalated when
President Yuan Shih-k'ai, a former general
who helped lead the revolution, first reportedly considers declaring
himself emperor and then dies before he gets the chance.
1919: Following the announcement of the terms
of the Versailles Treaty that concluded WWI.,
under which "Germany's territorial rights in China were not
returned to the Chinese, as had been expected, but were instead
turned over to the Japanese," the "May Fourth"
or "new culture" Movement begins. Intellectuals
such as Chen Duxiu, former dean of Peking University
lead the outraged public in blaming the erosion of China's international
position on culture and demanding the abandonment of the Confucian
approach, which "stressed hierarchy in relationships
and obedience," in favor of the Western principles of
equality and democracy.
The Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party, advocating
for liberal democracy in China, is founded under Sun
Yat- sen, a leader of popular revolution in the South.
1920-1926: Civil War rages in China
and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including zealous
student librarian Mao Zedong, is founded around
the University of Beijing.
1925: Sun Yat-sen dies; the
Kuomintang is taken over by Chiang Kai-shek.
1927-8: Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek
capture Shanghai in 1927 and "purge Communists and workers from
the alliance." By June 1928, Chiang also controls Canton, Beijing
and Nanking.
Chen-Duxiu is expelled "for having presided
over the near demise of the CCP" and leadership passes to a
series of young men put forward by the Communist leadership
in Moscow. The Communists disperse into a dozen
or so bases in the remote countryside where "Red Army (that
is, CCP) troops in small numbers support rebel political leaders."
1933: The Central Committee
of the CCP, which is heavily influenced by Soviet Bolsheviks,
is forced to move from Shanghai to a central base in
Jiangxi of which Mao Zedong is head.
1934: Chiang Kai-shek launches the "New
Life Movement" to rally the Chinese people against
the Communists and build up morale in a nation that was besieged
with corruption, factionalism, and opium addiction. Rather than
turning away from Confucian values as did the
May 4 Movement, Chiang Kai-shek use[s] the Confucian
notion of self-cultivation and correct living for this movement."
1934-1935: Despite the successful guerilla
tactics used by the Communists, Chiang's continuous
campaigns to "to exterminate the Communist 'cancer' in Jaingxi,"
ultimately prove successful. In late 1934, some 100,000 members
of the CCP set out on the "Long March" to find
"a new territorial base on the periphery of Nationalist power,"
in which leaders hope to regroup the movement and consolidate
power.
The Communists ultimately cover around 12,500 kilometers-traveling
through 11 provinces, 18 mountain ranges, and 24 rivers in southwest
and northwest Chine to reach Shaanxi, which
becomes the center of the movement. "
1935: Having suffered heavy early losses under
Soviet leadership, the Communists finally accept Mao
Zedong's "unorthodox faith in mobile warfare." With
the support of his former superior (and future prime minister)
Zhou Enlai, he emerges as leader of the CCP in early
1935.Veterans of the Long March, rather than Soviet-backed
Bolsheviks are established as the leaders of the Revolution
in China.
1937: The Japanese initiate the Second
Sino-Japanese War, by invading China "just as Chiang's"
Nationalists are on the verge of victory of
over the Communists in the ongoing Civil War."
Hostilities continue through WWII when the Japanese are defeated
by allied forces in 1945.
1939-1945: During World War II,
Chinese Nationalists and Communists officially form a united
front to fend off the Japanese. However, Mao
supports a policy of "social revolution in Soviet areas as a
basis for fighting Japan on the nation's behalf" and in practice,
Communists and Nationalists forces fight the common enemy separately.
As a result, Mao is able to harness popular
support for the War to consolidate "a new autocratic power in
the countryside, excluding the elements of a nascent urban civil
society that [is] still developing under the Nationalists."
1945-1948: Civil War resumes
between the Communists and Nationalists in China. Growing support
for Mao Zedong from the Chinese peasants shifts
the balance of power to the Communist forces.
1949: The Communists win the
Civil War and Chairman Mao Zedong founds the
People's Republic of China, which he describes
as a "people's democratic dictatorship."
The Nationalists retreat to the island of Taiwan
and set up their own government under Chiang Kai-shek.
1950: Mao embraces and promotes the idea of
a 'permanent revolution,' or continuous revolt
by the masses against the elite group holding power. In an attempt
to translate his revolutionary ideas into practice he escalates
his policy of collectivizing agriculture by purging of the landlord
class and redistributing land to small farmers.
The Korean War begins between the Democratic
Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea), a Communist
state established by the Soviets, and the pro-Western
Republic of Korea (South Korea), which had been divided
along the 38th degree of latitude after WWII. Without actually
asking Congress to declare war, United States President
Harry Truman orders US troops to intercede on the side
of South Korea as part of UN "police action."
As Allied troops overcome the North Korean forces and push them
back toward the 38th parallel he Chinese warn that "the presence
of UN forces in North Korea w[ill] be unacceptable to the security
of the Chinese People's Republic and w[ill] force the Chinese
to intervene in the war." Although the war lasts for two more
years, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and
North Korean Army drive United States and South Korean forces
out of North Korea in a month. The result of the war is "a stalemate
and a United States commitment to containment that accept[s]
the reality of two Koreas. The Chinese cross into Central Tibet,
claiming that Tibet has always been Chinese territory.
1951: The Tibetans sign the 17-Point
Agreement, making Tibet a "national
autonomous region" of China but guaranteeing cultural and political
autonomy under Chinese rule.
1953: China's First Five-Year Plan
for Urban Industrialization begins, initiating the
transition from Communism to Socialism. Corresponding to China's
officially designated "transition to socialism,"
this period is characterized by "efforts to achieve industrialization,
collectivization of agriculture, and political centralization."
The First Five-Year Plan follows the model of rapid industrialization
adopted by the Soviets in 1928 --"favoring heavy industry at
the expense of agriculture"-and relies heavily on Soviet technical
and economic assistance in the form of loans.
For the purpose of economic planning, the first modern
census [is] taken in 1953; the population of mainland
China [is] shown to be 583 million, a figure
far greater than had been anticipated.
1954-8: Dissatisfaction with the First
Five-Year Plan spreads. "The emphasis on centralized
planning and bureaucratic control, the achievement of production
targets, the reliance on technical expertise, the application
of 'one man management,' all contribut[e] to a mounting criticism
of the direction the that the revolution is taking." The Chinese-Soviet
Communist split begins.
1956: Mao Zedong announces "a relaxation in
the policy toward intellectuals, declaring 'Let a hundred
flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend.'"
In practice, however, in response to the political criticism
that ensues, the CCP launches the Anti-Rightest Campaign,
which results in 400,000- 700,000 intellectuals "being sent
back to the countryside or to factories for reform through labor."
1957: Paving the way for the "Great
Leap Forward," the slogan "more, faster, better,
cheaper" is adopted by the Chinese government to "urge
and increase in both industrial and agricultural output" (as
opposed to the Soviet strategy which had emphasized industrial
development at the expense of agriculture.) "In factories 'one-man
management' [is] rejected in favor of workers' congresses and
many cadres in middle -sector management [are] 'sent down' to
participate in labour on the shop floor. Ideological exhortation
increasingly replace[s] material incentives as the means to
encourage workers to redouble their efforts."
1957: The United States deploys nuclear missiles
on Taiwan.
1958: Mao launches the Great
Leap Forward, China's second 5-year economic plan,
under which farming is collectivized and labour-intensive industry
is introduced. ." Large scale communes are formed in the both
the countryside and in urban areas. As part of the plan, production
targets and state investment increase dramatically. Between
1957 and 1960 the number of Chinese citizens employed in state
industrial industries doubles, placing an immense strain on
the system of procurement of food from the countryside.
In a speech before the State Supreme Conference on January he
reaffirms the concept that by practicing permanent revolution,
China can "advance in an uninterrupted manner from the transition
to socialism, which had been basically completed with the collectivization
of agriculture, to the passage from socialism to communism.
Through the power of human consciousness…advanc[ing] immediately
to the next stage and becom[ing] a country which [is] 'economically
modern and socially communist.'" Ultimately, however, the drive
produces economic breakdown and is abandoned after two years.
"In the industrial sector the attempt 'to reconcile socialist
revolutionary principles with industrial development'…result[s]
in conflict and uncertainty," and "the commitment to unrealistic
production targets encourage[s] misuse of plant and the lowering
of quality standards." Perhaps most devastatingly, disruption
to agriculture is blamed for the deaths by starvation of millions
of people following poor harvests."
1959: Fearing forced reforms at the hands of
the Chinese government the Dalai Lama flees
to India and is followed by 80,000 Tibetans. Thousands of Tibetans
take to the streets in protest and on March 23rd Tibetan troops
join in the uprising against the Chinese. Chinese forces suppress
the large-scale revolt by March 23rd and replace the Tibetan
local government with a military government. In April the Chinese
begin "democratic reforms," under which "thousands of Tibetans
are executed, imprisoned, or sent to labor camps. Destruction
of monasteries begins."
1960: The Chinese-Soviet Communist
split becomes open when Red Flag, CCP's
theoretical paper, publishes a series of articles denouncing
the Soviet Union's "commitment to peaceful co-existence." Soviet
technicians withdraw from China in July.
1962: With the break between the Chinese and
the Soviets complete, China begins to
"position itself as the 'other' superpower while it
recover[s] from the "Great Leap Forward." China
enters into a brief conflict with India over
disputed border claims in Tibet.
1963: China's population reaches 750 million
and the Chinese government begins a policy of family
state planning.
1966-1976: Mao Zedong launches the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution by calling on students
to form units called Red Guards and rebel against
"persons in authority taking the capitalist road." Fearing that
revolution will be destroyed by revisionism
-- the bourgeois tendencies emerging in economics, foreign policy,
education, and culture-Mao seeks to inspire "revolutionary successors,"
who will "destroy the old and enable a new national birth."
The campaign gains momentum when Mao gains the political support
of newly remodeled People's Liberation Army under General Lin
Biao.
During the Cultural Revolution, writers and artists are expected
to "serve the needs of the people," and bourgeois Western influence
is "zealously attacked" under the slogan "Better Red
than Expert."
Mao's 10 year political and ideological campaign yields "a period
of radical experimentation and political chaos that br[ings]
the educational system to a halt and severely disrupt[s] attempts
at rational economic planning." Although the active phase of
the Cultural Revolution officially ends in
1969, a "repressively charged political environment" remains
until after Mao's death in 1976.
1972: United States President Richard Nixon visits
China and both countries declare a desire to normalize relations.
1975: Premier Zhou Enlai introduces the goal
bringing China into the "community of advanced industrial nations
by start of the new millennium" through the Four Modernizations:
the modernization of agriculture, industry, science
& technology, and national defense. The strategy of
reform exhibits a pattern throughout Chinese history in which
"concerted efforts [are] made to bring about fundamental changes
in administrative methods while keeping the overall institutional
framework intact."
1976: Following the death of Mao Zedong, the main members
of the Communist faction that directed Cultural Revolution or
"Gang of Four," including Mao's widow Jiang
Qing, attempt to seize power but are arrested and eventually
convicted of treason. Pragmatists take control of the communist
party in China.
1977: Deng Xiaoping emerges as the
dominant leader among the pragmatist Wing of the CCP.
1978: Attempting to regain China's status as a world
power, Deng Xiaoping launches "a comprehensive
economic modernization and organizational reform program" under
which Mao's people's communes are dismantled in favor of greater
economic decentralization. At the CCP's 11th National Congress
in December Deng Xiaoping "reaffirm[s] the aims of the Four
Modernizations, placing economic progress above the Maoist goals
of class struggle and permanent revolution." His more pragmatic
approach which emphasizes education, science, and more interaction
with the world, is exemplified by the popular saying:
"It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white; what matters
is how well it catches mice."
1979: Economics trump party politics;
China and the United States reestablish
formal diplomatic relations.
1984: Following Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's
visit to Deng Xiaoping (1982), the Chinese
and the British sign an agreement to return Hong Kong
to the People's Republic.
1986: China begins the "process of (re)joining
the world trading system." China's "Open-door policy"
opens the country to foreign investment and encourages development
of a market economy and private sector. Reforms over the next
decade or so include increasing exports of raw materials and
manufactured products, and gradually decreasing tariffs.
1989: Two or three thousand students seeking
democratic reforms camp for weeks and stage a hunger strike
in Tiananmen Square. The aging communist leadership
refuses to negotiate and on June 4th troops open fire, killing
more than 200 unarmed demonstrators and wounding many more.
International outrage leads to sanctions and 'the nationalist
doctrine that what happens inside China is not the outside world's
concern' los[es] its validity in the face of worldwide media
coverage of the event." Jiang Zemin takes over as Chinese Communist
Party General Secretary from Zhao Ziyang, who refuses to support
martial law during the Tiananmen demonstrations, and launches
a 2-year program of repression. Stockmarkets open in Shanghai
and Shenzhen.
1992: Russia and China
sign a declaration restoring friendly ties. The International
Monetary Fund (IMF) ranks China's economy as third largest in
the world after the US and Japan.
1993: Jiang Zemin officially
replaces Yang Shangkun as President. Preliminary
construction work on the Three Gorges dam begins. It will create
a lake almost 600 kilometres (375 miles) long and submerge dozens
of cultural heritage sites by the time it is completed in 2009.
1994: China abolishes the official renminbi
(RMB) currency exchange rate and fixes its first floating rate
since 1949. Eliminating the dual exchange rate system removes
"formerly substantial trade barriers implicit in this regime."
1995: China tests missiles and holds military
exercises in the Taiwan Strait, apparently
to intimidate Taiwan during its presidential elections.
1996: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan - dubbed the Shanghai Five
- meet in Shanghai and agree to cooperate to combat ethnic and
religious tensions in each others' countries. The meeting underscores
the concern of Chinese and Russian leadership over Muslim majorities
in this region.
1997: Deng Xiaoping dies, aged 92. Ethnic tensions
boil over and rioting erupts in Yining, Xinjiang.
On the day of Deng's funeral Xinjiang separatists plant three
bombs on buses in Urumqi, Xinjiang, killing nine and injuring
74. Hong Kong reverts to Chinese control.
1998: Zhu Rongji succeeds Li Peng as
premier, announces reforms in the wake of the Asian financial
crisis and continued deceleration of the economy. Thousands
of state-owned enterprises are planned to be restructured through
amalgamations, share flotations and bankruptcies. About four
million civil service jobs to be cut. Large-scale flooding of
the Yangtse, Songhua and Nenjiang rivers.
1999: Fiftieth anniversary of People's
Republic of China on 1st October.
NATO bombs the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade,
Yugoslavia, souring Sino-US relations.
Falun Gong, a quasi-religious sect is outlawed
as a threat to stability.
Macao, the First European settlement in the
Far East (colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th century) reverts
to Chinese rule. China promises that under its 'one
country, two systems' formula, China's socialist economic
system will not be practiced in Macau, and that Macau will enjoy
a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign and
defense affairs for the next 50 years."
2000: Crackdown on official corruption intensifies,
with the execution for bribe taking of a former deputy chairman
of the National People's Congress.
The Falun Gong
sect continues to defy its ban and holds demonstrations. Bomb
explosion kills up to 60 in Urumqi, Xinjiang.
2001: April - Diplomatic stand-off over the detention
of an American spy plane and crew after a mid-air collision
with a Chinese fighter jet.
June - Leaders of China, Russia and
four Central Asian states launch the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and sign an agreement
to fight ethnic and religious militancy while promoting trade
and investment. The group emerges when the Shanghai
Five - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
- are joined by Uzbekistan.
China carries out military exercises simulating an invasion
of Taiwan, at the same time as the island's armed forces
test their capability to defend Taiwan against a missile attack
from China. November - China joins the World Trade Organization.
2002: February - U.S. President George
W Bush visits, on the 30th anniversary of President
Nixon's visit to China.
July - The U.S. says China is modernizing its
military to make possible a forcible reunification with Taiwan.
Beijing says its policy remains defensive.
November - Vice-President Hu Jintao is named head of
the ruling Communist Party, replacing Jiang Zemin, the outgoing
president. Jiang is re-elected head of the influential Central
Military Commission, which oversees the armed forces.
2003: March - National People's Congress elects
Hu Jintao as president. He replaces Jiang Zemin, who steps down
after 10 years.
March-April - China and Hong Kong are hit by
the pneumonia-like SARS virus, thought to have originated in
Guangdong province in November 2002. Strict quarantine measures
are enforced to stop the disease spreading.
June - Sluice gates on Three Gorges
Dam, the world's largest hydropower scheme, are closed
to allow the reservoir to fill up.
Hong Kong is declared free of SARS. Days later
the World Health Organization lifts its SARS-related
travel warning for Beijing.
China, India reach
de facto agreement over status of Tibet and Sikkim in landmark
cross-border trade agreement.
July/August - Some 500,000 people march in
Hong Kong against Article 23, a controversial
anti-subversion bill. Two key Hong Kong government officials
resign. The government shelves the bill.
October - Launch of China's first manned spacecraft:
Astronaut Yang Liwei is sent into space by
a Long March 2F rocket.
2004: September - Former president Jiang
Zemin stands down as army chief, three years ahead
of schedule.
November - China signs a landmark trade agreement
with 10 south-east Asian countries; the accord
could eventually unite 25% of the world's population in a free-trade
zone.
2005: January - Former reformist leader Zhao
Ziyang dies. He opposed violent measures to end 1989's
student protests and spent his last years under virtual house
arrest. Aircraft chartered for the Lunar New Year holiday
make the first direct flights between China
and Taiwan since 1949.
March - Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa resigns.
He is succeeded in June by Donald Tsang.
New law on Taiwan calls for use of force, should
the government in Taipei declare independence
from mainland China.
April - Relations with Japan
deteriorate amid sometimes-violent anti-Japanese protests in
Chinese cities, sparked by Japanese textbook which China says
glosses over Japan's World War II record.
Taiwan's National Party leader Lien Chan visits
China for the first meeting between Nationalist and Communist
Party leaders since 1949.
August - China, Russia conduct their first
joint military exercises.
Reuters and U.S.A today report that, "China said it has formally complained to Washington over a Pentagon report that calls China a potential military threat, and the foreign ministry accused the United States of trying to mislead public opinion.
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