China 20th Century

By Benjamin_Wanggg
  • Period: to

    China 20th Century

    1911-1976

  • Established the Republic of China first presidential election

    Republic of China provisional presidential election, 1911: Sun Yat-sen was elected president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, with a majority of sixteen of the seventeen provincial representatives of the Tongmenghui in Nanjing.

  • Sun Yat-sen becomes president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China.

    Xinhai Revolution: Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China.

  • Kuomintang party

    The Tongmenghui and several smaller revolutionary parties merged to form the Kuomintang.

  • Japan issued the Twenty-One Demands to the Republic of China

    Japan issued the Twenty-One Demands to the Republic of China, including demands for territory in Shandong, Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, rights of extraterritoriality for its citizens in China, and influence in China's internal affairs.

  • Empire of China

    Yuan declared himself the Hongxian Emperor of the Empire of China.

  • Yuan died

    Yuan died

  • May 4th Movement

    May Fourth Movement: A student protest against the Treaty of Versailles took place at Tiananmen.

  • Communist Party of China

    The Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded.

  • China's last imperial dynasty and established the Republic of China

    Xinhai Revolution: Puyi's regent, the empress dowager Empress Dowager Longyu, signed an edict under which Puyi would retain his imperial title but all power would pass to the Provisional Government of the Republic of China.

  • First United Front

    The KMT and CPC agreed to the First United Front, under which Communists would join the KMT as individuals to help combat warlordism.

  • Shanghai massacre of 1927

    Shanghai massacre of 1927: KMT forces led by Chiang attack Communist allies in Shanghai, initiating a full-scale purge of Communists in regions under KMT control.

  • Jinan Incident

    Jinan Incident: The Japanese general Hikosuke Fukuda tortured and killed seventeen of Chiang's representatives in Jinan.

  • Chairman of the Nationalist government of the Republic of China.

    Chiang became chairman of the Nationalist government of the Republic of China.

  • 1931 China floods

    1931 China floods: Flooding began in the valleys of the Yellow, Yangtze and Huai Rivers which would claim as many as four million lives.

  • Japanese invasion of Manchuria

    Japanese invasion of Manchuria: The Kwantung Army invested all Manchurian territory along the South Manchuria Railway.

  • Chinese Soviet Republic establishment

    The Chinese Soviet Republic was established in Ruijin.

  • The January 28 Incident

    January 28 Incident: Japanese aircraft carriers began bombing Shanghai in a series of raids which would kill some four thousand soldiers of the 19th Route Army and as many as twenty thousand Chinese civilians.

  • Defense of Harbin

    Defense of Harbin: Japanese bombs and artillery forced the Jilin Self-Defence Army to retreat from Harbin.

  • State of Manchukuo

    The independent state of Manchukuo was established on the territory of Japanese-occupied Manchuria.

  • Pacification of Manchukuo

    Pacification of Manchukuo: The Big Swords Society rebelled en masse against the government of Manchukuo.

  • The Long March

    Long March: The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army broke through the KMT lines attempting to encircle them at Ganzhou.

  • December 9th Movement

    December 9th Movement: A student protest took place in Beijing demanding internal liberalization and stronger anti-Japanese resistance.

  • Xi'an Incident

    Xi'an Incident: Zhang Xueliang arrested Chiang in Xi'an due to concerns he was insufficiently committed to anti-Japanese resistance.

  • Marco Polo Bridge Incident

    Marco Polo Bridge Incident: Roughly one hundred Chinese soldiers were killed defending the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing from a Japanese attack.

  • The Second United Front

    The KMT and CPC joined to establish the Second United Front. The Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies, which were nominally part of the NRA chain of command.

  • Battle of Pingxingguan

    Battle of Pingxingguan: The Eighth Route Army wiped out a Japanese force of a few hundred attempting to bring supplies through Pingxing Pass.

  • "Reform in Learning, the Party and Literature"

    The Communist official Mao Zedong gave a speech in Yan'an entitled "Reform in Learning, the Party and Literature," establishing the Yan'an Rectification Movement and beginning an ideological purge which would claim some ten thousand lives.

  • Death of Lin Sen

    Lin Sen died. Chiang became acting chairman of the Nationalist government.

  • The United Nations Charter

    The United Nations Charter establishing the United Nations (UN) was signed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center by fifty nations including China.

  • Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: As many as eighty thousand Japanese, largely civilians, were killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by a United States aircraft.

  • Surrender of Japan (P2)

    Surrender of Japan: China regains control of Taiwan from Japan and was proclaimed as Retrocession Day. Chen Yi of the Kuomintang was appointed Chief Executive.

  • Surrender of Japan (P1)

    Surrender of Japan: Japanese forces in China formally surrendered to Chiang Kai-shek.

  • Chinese Civil War

    Chinese Civil War: The NRA invaded PLA-held territory en masse.

  • February 28 Incident

    February 28 Incident: Nationalist forces violently suppressed an anti-government protest in Taiwan Province.

  • The Constitution of the Republic of China

    The Constitution of the Republic of China came into force, dissolving the Nationalist government and renaming the NRA the Republic of China (ROC) Armed Forces.

  • Chiang resigning presidency

    Chiang resigned the presidency of the Republic of China due to military failures and under pressure from his vice president Li Zongren, who succeeded him as acting president.

  • Establishment of the People's Republic of China

    Mao declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

  • Korean War

    Korean War: The North Korean army launched a 135,000-man surprise assault across the 38th parallel into South Korea.

  • Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet

    Representatives of the Dalai Lama of Tibet the 14th Dalai Lama and of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China signed the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, which guaranteed Tibetan autonomy within China and called for the integration of the Tibetan Army into the PLA.

  • Outbreak of the Influenza A virus subtype H2N2

    An outbreak of the Influenza A virus subtype H2N2 occurred in China.

  • Instigated the Anti-Rightist Movement

    Mao instigated the Anti-Rightist Movement during which hundreds of thousands of alleged rightists, including many who had criticized the government during the Hundred Flowers Campaign, were purged from the CPC or sentenced to labor or death.

  • Mao's Speech "On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions Among the People"

    Mao published a speech entitled "On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions Among the People," marking the founding of the Hundred Flowers Campaign which encouraged criticism of the government and the Communist Party.

  • Great Leap Forward

    Great Leap Forward: The CPC led campaigns to massively overhaul the Chinese economy and society with such innovations as collective farming and the use of backyard furnaces.

  • Great Chinese Famine

    Great Chinese Famine: A famine began which would claim as many as forty million lives over three years.

  • 1959 Tibetan uprising

    1959 Tibetan uprising: A rebellion broke out in the Tibetan regional capital Lhasa after rumors the government was planning to arrest the 14th Dalai Lama at the local PLA headquarters.

  • Sino-Indian War

    Sino-Indian War: The PLA attacked Indian forces across the Line of Actual Control.

  • Simplified Chinese characters

    The second of two volumes of Simplified Chinese characters ordered by the State Council of the People's Republic of China was published.

  • 596

    596: The Chinese government detonated its first nuclear weapon at Lop Nur.

  • Cultural Revolution

    Cultural Revolution: The CPC launched a campaign to destroy the Four Olds.

  • Deng Pufang incident

    Deng Pufang was thrown from a third-story window at Peking University by Red Guards, crippling him.

  • The Beijing Subway

    The Beijing Subway opened in Beijing.

  • Dong Fang Hong I

    China launched Dong Fang Hong I, its first satellite.

  • Battle of the Paracel Islands

    Battle of the Paracel Islands: Some fifty South Vietnamese soldiers were killed in a Chinese conquest of the Paracel Islands.

  • 1972 Nixon visit to China

    1972 Nixon visit to China: The United States and China issued the Shanghai Communiqué pledging to normalize relations during the visit of the former's president Richard Nixon.

  • Tiananmen Incident

    Tiananmen Incident: Some four thousand people were arrested during a protest against the removal of wreaths, flowers and poems laid at the Monument to the People's Heroes in Zhou's memory.

  • 1976 Tangshan earthquake

    1976 Tangshan earthquake: An earthquake with its epicenter near Tangshan killed roughly a quarter of a million people.

  • Death of Mao

    Mao's death.