Jensen - China in and Beyond the Headlines

1949

Liberationfounding of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC); Mao Zedong (18931976) becomes leader of China; Nationalist Party (Guomindang) retreats to Taiwan, establishing the Republic of China

19501953

Land Reform

1955

Socialist upsurge in the Chinese countryside

1956

Collectivization

19581961

The Great Leap Forward (The Three Hard Years)

1964

Successful test of an atomic bomb

19661976

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

1972

Sino-U.S. Communiqu (Shanghai Communiqu): official affirmation of the One-China Policy

1975

Four Modernizations (agriculture, national defense, science and industry, and technology) are proclaimed by Zhou Enlai (18991976)

1976

Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong die

1978

Beginning of the Deng Xiaoping (19041997) era; Deng becomes the paramount leader and restarts the Four Modernizations

19781979

Democracy Wall Movement

1979

Deng Xiaoping visits the United States

1979

Deng proclaims the Four Cardinal Principles: keeping to the socialist road, upholding the dictatorship of the proletariat, upholding the leadership of the Communist Party, and upholding MarxismLeninisimMao Zedong Thought

1979

Joint Communiqu on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations

1980

Gengshen Democratic Reforms; International Monetary Fund admits China as a member

1982

China National Off Shore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is founded

19831984

Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign

1984

China is given membership in the International Atomic Energy Agency

1985

Hong Kong defeats China in a soccer match, provoking a violent riot; students rally in opposition to Japanese influence in China and in favor of open-door policy

1986

Anti-bourgeois liberalization campaign crackdown on cultural liberalism and influence from the West; widespread student demonstrations in support of democracy

1987

Fang Lizhi (19362012), Liu Binyan (19252005), and Su Shaozhi are expelled from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

1989

Student Democracy Protests Massacre, Beijing (a.k.a. Tiananmen Square Massacre)

1989

National campaign against pornography

1990

Promulgation of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

1990

Asian Games are held in Beijing

1991

Massive floods in the east and southeast displace more than 206 million people

1992

Deng Xiaopings Southern Tour, reaffirming the government commitment to capitalism

1995

Taiwans President Lee Teng-hui visits the United States, jeopardizing Sino-U.S. relations

1995

Third summit meeting between the United States and China yields pledge for constructive partnership

1995

National Peoples Congress adopts the countrys first banking law, the Law on the Peoples Bank of China

1996

China conducts an underground nuclear test

1997

Deng Xiaoping dies; Jiang Zemin becomes president

1997

Return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty

1999

Portuguese entrept of Macao returned to Chinese sovereignty

1999

Falun Gong movement stages a meditation vigil involving 10,000 practitioners outside Zhongnanhai

1999

Government crackdown on Falun Gong

1999

Fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China

1999

NATO forces destroy the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three journalists

1999

U.S. congressional report reveals Chinese theft of U.S. nuclear secrets

2000

Original projected date for realization of the Four Modernizations (revised in 1994 to 2047)

2000

Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian is elected president of Taiwan and signals ambivalence toward the One-China Policy

2001

Beijing selected by IOC as host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics

2001

U.S. reconnaissance aircraft down a Chinese fighter plane in the South China Sea; national anti-U.S. protests ensue; Chinese government conveys protesting students by bus to the U.S. embassy for demonstrations

2001

September 11 destruction of the World Trade Center in New York and attacks on the Pentagon