Communist China

Chronology

• 1838
  Emperor Daoguang decides to stop opium trade in China.
  
• 1839
  1839 - 1842 - First Opium War.
  March - Lin Zexu, imperial commissioner, arrives in Canton.
  March 24 - Lin begins blockade of foreign opium traders in Canton.
• 1840
  June - British fleet arrives off Canton.
• 1842
  August 29 - Treaty of Nanjing
  Island of Hong Kong ceded to British.
  Cities of Canton, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai opened to West.
• 1851 - 1864 -
  Taiping (T'ai P'ing) Rebellion
  Hong Xiuquan (Hung Hsiu-ch'uan) leads revolt against Qing (Ch'ing) dynasty.
  
• 1851
  Emperor Xianfeng dies.
  Hong Xiuquan founds Kingdom of the Heaven of the Great Peace.
  Proclaims himself King of Heaven (t'ien-wang).
  Taiping capture Nanking, proclaim it "Capital of Heaven."
  
• 1851 - 1868
  Nian rebellion.
• 1855 - 1873
  Muslim revolts.
• 1855
  Yellow River breaks out of restraining dikes and carves new channel.
• 1856 - 1858
  Second Opium War.
  
• 1856
  October - "Arrow incident"- Chinese authorities detain ship "Arrow" on suspicion of piracy.
  British navy bombards Canton.
  
• 1858
  May - Combined British and French force captures Taku forts at the mouth of the Peiho River.
  Chinese capitulate.
  June - Treaty of Tianjin.
  Chinese government agrees to open ten more treaty ports.
• 1858 - 1860
  Third Opium War.
  
• 1860
  October - British occupy Beijing.
• 1864
  Tso Tsung-t'ang captures Hangchow and Nanking, ending Taiping rebellion.
  Rebellion results in an estimated 20 million deaths.
• 1868
  August - Qing forces under Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang defeat Nian in Shandong province, ending rebellion.
• 1871
  March - Muslim fortress of Jinjibao captured by Zuo Zontang.
  Muslim leader Ma Hualong executed.
• 1873
  November - City of Suzhou captured by Zuo, ending Muslim revolt.
• 1875
  January - Ruler Tongzhi dies at eighteen.
  Empress dowager Cixi appoints three-year-old nephew Guangxu emperor and assumes regency.
• 1880
  Li Hongzhang succeeds in getting railroad track laid from Kaiping coal mines to canal.
  French occupy Hanoi and Haiphong.
• 1882
  Passage in United States of anti-Chinese exclusion laws.
• 1884
  August 22 - French fleet defeats Qing naval force at Fuzhou, leaving French in control of Indochina.
• 1887
  Birth of Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) in Zhejiang province.
• 1893
  Birth of Mao Zedong in Hunan province.
• 1894 - 1895
  Sino-Japanese War.
• 1895
  January - Japanese force captures Weihaiwei forts and destroys part of north China navy in port.
  April - Treaty of Shimonoseki.
  China forced to recognize independence of Korea.
  Taiwan, the Pescadores, and part of southern Manchuria ceded to Japan.
• 1896
  Railroad mileage in China totals 370 miles.
• 1898
  1898 - 1901 - Boxer Uprising.
  Boxers United in Righteousness begin to emerge as a fighting force in Shandong province.
• 1900
  June - Boxer groups assemble in Peking and Tianjin.
  June 17 - Western forces seize forts at Dagu.
  June 21 - Empress dowager issues a "declaration of war."
  August 14 - Western force of 20,000 enters Peking and ends Boxer siege.
  October - Qing forces suppress attack organized by exiled Sun Yat-sen in Huizhou.
• 1901
  September - Boxer Protocol signed, formally ending rebellion.
  Qing government agrees to pay indemnity to foreign governments of 450 million taels.
  Payments until December 31, 1940 will total 982,238,150 taels
• 1903
  Publication of "The Revolutionary Army" by Zou Rong.
• 1905
  Sun Yat-sen becomes titular head of anti-Qing groups labeled as the Revolutionary Alliance.
  Active members number around 400.
  June - Anti-American boycott.
  Outrage over stories of mistreatment of Chinese in the United States leads to protest.
  Merchants in Canton, Shanghai, Xiamen, Tianjin, and other cities declare a boycott of American goods.
  September - Revolutionary student killed trying to blow up train carrying constitutional study group leaving on foreign tour.
• 1906
  Appearance of partial Chinese translation of Karl Marx' "Communist Manifesto" in China.
  Founding of Japanese Socialist party.
• 1906 - 1908
  Seven uprisings against Qing organized by the Revolutionary Alliance.
• 1911
  Summer - Revolutionary Alliance membership reaches almost 10,000.
  October 9 - Accidental bomb explosion in Hankou.
  Qing investigators raid revolutionary headquarters and execute three members.
  October 10 - Troops in Eighth Engineer Battalion of the New Army mutiny and seize ammunition depot in Wuchang.
  October 11 - Revolutionaries take Hanyang.
  October 12 - Mutiny in Hankou.
  October 22 - New Army mutinies in Shaanxi and Hunan provinces.
  Late October - Qing government agrees to establishment of a parliament and to create a constitution.
  December - Manchurian and loyalist troops defeated in fighting around Nanjing.
  December 25 - Sun Yat-sen returns to Shanghai from France.
• 1912
  January 1 - Sun Yat-sen assumes office as "provisional president" of the Chinese republic.
  January - Assassination attempts on Manchu princes and generals.
  February 12 - Abdication of emperor Puyi.
  February 13 - Yuan Shikai assumes office of provisional president, replacing Sun Yat-sen.
  December - National elections for Chinese Parliament held.
  Guomindang (National People's party) wins majority of seats.
• 1913
  March 20 - Song Jiaoren, Guomindang party leader, assassinated at Shanghai railroad station.
  October - Yuan Shikai forces Parliament to elect him president for five years.
  Orders Guomindang to be dissolved and its members evicted from Parliament.
• 1915
  January - Japan issues Twenty-one Demands.
• 1916
  June 6 - Yuan dies of uremia.
  Li Yuanhong succeeds Yuan as president.
• 1917
  June - General Zhang Xun marches army into Peking in abortive coup attempt.
  Defeated by rival generals in July.
• 1920
  Railroad building in China totals 7,000 miles.
  May - Beginnings of Communist Party.
  Potential members hold meeting.
• 1921
  Sun Yat-sen named "president" of Chinese People's Government.
  July - First plenary meeting of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Shanghai.
• 1922
  August - Warlord Chen Jiongming forces Sun to leave Canton.
• 1923
  February - Sun establishes military government in Canton and names himself grand marshal.
  October - Comintern agent Borodin named special adviser to Guomindang by Sun.
  Military academy established on Whampoa Island near Canton.
  Chiang Kai-shek appointed first commandant.
• 1924
  January 21 - Lenin dies.
  October 15 - Canton Merchant Corps (Merchant Volunteer Corps) force suppressed by Chiang and cadets from academy.
• 1925
  March 12 - Sun Yat-sen dies of liver cancer.
  March - Chiang Kai-shek's armies capture Shantow (Swatow) from warlord Chen Jiongming.
  May 30 - Police fire on demonstrators in Shanghai, killing eleven.
  June - Chiang Kai-shek's armies defeat two warlords trying to capture Canton.
  June 23 - British troops fire on demonstrators in Canton, killing fifty-two Chinese.
  August 25 - Liao Zhongkai assassinated before Guomindang Executive Committee meeting.
• 1926
  March 20 - Chiang Kai-shek arrests Communist captain of gunboat, the Zhongshan, in vicinity of Whampoa Island.
  Chiang puts Canton under marshal law.
  July - Chiang Kai-shek begins Northern Expedition, a military campaign to unify China.
  October 10 - Wuchang surrenders to National Revolutionary Army.
  December - Fuzhou captured by Nationalists.
• 1927
  February - General Labor Union helps organize strike which shuts down Shanghai for two days.
  Warlords break strike, beheading twenty strikers.
  March - British, Japanese, and American consulates looted by Nationalist troops.
  Several foreigners killed.
  American destroyers and British cruiser kill several Chinese in shelling to support evacuation.
  March 21 - Strike organized by General Labor Union shuts down Shanghai.
  March 22 - Nationalist troops enter Shanghai.
  April 12 - Anti-union group, the Society for Common Progress, attacks headquarters of Shanghai's large unions.
  April 13 - Guomindang troops fire on protesters, killing nearly 100 people.
  April - Zhang Zuolin, Peking warlord, hangs Li Dazhao, cofounder of CCP, and nineteen others arrested in raid on Russian embassy.
  May 18 - General allied with Guomindang mutinies and tries to capture Wuhan.
  May 21 - General in Changsha raids leftist organizations.
  Nearly 100 students and peasant leaders killed.
  Ousted landlords join general's troops in countryside to attack peasant forces.
  Thousands of peasants killed.
  August - Communist generals, leading force of 20,000, seize Nanchang.
  Capture Shantou, after being driven out of Nanchang.
  Fall - Autumn Harvest Uprisings -
  Mao Zedong, with an organized force of around 2,000, attacks small towns near Changsha.
  Mao's force suppressed.
  October - Mao and remnants of Autumn Harvest troops take refuge in Jinggang Mountains.
  December 11 - CCP begins uprising in Canton by seizing police stations, barracks, post, and telegraph offices.
  December 13 - Uprising put down and participants shot.
  
• 1928
  March 20 - Chen Lifu becomes head of Guomindang's Organization Department.
  Sets up espionage unit Diaocha Tongzhi (Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics of the Central Executive Committee).
  April 30 - Chiang Kai-shek's troops enter Jinan.
  May 11 - Japanese troops drive Chiang's forces out of Jinan.
  May - Zhou Enlai heads Tewu (Department for Special Affairs) in Shanghai.
  June 4 - Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin assassinated by Japanese in bomb explosion after leaving Peking.
  December - Mao leaves Jinggang Mountains and sets up Jiangxi Soviet regime, with its base in Ruijin.
  
• 1930
  Li Lusan, CCP secretary general, orders abortive attacks on Nanjing, Wuhan, and Changsha.
  November - Japanese prime minister assassinated in Tokyo.
• 1931
  September - Mukden Incident -
  September 18 -
  Japanese set off explosions on rail line outside Mukden.
  Skirmishing between Japanese and Chinese troops leads to capture of city by Japanese.
  Chinese forces withdrawn allowing Japanese to control Manchuria.
• 1932
  January - Chiang Kai-shek returns to office.
  Assumes position of chief of General Staff and chairman of the National Military Council.
  January 28 - Municipal Council of Shanghai declares state of emergency following boycotts of Japanese goods.
  January 29 - Japanese bomb Chapei district of Shanghai and send in three divisions to take Shanghai.
  March - Japanese create state of Manchukuo in Manchuria, with ex-emperor Puyi named as chief executive.
  May - Chinese resistance forces Japanese to agree to armistice.
  July - October - Chiang Kai-shek undertakes "bandit suppression" campaign against Communist forces.
• 1933
  May - Tanggu Truce - Chinese submit to Japanese demands.
  Area north of Bai River falls under Japanese control.
• 1934
  March - Puyi holds accession ceremony at Changchun, new capital of Manchukuo.
  August - Zhu De, Bo Gu, Zhou Enlai, and Otto Braun, military planners of Jiangxi Soviet, agree to abandon region due to Chiang Kai-shek's military and economic blockade.
  October 16 - Jiangxi Soviet - Red Army of around 80,000 crosses Yudu River, beginning Long March.
  Withdrawal coordinated by Zhou Enlai.
  First Corps commanded by Lin Biao; Peng Dehuai commands Third Corps.
  December - Long March forces cross Xiang River.
• 1935
  Number of operatives in Chiang Kai-shek's Special Service Section headed by Dai Li reaches 1,700.
  January 7 - Long March forces cross Wu River on bamboo rafts and enter city of Zunyi.
  January 15-18 - Zunyi Conference.
  May - Long March forces complete crossing of Datong River.
  June 12 - Long March forces reach Mougong, numbering around 40,000.
  October 19-20 - 4,000 members of First Front Army arrive, with Mao, in northern Shaanxi.
  Long March forces reduced, from original 80,000, to around 8,000 to 9,000.
  Long March participants had covered 6,000 miles.
  December 9 - December Ninthers -
  Students in Peking rally against Japanese power.
• 1936
  October - November -Manchukuo troops, backed by Japanese planes and tanks invade Suiyuan province.
  December 12 - Forces of warlord Zhang Xueliang capture Chiang Kai-shek at headquarters outside city of Xi'an, after killing bodyguards.
  December 25 - Chiang Kai-shek released.
  Government figures show Chinese population at 479,084,651.
• 1937
  1937 - 1940 - CCP membership increases from 40,000 to 800,000.
  July 7 - Japanese troops conducting night maneuvers near the Marco Polo Bridge shelled by Chinese.
  Japanese attack on Wanping repulsed.
  August - October - Fighting around Shanghai costs 250,000 killed or wounded among Chinese forces.
  December - Red Army becomes Eighth Route Army nominally headed by Nationalist command.
  December 12 - Tang Shengzhi abandons Nanjing to Japanese.
  December - January (1938) Rape of Nanjing.
  Estimated 260,000 - 350,000 civilians murdered, 20,000 women raped, and 30,000 Chinese soldiers killed as Japanese occupy city.
  Japanese set up Provisional Government of the Republic of China, based in Peking, to govern northern region.
• 1938
  April - Li Zongren defeats Japanese at Xuzhou.
  30,000 Japanese killed.
  May - Japanese capture Xuzhou.
  Dikes on Yellow River blown up by Chinese military engineers and flood slows Japanese advance.
  October 21 - Japanese capture Canton.
  Chiang Kai-shek flies out of Wuhan to base at Chongqing (Chungking).
  October 25 - Japanese gain control of tricities area around Wuhan.
  Japanese casualties in campaign estimated at 200,000.
  December 2 - Burma Road officially opened.
• 1939
  August - New Fourth Route Army organized in central China.
• 1940
  Hundred Regiments Offensive -
  Communist troops attack Japanese positions in northern China.
• 1941
  January 7-13 - New Fourth Army Incident -
  Nationalist troops attack New Fourth Army in mountains, killing 3,000.
  December 7 - Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.
  U.S. Congress approves lend-lease grant of $500 million to China.
  General Joseph Stilwell named commander in chief of the "China-Burma-India theater."
• 1942
  February 15 - Singapore falls to Japanese.
• 1943
  January - Allies agree to abolish extraterritoriality system, which prevented China from trying foreigners for crimes.
  December - Cairo Conference -
  Agreement that Manchukuo and Taiwan to be returned to Chinese Nationalist control after the war.
• 1944
  June 15 - B-29 bombers, based in China, bomb Yawata steel plant on Kyushu.
  Summer - Japanese Ichigo operation captures Changsha and destroys airfields used to bomb Japan.
• 1945
  April - Seventh national congress of the CCP convened at Yan'an by Mao Zedong.
  CCP membership stands at 1.2 million.
  Eighth Route and New Fourth armies reach 900,000.
  August 6 - Atom bomb "Little Boy" dropped on Hiroshima.
  August 9 - Atom bomb "Fat Man" dropped on Nagasaki.
  August 14 - Japan surrenders.
  September - October - U.S. Tenth Air Force helps Chiang Kai-shek by transporting over 110,000 Nationalist troops to major cities.
  September 1945 - 1948 - Chinese economy impacted by severe inflation.
• 1946
  January 10 - Cease-fire between Communists and Nationalist government.
  January 11 - Political consultative conference begins in Nanjing.
  Summer - Wen Yiduo, anti-government critic, assassinated in Kunming.
  July - Supply convoy escorted by forty American marines ambushed by Communist forces in Anping village.
  Communists make Harbin base of operations.
  November - Lin Biao attacks Nationalist forces in winter quarters.
• 1947
  February - Nationalist troops fire on antigovernment demonstrators on Taiwan.
  Chen Yi, chief administrator, orders arrest and execution of thousands.
  May - Lin Biao attacks Siping with 400,000 People's Liberation Army troops.
  Nationalist forces repulse attack, but later abandon northern cities.
• 1948
  Spring - National Assembly re-elects Chiang Kai-shek president.
  March - Communist general Peng Dehuai captures Yan'an.
  April - Luoyang falls to Communists.
  May - 200,000 Nationalist troops trapped in Mukden by Communist forces.
  Mukden and Changchun can only be supplied by air.
  June - Communists forced out of Kaifeng a week after capturing city.
  Nationalists suffer 90,000 casualties re-taking city.
  July - Authorities fire on unarmed student demonstrators in Peking, killing fourteen and wounding over 100.
  August 19 - Chiang Kai-shek issues Financial and Economic Emergency Measures in attempt to reverse economic problems.
  September - October - Jinan captured by Communists.
  Mukden and Changchun fall to Lin Biao.
  Nationalist forces lose 400,000 troops to fighting, capture, or desertion.
  November - December - Communists defeat Nationalists in two-month campaign near Xuzhou.
• 1949
  January - Communists capture Tianjin.
  January 21 - Chiang Kai-shek resigns as president.
  January 31 - Nationalist general in Peking surrenders city to Communists.
  April - British frigate Amethyst fired on by Communist batteries as it sails up Yangtze.
  Seventeen sailors killed.
  April 23 - Nanjing falls to Communists.
  May - Communists take Shanghai.
  September - Mao Zedong convenes People's Political Consultative Conference in Peking.
  Announces Common Program for China.
  Nationalist armies in Xinjiang, Suiyuan, and Ningxia surrender.
  October 1 - Mao Zedong proclaims People's Republic of China from rostrum of Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
  CCP membership at 4,448,080.
  Politburo run by five-man standing committee of chairman Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhe De, and Chen Yun.
  December 16 - Mao arrives in Moscow in hopes of meeting Stalin.
• 1950
  June - Institution of land reform in countryside.
  June 25 - North Korean troops invade South Korea.
  U.N. Security Council votes to condemn invasion.
  President Truman orders U.S. Seventh Fleet to patrol Taiwan Strait.
  September - Zhou Enlai warns U.S. that China will intervene in Korean conflict if U.S. invades North Korea.
  October - Chinese troops invade Tibet.
  October 7 - U.S. troops cross border between South and North Korea.
  October 19 - U.S. troops capture Pyongyan, capital of North Korea.
  December - Party membership increases to 5,821,604.
  Chinese troops begin operations in Korea and push UN forces south of the 38th parallel.
  Resist America and Aid Korea campaign
  Authorities target foreigners in China.
• 1951
  Summer - Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries campaign.
  Government undertakes massive campaign against domestic subversion.
  October - Three Anti campaign -
  Authorities target Communist Party members and bureaucrats.
  
• 1952
  January - Five Anti campaign -
  Targets industrialists and businessmen.
  
• 1953
  March 5 - Death of Stalin.
  July - Truce signed, ending military action in Korea.
  Chinese casualties estimated at between 700,000 and 900,000.
• 1953 - 1957
  First Five-Year Plan -
  Industrial output increases.
  December 1953 - 1954 - Purge of CCP.
  Gao Gang and Rao Shushi dismissed from Party.
• 1954
  December - U.S. signs mutual-defense treaty with Taiwan.
• 1956 - 1957
  May 1956 - June 1957 - Hundred Flowers Movement.
• 1957
  1957 - 1960 - Great Leap Forward
  February - Mao reinvigorates Hundred Flowers movement with "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" speech.
  November - December -
  CCP organizes peasant activity for large-scale projects in water control and irrigation.
  Cadres sent into countryside to boost productivity.
• 1958
  January - "Great Leap Forward" slogan put forward.
  February - Estimated 100 million peasants working on irrigation projects.
  April - Beginning of reorganization of farm cooperatives into large communes.
  May - Eighth Party Congress endorses Second Five-Year Plan (Mao's Great Leap Forward) -
  Government attempts reorganization of agriculture with collectivization campaign.
  December - Central Committee meeting in Wuhan -
  Central Committee claims that 740,000 communes had been successfully merged into 26,000 communes.
  Represented 99 percent of the peasant population.
  Mao steps down as Party chairman.
  
• 1959
  April - Second National People's Congress
  Liu Shaoqui replaces Mao as Party chairman.
  July - Mao, at meeting in Luschan, concedes failures of Great Leap Forward.
  1959 - 1962 - Famine in rural areas kills an estimated 20 - 30 million people.
• 1962
  October - November - Border war with India.
• 1963
  Publication of "Quotations from Chairman Mao."
• 1964
  China explodes first atomic bomb.
• 1965
  Summer 1965 - Beginnings of Cultural Revolution.
  Beijing University criticized by Mao's followers as a "reactionary fortress."
  November - Publication of criticism of Wu Han's play "The Dismissal of Hai Rui from Office" by Yao Wenyuan.
• 1966
  February - Lin Biao asks Jiang Qing, Mao's third wife, to coordinate new cultural policies for the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
  May - Conservative report issued by the Group of Five repudiated by the Central Committee.
  Purge of cultural bureaucracy.
  Turmoil at Peking University spreads through university system and high schools.
  August - Term "Red Guards" applied to young supporters of Mao.
  September 15 - Mass rally held in Tiananmen Square supporting Mao.
  Liu Shaoqui purged and imprisoned. Deng Xiaoping purged.
• 1967
  January - "January power seizure" -
  Various Red Guard factions try to take over Party organizations throughout China.
  PLA takes action against militant Red Guard units, with orders to disband all "counter revolutionary organizations.
  Thousands killed when PLA meets resistance in some areas.
  February 5 - Zhang Chunqiao announces formation of the Shanghai People's Commune.
  Mid-February - Mao moves to restrain most radical activities with "February adverse current" guidelines.
  Premier Zhou Enlai and military begin to play a greater role. September - Mao and Party leadership agree that violence has gotten out of hand.
  December 1967 - 1969 - Campaign to Purify Class Ranks -
  Mao and Jiang Qing renew purification efforts within party.
  Investigations by Workers' Mao-Thought Propaganda Teams.
• 1968
  Summer 1968 - Order restored throughout China.
• 1970
  August - Mao issues instructions on rebuilding the CCP.
  Requirement of revolutionary zeal and ideological purity dropped.
• 1971
  Mao removes Lin Biao supporters from CCP Central Committee.
  July - U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger travels to China to meet with Zhou Enlai.
  U.S. ends ban on transfer of U.S. dollars to China and to allow Chinese exports into the U.S..
  September 13 - Lin Biao killed in plane crash in Mongolia.
  October - U.N. votes to admit China and expel Taiwan.
• 1972
  February 21-28 - U.S. President Richard Nixon visits China.
• 1973
  August - Tenth congress of the CCP in Peking.
  Wang Hongwen named to Standing Committee of the Politburo.
• 1974
  March - Gang of Four direct political campaign against Premier Zhou Enlai.
• 1975
  September - October - First National Conference on Learning from Dazhai in Agriculture.
  December 16 - Kang Sheng, head of Tewu (Department for Special Affairs), dies.
• 1976
  January 8 - Zhou Enlai dies.
  February - Campaign against Deng Xiaoping begins.
  April 4 - Crowd in Tiananmen Square pays honor to Zhou Enlai.
  Disturbances next day follow removal of tributes to Zhou by authorities.
  April 7 - Deng Xiaoping removed from Party posts.
  July 28 - Severe earthquake, with epicenter in Tangshan, Hebei.
  Death toll officially reported at 242,000.
  September 9 - Mao Zedong dies.
  October 6 - Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, and Yao Wenyuan, arrested on the orders of Hua Guonfeng and Wang Dongxing, Peking's military commander. Accused of being a "Gang of Four."
  October 7 - Hua Guofeng succeeds Mao as chairman of the Central Committee of the CCP and chairman of the Military Affairs Commission.
• 1977
  July - Deng Xiaoping reappointed to vice-chairmanship position, the Politburo, and the Military Affairs Commission.
• 1978
  December 17 - Demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
  December 25 - Vietnam invades Cambodia.
• 1979
  January 1 - China and United States establish full diplomatic relations.
  February 17 - Chinese army invades Vietnam.
  March 16 - Chinese forces withdraw from Vietnam.
• 1980
  November 1980 - January 1981 - Trial of the Gang of Four.
  Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao sentenced to death. (Sentences later commuted to life imprisonment.)
  Wang Hongwen sentenced to life and Yao Wenyuan given eighteen years.
• 1982
  July 1 - Population census of China.
  Final figure for PRC - 1,008,175,288 people in China.
  Combined population for China and Taiwan - 1,031,882,511.
• 1984
  Sino-British Joint Declaration -
  Britain agrees to transfer sovereignty of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
• 1985
  Restructuring and reduction of government and army.
  900,000 Party members retire.
  PLA lays off 1 million out of 4.2 million force.
• 1986
  December 20 - Student demonstrations in Shanghai.
• 1987
  January - Student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
  Fang Lizhi and Liu Binyan purged from Party.
  October 25 - CCP's thirteenth congress convenes in Peking.
  November 1 - Announcement of Deng Xiaoping's resignation from Central Committee.
  November 2 - Zhao Ziyang elected secretary-general of the CCP.
  Li Peng named acting premier by Zhao Ziyang.
• 1989
  April 15 - Hu Yaobang dies of heart attack.
  April 17 - Student rally held in Tiananmen Square.
  May 20 - Premier Li Peng and President Yang Shangkun declare martial law.
  PLA units brought into Peking.
  June 3-4 - Twenty-seventh Army troops and units loyal to Deng Xiaoping clear demonstrators from Tiananmen Square.
  More than 700 killed.
  Secretary-General Zhao Ziayang dismissed.
  Jiang Zemin promoted to Secretary-General.
• 1992
  Construction of Three Gorges Dam approved by National People's Congress.
• 1997
  February 19 - Death of Deng Xiaoping.
  June 30 (midnight) - British sovereignty over Hong Kong transferred to China.

Suggestions for further reading.

Jasper Becker, "Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine," The Free Press, (New York, NY 1996).

John Byron & Robert Pack, "The Claws of the Dragon: Kang Sheng - The Evil Genius Behind Mao - and His Legacy of Terror in People's China," Simon & Schuster, (New York, NY 1992).

Kenneth C. Danforth, ed., "Journey Into China," National Geographic Society, (Washington, D.C. 1982).

Roger Faligot and Rémi Kauffer, "The Chinese Secret Service: Kang Sheng and the Shadow Government in Red China," William Morrow and Company, Inc., (New York, NY 1989).

Jonathan Fenby, "Chiang Kai-Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost," Carroll & Graf Publishers, (New York, NY 2003).

Christine Hatt, "Mao Zedong," World Almanac Library, (Milwaukee, WI 2004).

Edwin P. Hoyt, "The Rise of the Chinese Republic: From the Last Emperor to Deng Xiaping," McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, (New York, NY 1989).

Graham Hutchings, "Modern China: A Guide to a Century of Change," Harvard University Press, (Cambridge, MA 2001).

Maurice Meisner, "Mao's China: A History of the People's Republic," The Free Press, (New York, NY 1977).

W. Scott Morton and Charlton M Lewis, "China: Its History and Culture," Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill, Inc., (New York, NY 2004).

J.A.G. Roberts, "A Concise History of China," Harvard University Press, (Cambridge, MA 1999).

Harrison E. Salisbury, "The Long March: The Untold Story," Harper & Row, Publishers, (New York, NY 1985).

Harrison E. Salisbury, "Tiananmen Diary: Thirteen Days in June," Little, Brown and Company, (Boston, MA 1989).

C. J. Shane, ed., "The History of Nations: China," Greenhaven Press, (Farmington Hills, MI 2003).

Philip Short, "Mao: A Life," Henry Holt and Company, (New York, NY 1999).

Jonathan D. Spence, "The Search for Modern China," W. W. Norton & Company, (New York, NY 1990).

Li Zhensheng, "Red-Color News Soldier: A Chinese Photographer's Odyssey Through the Cultural Revolution," Phaidon Press, Inc., (New York, NY 2003)