1912: End of the Qing dynasty. Proclamation of the Republic by Sun Yat-Sen.
1921: Founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
1925: Death of Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek took over as head of Guomingdang, the Nationalist Party.
1934-35: “Long March”, the Communists fleeing the repression of Guomingdang, traveling 10,000 km and take refuge in Shaanxi.
1937-1945: Sino-Japanese War.
Mao Zedong’s China
1949: Proclamation of the People’s Republic of China by Mao Zedong, chairman of the CCP became chairman of the People’s Government. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan.
1950: Treaty of Sino-Soviet friendship.
1956: Deng Xiaoping became general secretary of the Central Committee.
1957-58: Campaign of the “Hundred Flowers” authorizing the intellectual pluralism. The growing criticism triggered a campaign of repression “anti-rightist”.
1958-59 “Great Leap Forward”, collectivisation of land and creation of the communes to develop the economy. Disruption of agricultural structures leads to massive famine.
1960: Break with the USSR.
1964: First nuclear test.
1966: “Cultural Revolution”, the party cadres and elites are suppressed by the Red Guards.
1971: Admission to the UN, where Beijing gets the seat held by Taiwan since 1949.
1972: Richard Nixon’s visit paves the way for normalization of relation with the United States.
The Era of Deng Xiaoping
1976: Death of Mao Zedong. Arrest of the “Gang of Four”, instigators of the Cultural Revolution. Hua Guo-feng was named to head the party and government.
1978: Deng Xiaoping rehabilitated after being sidelined during the Cultural Revolution, launched economic reforms.
1979: Creation of special economic zones to attract foreign investors.
1985: Reconciliation with the USSR.
1989: The students demonstrated in Tiananmen Square to demand more freedoms. Deng Xiaoping crushed the cons-revolutionary by the army.
1992: The Communist Party rallied to the “socialist market economy” Opponents of the line are discarded.
1993: Jiang Zemin became President of the Republic.
1996: creation of the SCO, comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
February 1997: Death of Deng Xiaoping.
China, world power
July 1997: Britain surrenders Hong Kong to China.
December 1999: Handover of Macao by Portugal.
March 2001: Diplomatic tension with the United States as a result of the collision between a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet.
July 2001: Beijing is awarded the Olympic Games of 2008.
December 2001: Accession to the WTO.
November 2002: Hu Jintao succeeded Jiang Zemin as head of the Communist Party, he replaced Jiang in March 2003 as President of the Republic.
June 2003: impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, the largest in the world.
October 2003: Launch of the first Chinese manned space flight.
November 2004: Signing of free trade agreements with 10 countries in Southeast Asia.
August 2005: Joint military exercises with Russia.
2006
May: Completion of the Three Gorges Dam. 1.13 million people were displaced for its realization.
July: Inauguration of the railway from Beijing to Lhasa (Tibet). Over 4500 km long, it takes two days from Lhasa to Beijing.
November: The summit of Forum on China-Africa brings together 48 African countries in Beijing. Financial aid to Africa doubled to $ 5 billion to encourage Chinese companies to invest in Africa are released.
December: China opens its market to foreign banks, in line with commitments made during accession to the WTO in 2001.
2007
January: China successfully tests an anti-satellite missile.
April: Visit to Japan, Premier Wen Jiabao speaks at the Japanese parliament. The two countries pledge to promote peace in Asia.
June: Scandal “slave laborers”, the illegal brickworks run by Shanxi mafia employed hundreds of men and children working in appalling conditions.
July: China becomes the world’s third largest economy behind Japan and the United States. Rising social tensions in the countryside and the discontent of the people against corruption and environmental degradation. The Mattel recalls 1.5 million toys made in China due to high lead levels.
October: China launches its first lunar orbiter, Chang’e, inaugurating a program to send an astronaut on the moon.
2008
January: Major snow storms hit the country, causing more than a hundred dead.
March: Tibet clashes between demonstrators hostile to the Chinese presence and law enforcement. Demonstrations in support of the Tibetan people in several countries disrupt the events planned on the route of the Olympic flame.
May: An earthquake devastated Sichuan province, causing 74,000 dead or missing and 5 million homeless.
Resumption of dialogue between China and Taiwan, after 10 years of interruption.
August: Beijing Olympic Games.
September: Tainted milk scandal. Four babies died and 53,000 others are poisoned.
November: China faces slowing down of economic growth, adopt a stimulus package of 455 billion euros.
2009
February: Beijing and Moscow signed an agreement providing for the annual delivery of 15 million tonnes of Russian crude for twenty years in exchange for Chinese loans of 25 billion dollars.
March: The governor of the central bank challenges the hegemony of the dollar in the global economy and suggests a new reserve currency controlled by the International Monetary Fund.
Canadian scientists announced the discovery a large network of international cyber espionage based in China.
July: Riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s regional capital largely populated by Muslims are nearly 200 dead and more than eight hundred injured.
The Shanghai municipal government encouraged some couples, only children themselves, to have two children.
October: Beijing hosts the ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the proclamation by Mao Zedong, the People’s Republic.
Six people were sentenced to death for their involvement in riots in Xinjiang in July.
December: China runs a British national convicted of drug trafficking and described as mentally ill by his family.
2010
March: Google’s Chinese service transfers to Hong Kong in order to provide uncensored search results, while maintaining operations on Chinese land.
June: Signed a trade agreement with Taiwan. It involves the establishment of preferential tariffs.
August: China’s GDP now exceeds that of Japan.
September: The arrest of a Chinese trawler by Japanese patrol boats with which it collided near the Senkaku Islands triggered a crisis between the two countries.
October: Nobel peace 2010 is attributed to the imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Vice President Xi Jinping was appointed head of a supervisory body of the Army by the CPC Central Committee, which tends to confirm that he probably will succeed President Hu Jintao in 2012.
2011
February: Japan gave way the second global economy to China in 2010, according to statistics published February 14 in Tokyo.