Lest We Forget... A Brief Timeline of China's Modern History

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

 

A Brief Timeline of China’s Modern History

1912-25

After the 1911 collapse of the Qing Dynasty, China declares itself a republic in 1912 with Sun Yat-sen as the first president. Sun founds the Nationalist Party, Kuomintang (KMT) and later resigns in favor of Yuan Shihkai. Shihkai attempts to reinstate the monarchy but fails, and after his death in 1916 the country is left without a strong central leader, and the country descends into a period of control by warlords.

1921-35

The Chinese Communist Party is founded in Shanghai. Mao Zedong leads the Long March and establishes revolutionary headquarters in Yenan.

1925

Sun Yat-sen dies; Chiang Kai-shek assumes leadership of KMT and launches the Northern Expedition that reunifies China under Nationalist government.

1920s-1950

Traditional arranged marriage continues in both the legal system and local customs; it is marked by complex negotiations of families through matchmakers regarding the bride price and the bride’s dowry.

December 1937-March 1938

During the Sino-Japanese War, the four-month Japanese occupation of Nanking known as the Rape of Nanking is the cause of an estimated 260,000 Chinese civilian casualties during the invasion.

1946-49

Civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists results in the Communists’ victory; the Nationalist government evacuates to the island of Taiwan.

1949

Mao proclaims the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

Tibet annexed.

1950

A new marriage law bans polygamy and arranged marriages, promoting women’s equality and encouraging freedom of choice in selecting a spouse.

The Agrarian Reform Law redistributes the land of landlords and wealthy farmers to millions of peasants.

1950s-1978

A planned economy demands rationed household goods and food. By national poverty line criteria, people in poverty are estimated at 260 million and the income gap between rural and urban populations grows.

1953

Mao begins Rural Collectivization based on a five-year plan. Individual landownership is abolished and replaced with cooperatives.

1957-58

An “Anti-Rightist” campaign is used by Mao to eliminate critical intellectuals. A half-million dissidents are sent to remote labor camps for “reform through labor.”

1958-62

The “Great Leap Forward” plan calls for an unrealistic increase in industrial and agricultural production. All land is collectivized and farmers are organized into People’s Communes. Mao declares the goal of passing Great Britain in industrial production by 1972, and backyard furnaces for steel production are created across the country. However, the steel produced is of poor quality and the agricultural reforms cause one of the largest famines in human history, with an estimated 30 million deaths from starvation.

China fights a war with India over control of Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh. ***

1966-76

Under the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution China’s jurisdiction, research and educational systems are paralyzed. Student bands of “Red Guards” search and destroy anything considered bourgeois—anything representing capitalism, religion, tradition and the West. Most of China’s cultural heritage is destroyed. Mao’s rivals within the party are purged. Intellectuals and people with “counterrevolutionary” backgrounds are dragged from their homes to endure fatal “struggle sessions,” sent to labor camps or detailed to custodial work units.

1972

Richard Nixon visits China, normalizing the relationship between the United States and China.

1977

After the Cultural Revolution, the National Higher Education Entrance Examination is re-introduced, which ends the policy of only admitting people into higher education with farming, factory and military experience during 1971-1977.

1978

The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, Article 46 guarantees freedom of religion but with a number of restrictions.

Start of Deng Xiaoping’s Four Modernizations program (agriculture, industry, defense and science) is instituted as a form of Chinese socialism.

1979

Continuing China’s “Open Door Policy,” diplomatic relations are established between the United States and China.

1979-present

The “One-Child Policy” is introduced to limit births nationwide as the population reaches 900 million. Violation of this family planning policy results in fines, confiscation of property, salary cuts or dismissal. Officials also refuse to issue house registry to “out of plan” children, thereby denying them education and other benefits.

1980s

The Chinese government begins a series of economic reforms that lead to less government control of business and landownership. A new household responsibility system replaces a collective system, and the privatization of state enterprises contributes to China’s economic growth.

1987

Western-style fast food is introduced in China—KFC opens its first store, and McDonald’s will follow in 1991.

1989

Tiananmen Square protests conducted largely by students bring international attention to China. Military clashes with the protesters, who demand freedom and democracy, result in multiple deaths.

1990

China’s biggest special economic zone launches in the suburbs of Shanghai at Pudong, designed to be China’s new financial and commercial hub.

1997

China takes control over Hong Kong’s sovereignty based on previous contractual agreements with the United Kingdom.

2000

Government consolidates Internet regulations for mainland China.

2001

China is admitted to the World Trade Organization and wins the bid for the 2008 Olympics.

2007

For the first time since 1979, a review of every capital offense criminal case must be reviewed by the Supreme People’s Court. The court reports that as a result about 15 percent of cases are now overturned, but China remains the world’s leading executioner, with the list of crimes punishable by death including theft, embezzlement and forgery.

2008

The XXIX Summer Olympics are held in Beijing.

2009

Twenty million migrant workers are reported to have lost their jobs in China due to the global economic crisis.

2010

China becomes the world’s second-largest economy. In response to alleged cyberattacks on email accounts of human rights activists, Google ends its compliance with China’s Internet censorship and re-routes Internet searches to Google Hong Kong. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese human rights activist “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.”

 

*** The total area of China’s claims on other countries exceeds the size of modern China itself, but Beijing refuses to budge on its claims.

Many are based on unsubstantiated (outside China) and unprecedented “historical precedents” dating back centuries.

And while China only has land borders with 14 countries, it is claiming territory from at least 23 individual nations.

These include Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, maritime territory which is 1000 kilometres from the closest Chinese soil (well outside the internationally recognised 200 kilometre EEZ).

The following is a list of China’s current claims against other countries, all of which it has made painfully clear it is willing to go to war over:

Afghanistan

Afghan province of Bahdashan (despite treaty of 1963, China still encroaches on Afghan territory).

Bhutan

Bhutanese enclaves in Tibet, namely Cherkip Gompa, Dho, Dungmar, Gesur, Gezon, Itse Gompa, Khochar, Nyanri, Ringung, Sanmar, Tarchen and Zuthulphuk. Also Kula Kangri and mountainous areas to the west of this peak, plus the western Haa District of Bhutan

 Brunei

South China Sea especially Spratly Islands

Burma

China claims large areas of Burma on historical precedent (Yuan Dynasty, 1271-1368). There are unspecified border disputes with Burma.

Cambodia

China has, on occasion, claimed parts of Cambodia on historical precedent (Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644)

India

Aksai Chin (part of Jammu and Kashmir), Demchok, Chumar, Kaurik, Shipki Pass, Jadh, and Lapthal Shaksgam Valley, South Tibet (part of India-controlled Arunachal Pradesh), Trans-Karakoram Tract

Indonesia

Parts of the South China Sea.

Japan

Parts of the East China Sea, particularly the Senkaku Islands. Also, on occasion, the Ryukyu Islands, on the grounds that the completely independent Kingdom of Ryukyu was once a vassal state of China. The Kingdom of Ryukyu terminated tributary relations with China in 1874.

Kazakhstan

There are continual unilateral claims by China on Kazakhstan territory, despite new agreements, in China’s favour, signed every few years.

Kyrgyzstan

China claims the majority of Kyrgyzstan on the grounds that it was unfairly forced to cede the territory (which it had formerly conquered) to Russia in the 19^th century.

Laos

China claims large areas of Laos on historical precedent (Yuan Dynasty, 1271-1368)

Malaysia

Parts of the South China Sea, particularly the Spratly Islands

Mongolia

China claims all of Mongolia on historical precedent (Yuan Dynasty, 1271-1368). In fact, Mongolia, under Genghis Khan, occupied China.

Nepal

China claims parts of Nepal dating back to the Sino-Nepalese War in 1788-1792. China claims they are part of Tibet, therefore part of China

North Korea

Baekdu Mountain and Jiandao. China has also on occasion claimed all of North Korea on historical grounds (Yuan Dynasty, 1271-1368).

Pakistan

Territory is still unilaterally claimed by China, despite China signing numerous agreements.

Philippines

Parts of the South China Sea, particularly Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly Island

Russia

160,000 square kilometres still unilaterally claimed by China, despite China signing numerous agreements. Most of Siberia.

Singapore

Parts of the South China Sea.

South Korea

Parts of the East China Sea. China has also on occasion claimed all of South Korea on historical grounds (Yuan Dynasty, 1271-1368).

Taiwan

China claims all of Taiwan, but particular disputes are: Macclesfield Bank, Paracel Islands, Scarborough Shoal, Senkaku Islands, parts of the South China Sea and the Spratly Islands.

Tajikistan

China claims parts of Tajikistan on historical precedent (Qing Dynasty, 1644-1912).

Vietnam

China claims large parts of Vietnam on historical precedent (Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644). Also: Macclesfield Bank, Paracel Islands, parts of the South China Sea and the Spratly Islands.

Additionally, China recently taunted Hillary Clinton about claiming territorial rights on Hawaii, and claimed that Chinese sailors had settled peacefully in Australia centuries before European discovery. And let’s not forget the supposed 1418 map that “proves” China discovered the Americas (and the entire world) long before Columbus.

The Chinese also selectively forget that American volunteers flew for China during the Second World War.

The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in 1941–1942, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was composed of pilots from the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC), Navy (USN), and Marine Corps (USMC), recruited under President Franklin Roosevelt's authority before Pearl Harbor and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault. The aircraft were to fly with Chinese colors but be under American control. The mission was to bomb Japan and defend China but many delays meant they flew in combat after the US and Japan declared war.

 

[Guest]

[Guest]

Oh. I notice he hasn't replied to their history and a ton of facts.

How odd. 

Maybe admitting to these takes him off the agenda for a few minutes. 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

Wait for it....wait for it...

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

The silence is deafening...

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

9 minutes ago, Douglas Buckland said:

The silence is deafening...

Yeah, it's weird.  I was halfway expecting an all out food fight in this thread.

Instead ....

《 crickets 》

[Guest]

Or they're making their own USA one ...

[John Foote + 1,135]

Interesting tidbit. In Tibet the polygamy is one wife, multiple husbands. Still practiced in some of the more remote farm areas.

The USA has many natural allies in dealing with China.