A Chronology of Modern Chinese Politics

1911 Overthow of Qing Dynasty.
1919 May Fourth Movement for cultural and political reform.
1921 Founding of Chinese Communist Party.
1923 First United Front with the Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist Party).
1925 Death of Sun Yatsen.
1926 Northern Expedition begins.
1927 Chiang Kaishek purges communists.
1928 Failure of Communist strategy of urban insurrection.

Mao Zedong establishes Soviet base in Jiangxi
1931 Japan invades Manchuria.
1934 Long March begins.
1936 Xi'an incident: Second United Front begins.
1942 Yan'an Rectification: Mao consolidates position in Party.

 

1945 Defeat of Japan
1946 Resumption of Civil War
1949 Establishment of People's Republic of China.

Land Reform continues through 1953.
1950 Korean War begins.
1953 First Five-Year Plan: peak of Soviet influence.
1956 Socialist Transformation: industry, commerce, and agriculture are brought under state control.

Hundred Flowers Movement begins.
1957 Anti-Rightist Movement.
1958 Great Leap Forward begins
1959 Lushan Plenum of CCP: Purge of Defense Minister Peng Dehuai.
1960 Split with the Soviet Union.
1962 Mao turns left: "Never forget class struggle."

 

1966 Cultural Revolution begins.
1968 Red Guards sent to countryside.
1971 Lin Biao incident
1976 Deaths of Zhou Enlai (January) & Mao Zedong (September).

Purge of Gang of Four and official end of Cultural Revolution.
1978 Deng Xiaoping Reform Program begins.
1979 Democracy Wall.
1980 Trial of Gang of Four.
1981 Hu Yaobang replaces Hua Guofeng as Party leader.
1983 Campaign against "spiritual pollution."
1986 Student demonstrations for political reform.
1987 Hu Yaobang forced to resign, Zhao Ziyang becomes Party General Secretary.

Campaign against bourgeois liberalization.

1988 Li Peng becomes Prime Minister.
1989 Mass movement for democracy, terminated by June 4 Beijing Massacre.

Jiang Zemin replaces Zhao Ziyang as Party leader.
1992 14th Party Congress, Intensification of market reforms.
1997 Death of Deng Xiaoping, return of Hong Kong to China
 

 

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