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Mao orders invasion of Tibet
Mao started the invasion into religious county of China despite the wish of Tibetian people to be free and democratic. -
First Five-Year Plan, Mao undertakes instant industrialization of China
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Hundred Flowers Campaign, Mao encourages criticism of government
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Nixon meets with Deng
On February 21, 1972, Richard Nixon made history when out of the blue he arrived in Beijing with advisor Henry Kissinger for a visit that paved the way for the establishment of friendly relations between the United States and China. The visit was immortalized in an opera released in the 1980s called "Nixon in China" and has sometimes been compared with landing on the moon because nobody thought it was possible, especially with Nixon, who made his career being an anti-Communist, as a central figu -
Deng rival Hua Guofeng was ousted
The commune system was gradually dismantled and the peasants began to have more freedom to manage the land they cultivated and sell their products on the market. At the same time, China's economy opened to foreign trade. On 1 January of that year, the United States diplomatically recognized the People's Republic of China, leaving the Taiwan authorities to one side, and business contacts between China and the West began to grow. In late 1978, the aerospace company Boeing announced the sale of 747 -
political, economic, social, and cultural reforms were achieved at the Third Plenum of the Eleventh National Party Congress Central Committee
n the main move toward market allocation, local municipalities and provinces were allowed to invest in industries that they considered most profitable, which encouraged investment in light manufacturing. Thus, Deng's reforms shifted China's development strategy to an emphasis on light industry and export-led growth. Light industrial output was vital for a developing country coming from a low capital base. With the short gestation period, low capital requirements, and high foreign-exchange export -
the economic reforms accelerated the capitalist type, while maintaining the old Communist-style rhetoric
Although Deng provided the theoretical background and the political support to allow economic reform to occur, it is in general consensus amongst historians that few of the economic reforms that Deng introduced were originated by Deng himself. Premier Zhou Enlai, for example, pioneered the Four Modernizations years before Deng. In addition, many reforms would be introduced by local leaders, often not sanctioned by central government directives. If successful and promising, these reforms would be -
successes in socialist modernization and in implementation of reform and the open policy
Deng's elevation to China's new number-one figure meant that the historical and ideological questions around Mao Zedong had to be addressed properly. Because Deng wished to pursue deep reforms, it was not possible for him to continue Mao's hard-line "class struggle" policies and mass public campaigns. In 1982 the Central Committee of the Communist Party released a document entitled On the Various Historical Issues since the Founding of the People's Republic of China. Mao retained his status as a -
Deng (formally) retired from politics
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Deng Xiaoping died
After being disconnected from life support, Deng Xiaoping died on 19 February 1997 from a lung infection and Parkinson's disease. Even though his successor Jiang Zemin was in firm control, government policies maintained Deng's political and economic philosophies. Officially, Deng was eulogized as a "great Marxist, great Proletarian Revolutionary, statesman, military strategist, and diplomat; one of the main leaders of the Communist Party of China, the People's Liberation Army of China, and the P
