[2500 BC] ink, tea and silk are invented

[2357 BC] Yao rules northeastern China

[2205 BC] the Xia dynasty is founded by Yu: Yellow River (Huang He) valley

[1766 BC] Tang deposes the last Xia and founds the Shang dynasty

[1500 BC] the Shang dynasty expands in the northern plains of the Yellow River (Huang He): advanced bronze casting, Chinese alphabet, human sacrifice, war chariot, succession from elder brother to younger brother and then to the oldest maternal nephew,

[1395 BC] the Shang move their capital to Yin (near Anyang)

[1133 BC] Wu becomes king of the Zhou (a population that originated in Central Asia) and builds the capital of Hao (near Xian)

[1122 BC] Wu conquers the Shang empire and founds the Zhou dynasty: father-to-son succession system, decentralized feudal rule (federation of city-states)

[1116 BC] the Zhou build a city at Luoyang

[1046 BC] Zhou Wuwang defeats the Shang and establishes the Zhou Dynasty

[900 BC] I Ching/Yi Jing

[841 BC] A popular uprising deposes the tenth Zhou emperor, Zhou Liwang , and Gong Hebo is elected to rule the empire

[771 BC] Western barbarians sack Zhou's capital and the Zhous move their capital east to Luoyang

[700 BC] the Chinese invent gunpowder

[651 BC] The states of northern China unify in a league against the southern state of Chun and King Huan of Qi is appointed their leader

[600 BC] Confucius

[550 BC] Taoism/Daoism

[473 BC] The state of Yueh destroys the state of Wu

[453 BC] The main states of China are Qi in the east, Qin in the west and Chu and Yueh in the south

[403 BC] the Zhou empire begins to split in several states (Qin in the west, Qi in the east, Chu in the south and smaller ones)

[350 BC] the period of the "warring states" is characterized by coins, iron weapons, public works (canals, walls)

[334 BC] The state of Chu destroys the state of Yueh in the south

[286 BC] The Qi destroy the state of Sung

[256 BC] the Qin depose the last Zhou emperor, the Zhou dynasty ends after over 800 years of rule

[249 BC] The state of Chu destroys the state of Lu in the north

[246 BC] A boy (later renamed Qin Shi Huangdi) ascends to the throne of Qin, assisted by Lu Pu-wei

[237 BC] Lu Pu-wei is replaced by Li Ssu as prime minister of Qin

[221 BC] Qin Shi Huangdi of the Qin state conquers all of China and becomes the first emperor of China (first Great Wall of China, about 5,000 kms)

[213 BC] Shi Huangdi outlaws all schools of thought except the legalist one, burns thousands of books and buries alive 346 scholars

[210 BC] Shi Huangdi is buried in a colossal tomb near Xian, surrounded by thousands of terracotta soldiers, while Li Ssu chooses a new successor who is incompetent

[209 BC] Uprisings erupt throughout the Qin empire

[207 BC] Liu Pang, a man of humble origins, seizes the Wei Valley (base of Qin power)

[206 BC] The aristocrat Hsian Yu, a descendant of the Chu, defeats the Qin

[202 BC] Liu Pang defeats Hsian Yu, assumes the name Gaozu and founds the Han dynasty with capital in Xian

[200 BC] Mao-tun unites the Turkic-speaking Huns (Xiongnu, Hsiung-nu) in Central Asia around Lake Bajkal and southeastern Mongolia

[195 BC] Liu Pang dies and one of his consorts become empress Lu Zhi

[180 BC] The empress Lu dies

[176 BC] the Huns attack eastern China

[154 BC] The Han emperor defeats seven rebellious kings

[141 BC] Wu-ti/ Wu Di becomes emperor and adopts an expansionist policy

[140 BC] Han emperor Wu-ti conducts campaigns against the Huns

[139 BC] Han emperor Wu Di dispatches Zhang Qian/ Chang-Ch'ien to Central Asia

[121 BC] China defeats the Huns

[121 BC] Chinese invent the magic lantern

[115 BC] Han emperor Wu Di dispatches Zhang Qian/ Chang-Ch'ien to Central Asia again (second journey)

[111 BC] Wu Di destroys the South Yuen state

[108 BC] Wu Di invades North Korea and south Manchuria

[106 BC] the Silk Road is inaugurated (a treaty between Chinese emperor Wu-Ti/Wu Di and Parthian king Mithridates II)

[104 BC] a Chinese army briefly invades the Fergana Valley (Uzbekistan)

[87 BC] Wu-ti dies

[57 BC] a kingdom is established in the Silla region of south Korea with capital in Kyongju

[51 BC] the Hsiung-nu/Xiongnu split into two hordes, with the eastern (southern) horde surrendering to China

[22 BC] Uprisings against the Han

[2] the Han empire has 57 million people, the most populous country in the world

[9] Wang Mang deposes the empress and tries to start a new dynasty

[25] Wang Mang is removed from power by Liu Hsiu (Kuang Wu Di)

[48] the Hsiung-nu empire is defeated by the Han and dissolves

[57] Ming Di becomes emperor

[68] Buddhism is introduced in China

[68] Youstol Dispage

[73] Ming Di sends Ban Chao to conquer Central Asia

[88] Empress Dowager Tou appoints her brother Tou Hsien as emperor

[89] The Tou family of the empress is exterminated

[97] Chinese general Pan Chao sends an embassy to the Roman Empire

[105] Cai Lun/Tsai Luns invents paper

[132] Emperor Shun chooses Liang Na/ Shunlie as empress

[141] The empress' brother Liang Ji is appointed prime minister

[144] Emperor Shun dies and his toddler son Liu Bing/ Chong becomes emperor, with Liang Na as empress dowager

[145] Emperor Chong dies and Liang Na and Liang Ji appoint the child Liu Zuan as emperor

[146] Liang Ji poisons emperor Liu Zuan and appoints 14-year-old Liu Zhi/ Huan as emperor, with Liang Na still regent

[150] Empress dowager Liang Na dies but Liang Ji continues to exert power

[160] The Liang family of the empress is exterminated by emperor Huan

[165] Confucian classics are carved into rows of stones to protect them from natural disasters

[166] The imperial eunuchs carry out purges to eliminate political enemies

[169] The imperial eunuchs carry out a second wave of purges to eliminate political enemies

[184] Revolt of the "Yellow Turbans" who believe that the end of the world is approaching

[190] the Chinese invent the abacus

[220] a new wave of invasions by the Hsiung-nu cause population movement to the south (from the Yellow River to the Yangze in the south) and the Han dynasty collapses, allowing three kingdoms to appear: Wei in the north (founded by Wei Wen Di), Shu in Szechuan

[221] Liu Bei founds a dynasty in Chengdu

[263] Wei general Wudi takes Chengdu and annexes Shu

[265] Wei general Wudi stages a coup and founds the Western Qin dynasty

[290] Wudi dies and the Western Qin kingdom falls apart

[316] The Hsiung-nu destroy Luoyang and found the Chao dynasty

[317] The Qin move their capital from Luoyang to Nanjing/Nanking and start the Eastern Qin dynasty

[351] Tibetan general Fu Chien founds a dynasty in Xian

[366] Buddhists begin the Mogao caves near Dunhuang

[372] Buddhism is introduced from China into the kingdom of Koguryo (Korea)

[386] Chinese astronomers witness a supernova

[386] The Northern Wei dynasty is established by the barbarian tribe of Topa with capital in Datong

[391] Kwanggaeto becomes emperor of Koguryo

[420] Qin general Liu Yu stages a coup and causes the collapse of the Eastern Qin dynasty

[427] Koguryo moves the capital to Pyongyang

[439] The Northern Wei unifies northern China

[444] Northern Wei adopts Daosim as official religion

[446] Buddhist persecutions in Northern Wei

[465] Buddhists begin the Yungang caves near Datong in China (Northern Wei)

[485] Northern Wei introduces the "equal field" system

[493] The Northern Wei move their capital from Datong to Luoyang

[494] Buddhists begin the Longmen caves near Luoyang in China (Northern Wei)

[514] Pophung becomes emperor of Koguryo

[520] Bodhidharma popularizes Chan/ Zen Buddhism

[527] the Korean kingdom of Paekche builds the Buddhist temple Taetong-sa in the capital Ungjin (Kongju)

[538] the Korean kingdom of Paekche dispatches a delegation to introduce Buddhism to the Japanese emperor

[551] Silla seizes territory from Koguryo

[552] the Turks conquer the Rouran state and establish the Ashina Kaghanate

[553] the Korean kingdom of Silla builds the Buddhist temple Hwangnyong-sa in the capital Kumsong (Kyongju)

[557] The Northern Zhou establish themselves in Xian

[574] Buddhist persecutions in Northern Zhou

[581] A general usurps the throne of Northern Zhou and founds the Sui dynasty, and builds a new capital in Changan/Xian

[589] The Sui re-unify China

[602] Tibet is unified under Namri Songtsen

[604] Yang Di becomes emperor of Sui

[608] Sui emperor Yangdi orders the construction of a Grand Canal between Rongyang and the region of Beijing

[612] The Sui are defeated by the Korean kingdom of Koguryo

[615] The Sui are defeated by the Eastern Turks

[617] Li Shih-min conquers the Sui capital of Xian and overthrows the Sui dynasty

[618] Li Shih-min appoints his father Li Yuan as first emperor of a new dynasty, Tang, with capital still in Xian

[626] Li Shih-min deposes his father and appoints himself as Tang emperor Tai Tsung

[629] the eastern Ashina kaghanate is defeated by the Tang

[629] Tibet expands to Nepal under Songtsen Gampo

[630] The Tang conquer the Eastern Turks

[643] Buddhist pilgrim Hiuan-tsang/ Xuanzang brings sanskrit manuscripts from India to China

[648] The Tang conquer the Western Turks (the Tarim basin) and the Uighurs become allies of the Tang

[649] Kao Tsung succeeds to the throne of the Tang

[650] the Tang dynasty extends the boundaries of China west into Afghanistan, north into Siberia, east into Korea and south into Vietnam, golden age of art and literature (ideal of the universal man, combining the qualities of scholar, poet, painter, statesman)

[650] Acupuncture is invented

[655] Kao Tsung's wife Wu is the de facto ruler of the Tang and scientifically exterminates the aristocracy

[659] The western Ashina kaghanate is defeated by the Tang

[668] Silla, with the help of the Tang, conquers Koguryo and Paekche, thereby uniting the whole of Korea, with capital in Kyongju, but becomes a vassal of the Tang

[682] Elterish rebels to the Chinese and founds a second Turk Kaghanate

[690] Kao Tsung's empress Wu assumes power

[705] Empress Wu is deposed by a coup

[712] Hsuan Tsung/Xuangzong becomes emperor after seven years of chaos

[713] The first ambassador from the Islamic caliphate visits the emperor of China

[714] Guangzhou port opens to Muslim traders

[725] Xian is probably the largest city in the world

[744] the Turk Kaghanate collapses and the Uigur empire is founded in Mongolia with capital in Ordubalik

[751] the Arabs defeat the Chinese at the battle of the Talas River (in the Fergana valley)

[751] Korean prime Minister Kim Tae-song orders the construction of the Buddhist cave temple Sokkuram at Mount Toham

[755] Governor An Lu-shan of Sogdian origins, protected by empress Yang Kuei-fei, leads a rebellion and captures Xian

[756] Xuangzong abdicates

[757] An Lu-shan is killed by his son

[758] Muslims raid Canton/Guangzhou

[762] The Tang army restores order with help from the Uighurs

[763] Tibetans sack of Chinese capital Xian

[780] The Double Tax system is introduced that taxes land and not individuals

[781] Tibetans occupy Dunhuang

[811] "Flying money" (paper money) is introduced in China to pay for goods in distant places

[821] Peace treaty between Tibet and China

[842] The Tibetan emperor Langdarma is assassinated and the empire disintegrates

[844] Persecution of Buddhism by the Tang (40 thousand temples and more than four thousand monasteries are destroyed)

[846] the Kirghiz drive the Uighurs west to the Tarim Basin

[868] the Diamond Sutra (Jingang Jing) is printed (oldest extant book in 2000)

[874] An uprising in the north

[875] Peasant uprising led by Haung Chao in the south

[878] Muslims are massacred in Canton/Guangzhou

[884] A general of Turkish origins quells the uprising in the north

[907] A northern general usurps the throne and terminates the Tang dynasty

[907] Hangzhou is made capital of the kingdom of Wuyse under Qian Liu

[918] Wang Kon terminates the Silla dynasty in Korea and founds the Goryeo dynasty

[932] the Turkic Qarakhanid dynasty is founded in Kashgar

[932] Qian Liu dies

[932] Chinese official Fang Tao commissions block printing of the 130 vlumes of the Confucian classics

[936] Wang Kon unifies Korea and moves the capital north to Songdo (Kaesong)

[938] the Vietnamese repel the Chinese at the battle of Bach Dang

[947] The Khitan found the Liao dynasty in northern China with five capitals

[960] general Tai Tsu usurps the throne and founds the Song dynasty

[971] Guangzhou is annexed by the Song

[979] The Song dynasty under Tai Tsung re-unifies China

[1Thousand] Kaifeng is the largest city in the world with about one million inhabitants

[1004] The Liao in the north defeat the Song and carve out their independent state

[1024] The Northern Song issue the first paper money (in Chengdu)

[1035] Thousands of Buddhist scriptures are hidden in Dunhuang to save it form a Tibetan invasion

[1038] Tibetan tribes founds the Hsia/Xia state in notheast China with capital on the Yellow River

[1041] Bi Sheng invents the printing press with movable type

[1044] The Hsia/Xia in the nothwest defeat the Song

[1052] Uprising in Guangzhou

[1067] Shen Tsung becomes emperor

[1069] Shen Tsung appoints Wang Anshih as prime minister who launches economic and military reforms

[1085] Shen Tsung dies and Wang Anshih's reforms are undone

[1087] the Korean court has the entire Tripitaka carved in woodblocks

[1092] Lu Dalin publishes the first archeological treatise

[1100] Hui Tsung becomes emperor

[1114] the Jurchen/Nuzhen (Manchu) rebel against the Liao

[1115] the Jurchen/Nuzhen (Manchu) invade from the north and establish the Jin dynasty with capital in Beijing

[1120] uprising of Fang-La

[1124] The Khitan found the Karakhitai empire in East Turkestan

[1125] the Jurchen/Jin destroy the Liao

[1126] the Jurchen/Jin conquer the Song's capital of Kaifeng and the Song move their capital to Hangzhou in the south

[1127] Gaozong/ Kao Tsung becomes Song emperor

[1130] The kingdom of Qi is created in the central plains

[1130] Peasant uprising by Zhong Xian in the lower Yangtze

[1135] Song general Yue Fei puts down Zhong Xian's rebellion

[1137] Song general Yue Fei destroys the kingdom of Qi

[1138] The Song establish a new capital at Huangzhou

[1141] Song signs a peace treaty with the Qin accepting the role of vassal

[1161] Qin invades south China of Song

[1162] Gaozong is deposed

[1234] Mongols led by Ogodai Khagan conquer northern China and expel the Jurchen

[1264] the Mongols invade China and Kublai Khan founds the Yuan dynasty and moves the capital from Karakorum to Khanbaligh (Beijing)

[1266] the Polo brothers travel from Venezia to China

[1275] Hangzhou has 1.7 million people

[1279] Mongols complete the conquest of entire China and terminate the Song dynasty

[1284] the Uighur empire is absorbed by the Mongols

[1330] An outbreak of bubonic plague kills thousands of people

[1356] Peasant uprising led by Zhu Yuangzhang that captures Nanjing

[1368] the Ming dynasty is founded by a Chinese peasant and former Buddhist monk turned rebel, Zhu Yuanzhang/ Chu Yuanchang/ Hongwu, under whose leadership China regains independence from the Mongols

[1368] the renovation of the Great Wall of China is begun

[1380] Hongwu disbands the central administration and assumes absolute powers

[1389] the Uigurs convert to Islam

[1392] Yi Song-gye seizes power, terminates the Goryeo/ Koryo dynasty dynasty, founds the Yi/Choson dynasty and moves the capital to Seoul

[1392] end of the Goryeo dynasty in Korea and beginning of the Joseon dynasty

[1398] Yi Song-gye abdicates in Korea

[1400] Taejong becomes emperor of Korea

[1403] Yung-lo becomes emperor after a civil war

[1405] Zheng He/ Cheng Ho (a former Muslim slave) sails west with a fleet of 300 ships, invading Sumatra and Ceylon and eventually reaching the coast of Africa

[1418] Taejong of Korea dies and is succeeded by Sejong

[1420] The third Ming emperor Yong Le/ Yung Lo moves the capital from Nanjing to Beijing

[1421] construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing

[1446] Korean king Sejong enacts the official Korean alphabet Hangui of 14 consonants and ten vowels

[1455] Sejo becomes emperor of Korea

[1468] Sejo of Korea dies

[1469] Songjong, a child, becomes emperor of Korea

[1500] 100 million live in the Ming empire

[1550] the renovation of the Great Wall of China is completed

[1556] an earthquake kills 800,000 people in Shensi

[1557] Portugal establishes a trading post in Macao (first European settlement in the Far East)

[1557] Pirate Wang Zhi is captured and killed

[1567] uprising of the White Lotus secret society in Chungking

[1573] The Mongol emperor invites the Dalai Lama of Tibet to the Mongol capital of Altan Khan and begins conversion of Mongolia to Buddhism

[1583] Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci arrives in China

[1592] Japan invades Korea and destroys dozens of temples

[1592] Huang Taiji seizes power in Manchuria and founds the Qing dynasty with capital in Shenyang

[1598] China expels the Japanese from Korea

[1600] the Chinese empire is the largest nation in the world

[1616] Nurhachi unifies the Jurchen (Manchus) and creates the state of Jin/Qing in northeastern China

[1620] A 15-year old boy ascends to the Ming throne and the eunuch Wei Zhongxian/ Wei Chung-hsien is the de facto ruler of China

[1622] The Jesuit Johannes-Adam Schall moves to China and becomes the favorite astronomer of the emperor

[1623] A military coup installs the "Westerners" in Korea

[1625] The Qing move their capital south to Mukden

[1626] Spain begins colonizing Formosa/Taiwan

[1626] Nurhachi dies and the empress Abahai/ Xiao Lie Wu is forced to commit suicide, while power shifts to his eighth son Hong Taiji

[1628] A peasant, Li Zicheng/ Li Tzu-cheng, starts a rebellion against the Ming

[1636] Qing emperor Hong Taiji changes the name of his people from Jurchen to Manchu ("pure")

[1637] the Manchus invade Korea and Korea becomes a vassal state of the Manchus

[1642] Holland seizes Formosa/Taiwan from Spain

[1643] Qing emperor Hong Taiji dies and is succeeded by Dorgon, regent for Hong Taiji's six-year old son Fulin,

[1644] Li Zicheng/ Li Tzu-cheng, who controls northwestern China, sacks Beijing and overthrow the Ming, and general Wu Sangui asks the Manchu for help

[1644] the Manchus, led by Dorgon, invade northern China and take Beijing, establishing the Qing dynasty, while general Wu Sangui and two other generals create their own states in the south

[1650] Koxinga (Kuo Hsing Yeh), refusing to submit to the Manchus, founds a pro-Ming kingdom in the South China Seas

[1658] Koxinga retreats to Formosa/Taiwan with more than 1,000 scholars and artists

[1661] Koxinga expels the Dutch from Formosa/Taiwan

[1661] Kangxi, still a child, ascends to the throne of the Manchu/Qing but real power is in the hand of prime minister Oboi

[1663] Tainan is declared capital of Formosa/Taiwan

[1668] Chinese immigration to Manchuria is banned by the Manchus

[1669] Kangxi throws Oboi into jail and assumes real power

[1673] Wu Sangui and the other two states in the south rebel against the Qing

[1681] Wu Sangui is defeated by the Qing

[1683] Koxinga's grandson Zheng Keshuang cedes Formosa (Taiwan) to the Manchus

[1685] Guangzhou opens to foreign trade

[1689] China signs a border treaty with Russia (first bilateral agreement with a European power), the treaty of Nerchinsk, to settle the border between Russian Siberia and Chinese Manchuria, declaring Outer Mongolia a neutral land (partition of the steppe world

[1696] The Qing defeats the barbarian Galdan of Eastern Turkestan, supported by Tibet, at the battle of Urga

[1699] Britain opens a trading post in Canton

[1708] Jesuit missionaries draw the first accurate map of China

[1715] East India Company opens offices in Guangzhou

[1722] Qing emperor Kangxi

[1723] Yongzheng becomes Qing emperor

[1724] Yongzheng persecutes the Jesuits

[1724] Yongjo becomes emperor of Korea

[1727] Russia and China sign the treaty of Kyakhta, defining their border and granting Russia a trading post in Kyakhta

[1728] France establishes a trading post in Canton

[1729] the emperor issues a decree banning the sale of opium

[1736] Yongzheng dies and his fourth son Qianlong becomes emperor

[1750] Dream of the Red Chamber

[1757] China invades eastern Turkestan and renames it Sinkiang/Xinjiang

[1760] all foreign trade is confined to Guangzhou

[1766] The Qing send troops to Burma

[1776] Yongjo dies and his grandson Chongjo becomes emperor of Korea

[1777] The corrupt Heshen becomes influential on the Qing emperor

[1785] Korea bans Christianity because it disapproves of ancestor worship:w

[1787] the Qing send troops to quell a rebellion in Taiwan

[1790] The Qing send troops into Nepal

[1795] Qianlong abdicates in favor of his son Jiaqing

[1796] The "White Lotus Rebellion" against the Qing

[1799] Qianlong dies and Heshen loses his power

[1800] There are 150,000 catholics in China

[1801] China's population is 295 million

[1804] The "White Lotus Rebellion" ends

[1815] The Protestant missionaries of Melaka publish a magazine in Chinese

[1817] Britain exports 275 tons of opium to China

[1830] corruption, decentralization of power, popular rebellions

[1839] Lin Zexu orders the destruction of a British cargo of opium in Guangzhou, starting the "Opium War"

[1842] The British seize Shanghai

[1842] under the Treaty of Nanjing, China cedes the island of Hong Kong to Britain

[1845] An English-language newspaper, the "China Mail", is founded in Hong Kong

[1850] An English-language newspaper, the "North China Herald", is founded in Shanghai

[1851] the Taiping rebels, led by a village teacher, Hong Xiuquan, stage an anti-Manchu rebellion that will last 14 years (30 million people killed)

[1855] Revolt of the Nien in China, led by Zhang Luoxing

[1856] China is attacked by British and French forces

[1856] Following a massacre of Muslims by imperial forces, the ethnic Hui sultan Du Wenxiu/ Tu Wen-hsiu/ Sulayman ibn `Abd ar-Rahman sets up a Muslim state in southern China (Yunnan), the Pingnan Guo Sultanate

[1860] British and French forces occupy Beijing

[1860] Russia and China sign a border treaty that grants Russia the coast around the newly founded city of Vladivostok

[1860] Russia secures north Manchuria

[1861] The new Manchu/Qing emperor, Tongzhi, is five years old while his mother Tsu Hsi/Cixi wields the real power

[1862] Popular uprising in Korea

[1862] Popular uprising in Kansu (northwestern China) by Muslim sect "New Teaching"

[1864] Chinese general Zeng Guofan/ Tseng Kuo-fan and his Hunan army defeat the Taiping

[1865] British investors form the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank

[1865] Yakub Beg founds a Muslim state in the Tarim basin

[1868] Chinese general Li Hongzhang/ Li Hung-Chang and his Anhui/ Anhwei army defeat the Nien in China

[1869] The Suez canal halves the distance to Europe

[1870] There are 400,000 catholics in China

[1870] Chinese general Li Hongzhang/ Li Hung-Chang rules over Tianjin/ Tientsin and launches a mixed program of modernization ("government supervision and merchant operation")

[1870] Chinese mobs massacre French missionaries in Tianjin/ Tientsin

[1872] First educational mission of Chinese students sent to the USA

[1872] The newspaper "Shun Pao" is founded in Shanghai

[1873] Britain exports 6250 tons of opium to China

[1873] Chinese general Zuo Zongtang/ Tso Tsung-tang defeats the Muslim rebels of Kansu

[1873] The the Pingnan Guo Sultanate is destroyed, one million people are killed and Du Wenxiu commits suicide

[1875] Tongzhi dies and Cixi, breaking the old rules of succession, appoints his three-year old cousin Guangxu as emperor

[1876] First railway

[1876] Japan forces Korea to sign the treaty of Kanghwa

[1877] about nine million people die in a famine in 1877-78

[1877] Chinese general Zuo Zongtang/ Tso Tsung-tang defeats the Muslim rebels of Yakub Beg

[1880] Li Hongzhang is appointed in charge of relations with Korea

[1881] The first Chinese daily is founded in Singapore, the "Lat Pau/ Le Bao"

[1882] First telegraph

[1882] China sends troops to defend the Korean government and Japan sends troops to defend its delegation after a mob attacks it

[1882] Christian missionaries are admitted in Korea

[1882] Zhang Zhidong/ Chang Chih-tung becomes governor of Shansi province

[1884] War erupts between France and China over the borders of Annam/Vietnam and France invades Formosa/Taiwan

[1884] Zhang Zhidong/ Chang Chih-tung becomes governor of Guangdong and Guangxi

[1884] Xinjiang becomes a province of Qing China

[1885] France and China signs a treaty recognizing French authority in Annam/Vietnam and returning Formosa/Taiwan to China

[1885] China's Li Hongzhang and Japan's Ito Hirobumi agree to pull out their troops from Korea

[1889] Zhang Zhidong/ Chang Chih-tung becomes governor of Hunan and Hubei and begins a modernizing program

[1889] Mainland China opens Zhongguancun Science Park, China's version of "Silicon Valley"

[1894] China sends troops into Korea and Japan invades China (first sino-japanese war)

[1895] Japan defeats China and China is forced to cede Taiwan and recognize Japanese sovereignity over Korea at the treaty of Shimonoseki

[1895] Britain controls two thirds of Chinese foreign trade

[1895] Chinese intellectuals found the "Society for the Study of Self-Strengthening" and Zhang Zhidong organizes a "Self-Strengthening" army in Nanjing

[1895] Peiyang University is founded

[1895] Shikai Yuan is appointed to create a new imperial army with German instructors

[1896] Robert Hart sets up the first post system in China

[1896] Chinese students enroll in Japanese universities

[1896] So Chaepil founds the newspaper "Tongnip Shinmun", written in vernacular Korean, that launches a reformist movement

[1896] China grants Russia permission to build the Chinese Eastern Railway across Manchuria to Vladivostok

[1897] Kang Yuwei demands radical reforms

[1897] Germany seizes the port of Kiaochow in China

[1898] The anti-Confucian "Hundred Days' Reform", launched by emperor Guang Hsu/Guang Xu to modernize China and appease Kang Yuwei, fails when the mother of the emperor, Tsu Hsi/Ci Xi, has him arrested and confined in the Forbidden City, while Kang flees to Japa

[1898] Russia expands in northern China

[1898] Shimpei Goto is appointed in charge of Taiwan and begins economic development

[1898] The Imperial University is founded

[1899] the Russians take Shenyang

[1899] the Qing support the anti-western Boxer movement

[1900] the anti-western Boxer (Yihetuan) rebellion, supported by the Qing emperor but not by the regional governors of Canton (Li Hongzhang), Wuhan (Zhang Zhidong), Nanjing and Shantung, is crushed by foreign troops (Russia, Britain, France, Japan, USA) and empr

[1900] China's population is 467 million

[1903] Britain gains control of Tibet

[1904] Russians seize Harbin

[1904] British troops occupy Tibet

[1905] Japan takes Shenyang

[1905] the Confucian system of examination is abolished

[1905] After Japan defeats Russian, Russia withdraws from Manchuria, loses Sakhalin, and recognizes a Japanese protectorate over Korea (treaty of Portsmouth), the first time that a non-European country defeats a European power

[1907] Britain and Russia negotiate the status of Persia, Tibet and Afghanistan

[1907] Chinese exiles in Paris led by Wu Chih-hui found an anarchist paper, "Hsin Shih-chi/ New Century"

[1907] Japan forces the Korean emperor to abdicate and real power is seized by Ito Hirobumi

[1907] Chinese exiles in Tokyo led by Liu Shih-pei and his wife Ho Chen found an anarchist paper, "Tien-i Pao/ Natural Justice"

[1908] Xuanhuai Sheng combines iron mines and coal mines to form the economic empire of Hanyehping Iron and Coal Company

[1909] China and Japan sign a treaty deciding the border between China and Korea

[1909] Japan's politician Ito Hirobumi is assassinated in Manchuria by a Korean nationalist

[1910] Japan annexes Korea and thereby terminates the Choson dynasty after more than five venturies of rule

[1910] There are 200,000 Christians in Korea

[1910] Chinese troops enter Lhasa, Tibet

[1911] Bogh Haan proclaims Mongolia independent

[1911] Wuhan revolutionaries launch an uprising (the 10/10 revolution) and Sun Yatsen returns to China

[1911.04] Sheng borrows money from a consortium of French, British, German and USA banks to develop railways

[1912] China adopts the Gregorian calendar

[1912] Tibet and Mongolia declare independence and become protectorates respectively of Britain and Russia

[1912.02] the infant Qing emperor abdicates

[1912.06] Russian and Japanese banks join the consortium of French, British, German and USA banks

[1912.08] Song Jiaoren, an associate of Sun, founds the Guomindang/Kuomintang (KMT) party

[1913] Song's KMT wins the majority of votes but Song is assassinated and Sun flees the country, while power is seized by the authoritarian Shikai Yuan (11 million die)

[1913] The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibet an independent country

[1913] anarchists led by Liu Ssu-fu found the Chinese and Esperanto magazine "Min-sheng/ The People's Voice" in Canton

[1913.02] Song's KMT wins the majority of votes

[1913.03] Song is assassinated by Yuan and Sun flees the country, while power is seized by the authoritarian Shikai Yuan (11 million die)

[1913.05] Liang Qichao founds the Progressive Party

[1913.07] Seven provincial governments declare independence

[1913.11] Yuan bans the Kuomintang

[1914] Britain obtains Arunachal Pradesh from Tibet

[1914] Foreign investment in China is $1.4 billion

[1914.01] Yuan disbands the parliament

[1914.07] Sun founds the "Chinese Revolutionary Party"

[1915] Chen Duxiu/ Chen Tuhsiu founds the magazine "New Youth"

[1915] The first college for women opens in Nanjing, the Ginling College

[1915.12] Yunnan (south of China) secedes

[1916.06] Yuan dies, is succeeded by Duan Qirui and Sun Yatsen returns to China

[1917] The USA accounts for 67% of the world's oil output

[1917.07] Sun installs a dictatorship in Canton

[1917.08] China joins World War I on the side of Britain, France, Japan and the USA, the first time ever that Chinese soldiers walk into another continent

[1918.05] Sun is forced to resign and retire in Shanghai

[1919] Syngman Rhee is elected president of South Korea by the independence movement in exile

[1919.03] Koreans march to protest Japanese occupation

[1919.05] Students join in a protest in the Tiananmen Square of Beijing against the European powers' decision to grant German-controlled Shandong to Japan, and thus create a new nationalist Chinese movement ("5 Fourth Movement")

[1920] Duan Qirui is ousted

[1921.07] Marxist intellectuals found the communist party of China with Chen Duxiu/ Tu-hsiu as secretary general

[1922] at the Washington Conference with Britain and the USA, Japan accepts to return disputed territories to China

[1923.01] the Communists and the Guomindang ally in Canton under the leadership of Sun Yatsen and the supervision of Soviet agent Borodin, while the Guomindang's military commander Chiang Kaishek/Jiang Jieshi is trained in the Soviet Union

[1924] The Central Bank of China is established in Canton

[1924] Warlord Yuxiang Feng seizes Beijing

[1924.05] A treaty confirms Mongolia into the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union

[1925.03] Sun dies of cancer and leadership of the KMT passes to Chiang Kaishek/Jiang Jieshi

[1926.07] Jiang's Guomindang launches a military campaign to fight the warlords and reunify China ("northern expedition")

[1926.12] The nationalist government moves from Canton to Wuhan

[1927] A young communist leader, Mao Zedong, organizes the Autumn Harvest Uprising, which fails

[1927] Chen Duxiu/ Tu-hsiu, accused of Trotskyism, is replaced by Li Lisan as secretary general of the Communist Party

[1927] Communist terror in Jingxi kills 186,000 people between 1927 and 1931

[1927] Peng Pai opens a soviet in Hai-Lu-Feng that pioneers rural militarized communism and terror

[1927.04] Chiang Kai-shek's Guomindang troops take Shanghai, and Chiang Kai-shek establishes his capital at Nanjing/Nanking

[1927.08] Civil war erupts between Chiang Kai-shek's Guomindang and the communists, with the leaders of the Communist Party being executed or driven to the countryside

[1928] Chiang Kai-shek defeats the northern warlords and takes Beijing (hundreds of thousands die)

[1928] The Japanese Kwantung army kills the Manchurian warlord before he can ally with Chiang Kaishek

[1929] Chen Duxiu/ Tu-hsiu is expelled from the Communist Party

[1930] Manchuria (China's northeastern region) has 34 million people

[1931] Peng Pai is executed and Mao has to apologize to the communist party for the terrorist excesses of the previous four years

[1931.09] The Japanese army invades Manchuria (1.1 million die)

[1931.11] Mao proclaims the Chinese Republic of Soviets

[1932] the Japanese army invades Harbin

[1932.03] the Japanese install former Manchu emperor Puyj as head of the puppet state of Manchukuo with capital is Changchun

[1933] The 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet dies

[1933] the Japanese army invades Hebei

[1934] in order to avoid persecution by Chiang, Mao Zedong leads the "Long March" of the communist "Red Army" (170,000 die)

[1936] Japan invades the northern province of Suiyuan

[1937.07] A clash between Chinese and Japanese troops ("Marco Polo Incident") lead to a general war

[1937.12] Japan captures Nanjing (350,000 Chinese are killed and 100,000 women are raped during the "rape of Nanking")

[1938] Chongqing is made capital by the Kuomingtan

[1938] Japan installs five puppet regimes in China (Manchukuo, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Nanjing, Taiwan)

[1938] Japan opens the first wartime facility for "sexual comfort" in Nanjing

[1938] Lee Byung-chull founds the trading company Samsung in South Korea

[1938.03] Japan installs a puppet regime in Nanjing

[1938.10] Japan captures Canton

[1940] Tenzin Gyatso becomes the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

[1941] Japan attacks the USA that enters the war on the side of the KMT

[1941] USA pilots ("flying tigers") help the KMT

[1943] Cairo Conference between Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kaishek

[1943.07] A "campaign of salvation" is launched by Kang Sheng of the Communist Party against political opponents of Mao

[1944.04] Mao has to apologize for the excesses of Kang Sheng's "campaign of salvation"

[1945] Hong Kong's population is 600,000

[1945] World War II ends and Japan is forced to retreat (20 million Chinese dead)

[1945] the USA tries to mediate between KMT and Communists but the KMT attacks the Communists

[1945.08] at the end of World War II the Korean peninsula is occupied by the Soviet Union (north) and the USA (south)

[1946] China recognizes Mongolia but not Tibet nor Xinjiang

[1946] Civil war between Chiang and Mao continues, with Chiang (southern China and northern cities) helped by the USA and Mao (northern countryside) helped by the Soviet Union

[1946] During the "agrarian revolution" of 1946-52 the communists execute between 2 and 5 million landowners who collaborated with Japan and send six million to labor camps

[1946] Independence leader Syngman Rhee assumes power in South Korea

[1946] The Far Eastern Economic Review begins publication in Hong Kong

[1946] The Far Eastern Economic Review of Hong Kong shuts down

[1946.01] The leader of North Korean opposition, Cho Man Sik, is arrested (and executed a few months later), the beginning of purges in North Korea that will lead to more than 100,000 executions and the death of 1.5 million people in concentration camps until 1994

[1947] Chung Ju-yung founds Hyundai in South Korea

[1947] Koo In-Hwoi founds the plastic manufacturing company Lak-Hui (later LG) in South Korea

[1947] Tibet requests India to return land annexed by India as part of several Indian states

[1947] an uprising in Taiwan ("2/28 uprising") against the Kuomintang leaves thousands dead

[1948] More than 100,000 people die in the communist siege of Changchun

[1948.04] A paramilitary organization tied to general Syngman Rhee kills 30,000 people in Cheju, South Korea

[1948.05] Syngman Rhee's party wins national elections in South Korea

[1948.08] Syngman Rhee is declared president of the newly independent South Korea

[1948.09] communist North Korea declares independence under its leader Kim Il Sung, chosen by the Soviet Union

[1949] Chiang and his KMT government flee to Taiwan while Mao Zedong proclaims the People's Republic of China (1.2 million have died in three years)

[1949] Communist China invades eastern Tibet

[1949] Zhou Enlai is appointed premier of Communist China, while Mao retains the chairmanship of the communist party

[1950] Communist China annexes Xinjiang/Sinkiang (eastern Turkestan)

[1950] Hong Kong's population is 2.5 million thanks to the exodus from China

[1950] Mao's China invades Tibet

[1950.06] communist North Korea (with approval from Stalin) attacks capitalist South Korea, but the invasion fails after USA intervention

[1950.07] Mao orders the persecution of "counter-revolutionaries" of the cities, which causes the deaths of 710,000 people and the deportation of 2.5 million people to "reeducation camps"

[1950.10] Chinese troops enter Korea to help North Korea

[1951] Communist China annexes Tibet/ Xizang

[1951] The communists conduct mass trials against "counterrevolutionaries"

[1952] Mao orders the persecution of landlords which causes the deaths of about one million people

[1953] Taiwan (non-communist China) begins an economic miracle that will turn it into one of the richest countries in Asia and the second most powerful economy after Japan

[1953] The communist party launches the first five-year plan with the aims of industrialization, collectivization of agriculture, and political centralization

[1953] the population of mainland (communist) China is 583 million

[1953.07] Korea is permanently partitioned across the DMV (54 thousand USA soldiers, 415 thousand South Koreans including 58 thousand soldiers, 400 thousand Chinese soldiers, two million North Koreans have died including 520 thousand soldiers)

[1954] Deng Xiao Ping is appointed secretary general of the communist party

[1954] political prisoners are held in a vast network of labor camps (the "laogai"), mostly in Qinghai, Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Northern Manchuria

[1954.12] mutual defense treaty between the USA and Taiwan

[1956] China bombs the Batang monastery in Tibet killing more than 2,000 monks and pilgrims

[1957.05] Mao launches the "Hundred Flowers Campaign", another campaign to liquidate political opposition in the cities

[1957.12] Mao launches the "Great Leap Forward" (mass mobilization and collectivization of the farms to increase crop production and steel production

[1959] 38 million people starve to death because of the 1959-62 famine caused by the "Great Leap Forward" (the population of Communist China declined by 4.5%)

[1959] A Tibetan uprising against the Chinese fails in Lhasa and the Dalai Lama flees Tibet (87,000 Tibetans killed)

[1959] Liu Shaoqi replaces Mao as president, while Lin Biao becomes minister of defense (head of the army) and launches purges in the military

[1959.03] Tibetans riot against Chinese occupation (87,000 dead) and the Dalai Lama flees to India ("Tibetans were... crucified, buried alive, dismembered and beheaded")

[1959.07] Peng Dehuai criticizes Mao's "Great Leap Forward"

[1960] Communist China launches its first ballistic missile

[1960.04] Student protests cause the resignation of Rhee in South Korea

[1961] China sends aid to Albania

[1961.05] General Park Chung-hee stages a coup in South Korea at a time when half of the country's GDP is USA aid

[1962] Following the catastrophe of the Great Leap Forward, Mao loses power to president Liu Shaoqi and his collaborator Deng Xiaoping

[1962] Mao breaks with the Soviet Union

[1962.10] China-India border war

[1964] Communist China becomes the fifth nuclear power, the first one in Asia

[1964] Mao regains absolute power

[1964] South Korea launches a plan to improve exports

[1964] The population of Tibet has decreased from 2.8 million in 1953 to 2.5 million in 1964

[1966] LG produces South Korea's first television set

[1966] Youstol Dispage

[1966.06] A dazebao by philosophy teacher Nie Yuanzi invites students to organize and liquidate the revisionists

[1966.08] Mao ("One is always right to revolt") defends the students that are revolting against their own teachers who had encouraged and defended them

[1966.10] Mao launches the "Cultural Revolution" (call upon students to form units of "Red Guards" and rebel against authority): about one million people die in the next three years, the Great Wall is destroyed, 2692 Tibetan monasteries are destroyed, Liu Shaoqi an

[1967] Kim Woo-chong founds Daewoo in South Korea to export clothing

[1967.01] Maoists and Liuists fight for power, starting in Shanghai (second phase of the Cultural Revolution)

[1967.05] Maoist rebels in Wuhan fight the "Million Heroes" (conservatives) armed by the army

[1967.07] Civil war erupts in Canton

[1967.09] Mao changes course and employs army to put down the Red Guards

[1968.07] The army restores order (end of the Cultural Revolution)

[1968.08] Order is restored with reprisals in Guangxi (100,000 die), Guangdong (40,000 die), etc (Hua Guofend is nicknamed "the butcher of Hunan")

[1969] 20 million Chinese are sent to the countryside

[1969] Chinese and Soviet troops clash along the border

[1969] Chinese troops crush an insurrection in Tibet

[1969] Liu Shaoqi dies insane

[1969] Samsung-Sanyo Electronics established in South Korea

[1970] Communist China launches its first satellite

[1970] South Korea opens its first "autobahn", the Seoul-Pusan expressway, mostly built by Hyundai

[1970] a South Korean ferry sinks in the Korea Strait killing 308 people

[1971.02] USA president Richard Nixon visits Communist China

[1971.09] after trying to overthrow Mao's government, Lin Biao (long considered Mao's heir apparent) dies in an airplane crash in Mongolia on his way to exile

[1971.10] Communist China takes over the seat at the United Nations that was held by Taiwan (non-communist China)

[1972.09] Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka meets with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai

[1973] South Korea launches an industrialization plan (shipbuilding, electronics, steel, machinery, metals, chemicals) and POSCO begins South Korea's production of steel

[1973] The government of Taiwan creates the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)

[1973] Thousands of tons of precious Tibetan sculptures have been melted by Chinese foundries, and thousands of gold and silver relics have been transported to Beijing

[1974] Peng Dehuai dies of cancer

[1974] South Korea's Hyundai builds its first ship

[1974] Zhou Enlai rehabilitates Deng Xiaoping

[1975] Chiang Kai-shek dies and is succeeded as dictator of Taiwan (non-communist China) by his son Chiang Ching-kuo

[1975] Zhao Ziyang pioneers capitalism in Sichuan province of mainland China

[1975] the Shimantan Dam collapses in the Henan province, killing 85,000 people and causing the subsequent death of about 100,000 people

[1975.01] Zhou Enlai, at the fourth Congress, outlines a program of Four Modernizations (agriculture, industry, army, science)

[1976] China begins a campaign to resettle ethnic Chinese in Tibet

[1976] Hyundai introduces its first car

[1976] Tangshan earthquake

[1976] mass demonstrations against the communist party

[1976.01] Zhou Enlai dies

[1976.04] Widespread demonstrations for the death of Zhou Enlai are crushed by the army

[1976.09] Mao dies

[1976.10] Hua Guofend seizes power after ousting the "Shanghai Four" or "Gang of Four" (led by Mao's wife)

[1977] Deng Xiaoping engineers the "Beijing Spring" of political liberation

[1978] Japan and China sign a peace treaty

[1978.11] Deng Xiaoping visits Singapore

[1978.12] Dissenters write controversial opinions on the "Democracy Wall" of Beijing (notably "The Fifth Modernization" by Wei Jingsheng)

[1978.12] The Plenum of the 11th Party Congress ushers in capitalist-style economic reform, as Hua Guofend relinquishes power to Deng Xiaoping, creating 12 state companies to control imports and exports and "Special Economic Zones" in southern China to imitate Sing

[1979] Border war with Vietnam

[1979] China opens Tibet to foreign tourists

[1979] The government of mainland China introduces the one-child policy in cities to reduce population growth

[1979.01] Mainland China normalizes relations with the USA

[1979.03] Wei Jingsheng is arrested

[1979.07] Deng Xiaoping turns the fishing village of Shenzhen near Hong Kong into a "Special Economic Zone" (SEZ) to experiment with foreign investment and export manufacturing

[1979.10] Park Chung-hee of South Korea is assassinated

[1979.12] Singapore and China sign a trade agreement

[1980] Deng Xiaoping replaces Hua Guofeng with Zhao Ziyang as premier of Communist China

[1980] Pro-democracy politician Kim Young-sam is banned from politics in South Korea

[1980] Secretary general Hu Yaobang admits past atrocities during a visit to Tibet

[1980] The USA grants mainland China most-favored-nation status, i.e. access to US investors, technology and market

[1980] The population of China is one billion.

[1980] month-long trial of the "Gang of Four" (Mao associates)

[1980.04] Another general, Chun Doo-hwan, seizes power in South Korea, pro-democracy demonstrations erupt, thousands of political dissindets are arrested including Kim Dae-jung

[1980.05] South Korea's paramilitary forces kill hundreds of protesters in Kwangju

[1980.12] Taiwan's minister Li Kuo-ting establishes the Hsinchu Science Park

[1981] Deng Xiaoping seizes power and launches pseudo-capitalistic economic reforms

[1981] East Asia has the highest poverty rate in the world

[1981] Hua Guofeng is replaced by Hu Yaobang (an ally of Deng Xiaoping) as as party chairman of Communist China

[1981] the Communist Party formally condemns Mao for the economic disasters from 1957 till his death

[1982] Chun Doo-hwan allows South Korean dissident Kim Dae-jung to go in exile in the USA

[1982] Deng Xiaoping begins to dismantle the communes and allows peasants to grow and sell produce

[1983.10] South Korean officials are murdered by North Korean agents in Burma

[1984] Daim Zainuddin is appointed finance minister of Malaysia

[1984] Liu Chuanzhi of the Chinese Academy of Sciences founds a privately-run but state-owned company, Legend (later Lenovo), to sell IBM's personal computers in China

[1984.10] Mainland China enacts reforms that limit the interference of government officials in the management of companies

[1985] Jiang Zemin becomes mayor of Shangai and oversees the spectacular economic development of the city

[1985] South Korea is one of the "Asian tigers" whose economy booms

[1985] The growth rate in mainland China was 9.4% between 1978 and 1995

[1986] Malaysia's finance minister Daim Zainuddin enacts economic reforms that terminate the NEP

[1986] pro-democracy demonstrations by students in Beijing

[1986] the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is formed in Taiwan (non-communist China)

[1987] Hu Yaobang, Communist China's main reformer, is forced to resign

[1987.10] Another insurrection is Tibet is crushed by the Chinese, and the government establishes a special school in Beijing to educate the reincarnate Tibetan lamas

[1987.11] A Korean Airlines flights crashes in the sea due to a bomb planted by North Korean agents (115 dead)

[1987.12] South Korea becomes a democracy under president Roh Tae-woo, Chun's appointed heir, who wins elections against Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung

[1989] Deng Xiaoping says "To get rich is glorious" and "Some should be allowed to get rich first"

[1989] Mainland China has almost 22,000 joint ventures with foreign companies, including 952 with USA firms

[1989] South Korea's per capita GDP is $4,500 while mainland North Korea's per capita GDP is less than $1,000

[1989] Taiwan's per capita GDP is $7,500 while mainland China's per capita GDP is $350

[1989] Tibetans revolt against the occupying Chinese troops and hundreds are killed

[1989] the Chinese governor Hu Jintao declares martial law in occupied Tibet after three days of rioting and anti-Chinese pogroms by Tibetans

[1989] the Dalai Lama of Tibet is awarded the Nobel Prize for peace

[1989.06] following the death of Hu Yaobang, students join in a pro-democracy protest in the Tiananmen Square of Beijing and Zhao Ziyang (willing to negotiate with them) is removed as prime minister

[1990] China's Lenovo introduces its first homemade computer when the market is dominated by IBM, HP and Compaq

[1990] Shanghai has 10,000 factories and accounts for 1/6 of China's GDP

[1990] the Shanghai stock exchange is established

[1991] Communist China joins the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

[1991] Shanghai is opened to capitalism

[1991] Wang Lequan is appointed governor of Xinjiang province and proceeds to suppress Islam and the Uighur language, while mordernizing industry and transportation

[1991] the panchen lama of Tibet dies, opening a conflict with China over the appointment of the successor

[1992] Communist China launches a program to put men into space

[1992] Deng takes a "Southern Tour" to Shenzhen and coins the term "socialist market economy"

[1992] South Korea's Samsung becomes the largest producer of memory chips in the world

[1992] Taiwan holds its first democratic elections

[1992] the religious sect Fulan Gong is founded by Li Hongzhi

[1993] Jiang Zemin is appointed president of Communist China

[1993] The world's largest bronze Buddha statue opens at the Po Lin monastery in Hong Kong

[1993.02] Opposition leader Kim Young-sam who won democratic elections becomes the first civilian president of South Korea

[1994] Communist China's gross domestic product grows at an average annual rate of about 10%, the highest in the world, between 1994 and 2000

[1994] North Korea's leader Kim Il Sung dies and is succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il, the communist world's first hereditary transfer of power

[1995] South Korean conglomerate LG acquires Zenith

[1995.12] South Korean arrests former presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo for corruption and murder

[1996] China, Russia and three (later four) former Soviet republics (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan) form the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

[1996] South Korean conglomerate Samsung builds a factory in Texas, one of the largest foreign investments in the history of the USA

[1997] Britain cedes Hong Kong back to Communist China, and Jiang Zemin appoints Tung Chee-hwa as chief executive of the city

[1997] Deng dies and Jiang Zemin, who was already ruling Communist China, becomes the sole leader

[1997] Hwang Jang Yop, the architect of North Korea's "juche" strategy, is the first high-level official to seek asylum in South Korea

[1997] Jiang Zemin legalizes private enterprise and unveils a plan to privatize Communist China's state-owned enterprises

[1997] Lenovo passes IBM to become China's main vendor of personal computers

[1997.02] riots erupt between Uighurs and Chinese in Yining (Xinjiang province of mainland China)

[1997.11] Wei Jingsheng is exiled to the USA

[1998] Former Shanghai mayor Zhu Rongji is appointed prime minister of Communist China and proceeds to overhaul state-owned companies

[1998] Former Shanghai mayor Zhu Rongji is appointed prime minister of Communist China and proceeds to overhaul state-owned companies

[1998] Kim Dae-jung is elected president of South Korea

[1998] Pakistan provides North Korea with nuclear technology in exchange for missile technology

[1998] South Korea's Samsung introduces the world's first digital television set

[1998] The growth rate in mainland China was 11.2% between 1990 and 1998

[1999] Chen Shui-bian becomes the first democratically elected president of Taiwan and the first to advocate independence from Communist China

[1999] Daewoo, the second largest conglomerate in South Korea with interests in about 100 countries, goes bankrupt

[1999] Mainland China arrests Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer

[1999] a ferry sinks killing over 275 near Yantai

[1999] the world's largest Tibetan tangka is completed (a 1,500 square meter, 1,000 kg scroll)

[2Thousand] Kim Dae-jung of South Korea meets with Kim Jong-il of North Korea, the first time that the leaders of the two Koreas meet

[2Thousand] Mainland China ranks eight in the world for papers published in scientific magazines

[2Thousand] Shanghai has 14 million people, Beijing 12.5 million, Chengdu 10 million

[2Thousand] The "Midi Music Festival" is held in Beijing, the first music festival in China br>2001: Jiang Zemin invites capitalists in the Chinese communist party br>2001: China executes more than 20 Uighur militants declaring them affiliated with Al Qaeda

[2002] A magnetic levitation train is inaugurated in Shanghai, the fastest train in the world

[2002] Japan and South Korea combined deliver 75% of the world's shipbuilding

[2002] Jiang Zemin resigns and Hu Jintao succeeds him, the first peaceful transition of power since 1949

[2002] North Korea admits that is developing nuclear weapons in violation of a treaty with the USA

[2002] South Korea's Samsung is the second semiconductor manufacturer in the world after Intel

[2002] Tenzin Delek Rinpoche and other Tibetan leaders are arrested by the government of mainland China

[2003] 130 people die in a South Korean subway fire set by a madman

[2003] Car manufacturer BYD is founded in Shenzen

[2003] Communist China quarantines 10,000 people in Nanjing to control the spread of the Sars virus

[2003] Communist China sends a man in space, Yang Liwei, the third country to do so after the USSR and the USA, and announces plans to send a man to the moon by 2020

[2003] Communist China's "Three Gorges Dam" on the Yangtze (2.3 km long and 185 meters tall), the world's largest dam, becomes operational

[2003] Communist China's economy grows 9.1% in 2003

[2003] Liu Xiaobo becomes president of the Chinese chapter of an international organization of writers

[2003] Roh Moo-hyun wins the election in South Korea with a program that calls for US withdrawal and negotiations with North Korea

[2003] Wen Jiabao is appointed prime minister of Communist China, replacing Zhu Rongji

[2003] about 200 people die of an explosion at a gas field in Chongqing

[2003] an unknown type of pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), spreads out of southern Communist China and kills hundreds of people

[2004] "Taipei 101" becomes the tallest skyscraper in the world, unseating Malaysia's Petronas Towers

[2004] 150 passengers die in a train collision in North Korea

[2004] Between 1980 and 2004 the size of China's economy has increased seven times

[2004] Mainland China announces a "science city" in Hefei, capital of the Anhui province

[2004] Roh Moo-hyun is impeached in South Korea for illegal actions

[2004] South Korea's per-capita GDP passes Taiwan's to become the second in Asia after Japan

[2004] president Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan is re-elected by very few votes after a man tried to kill him, sparking protests in the island

[2005] 100 tons of toxic material contaminate rivers in China (near Harbin) and Russia

[2005] China and India sign a treaty in which China gives up any claim on the state of Sikkim

[2005] China's Lenovo acquires IBM's personal computer business

[2005] Hong Kong holds the largest pro-democracy demonstration ever in the history of mainland China

[2005] Hong Kong's chief executive Tung Chee-hwa resigns after pro-democracy protests

[2005] Hu Yaobang is rehabilitated by Communist China

[2005] Mainland China becomes the fourth world economy after the USA, Japan and Germany

[2005] Mainland China's trade surplus triples in one year to a record $102 billion, and mainland China becomes the world's third-largest foreign trader after the United States and Germany with trade of $1.4 trillion, as well as second only to Japan for foreign c

[2005] North Korea announces that it has nuclear weapons and pulls out of nuclear talks

[2005] Shenzhen's population is 12 million (up from 1.7 in 1990)

[2005] a mine explosion kills more than 200 people in communist China

[2005] there are more than 300 skyscrapers in Shangai (up from one in 1985)

[2005] two Chinese astronauts orbit Earth for five days

[2006] 15 years after opening to capitalism, Shanghai surpasses Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta as China's primary industrial zone

[2006] American search engine Google accepts to cooperate with the government of mainland China in censoring the world-wide web

[2006] North Korea announces its first nuclear test

[2006] North Korea tests missiles, angering the USA, Japan and South Korea

[2006] a railway connection between mainland China and Tibet is inaugurated (the 1,140km Golmud-Lhasa being the world's highest)

[2006] the Beijing government does not even mention the 40th anniversary of Mao's "Cultural Revolution"

[2006.01] Mainland China joins the World Trade Organisation

[2007] 150,000 Chinese are studying abroad

[2007] China overtakes all European countries and becomes the third economic power after USA and Japan

[2007] For the first time since 1951 a train crosses the border between North and South Korea

[2007] Lee Myung-bak wins the election in South Korea despite being under investigation for corruption

[2007] Mainland China attracts almost $83 billions of foreign industrial investment in 2007, the highest amount of any country in the world

[2007] Mainland China overtakes the USA as the world's main polluter

[2007] Mainland China overtakes the USA to become the world's second largest exporter (after Germany) and overtakes Canada to become the main exporter to the USA

[2007] Mainland China shoots a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite

[2007] Mainland China's exports to Europe surpass mainland China's exports to the USA

[2007] Mainland China's per-capita GDP is $2,500, while Taiwan's is $17,000 and Japan's is $38,559

[2007] The economy of mainland China grows by 11.4%, its fastest growth rate in 13 years

[2007] The growth rate in mainland China was 9.9% between 1999 and 2007

[2007] The world's largest vendors of personal computers are HP, Dell, Taiwan's Acer, China's Lenovo and Japan's Toshiba

[2007] an edition in modern Chinese of "The Analects of Confucius" becomes the all-time bestselling book in mainland China

[2007] dissident Hu Jia is jailed for criticizing the Communist Party

[2007] the USA and South Korea sign a free-trade treaty

[2008] An earthquake kills more than 60,000 people in mainland China

[2008] Chinese policemen kill five Islamist militants in Xinjiang

[2008] Former Google executive Kai-fu Lee founds Innovation Works in mainland China

[2008] Korean auto-maker Hyundai becomes the fourth-largest automaker in the world behind Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen

[2008] Mainland China and Taiwan sign a deal to launch regular flights between the two countries

[2008] Nearly 180,000 Chinese students leave mainland China for universities abroad, a 25% increase over the previous year

[2008] Opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou wins Taiwan's presidential elections

[2008] Shenzhen has ten million people

[2008] Taiwan's opposition party Kuomintang (KMT), that wants closer ties with mainland China, wins a landslide victory in parliamentary polls

[2008] Tibetan protesters and Chinese civilians are killed and hundred of Tibetans are arrested in pro-independence riots

[2008] Two people are killed by bombs placed on buses in Kunming

[2008.08] The Olympic Games are held in mainland China

[2008.08] Uighur Islamic separatists kill 23 Chinese policemen in East Turkestan (Xinjiang)

[2008.11] Chinese exports fall for the first time in seven years

[2008.12] Mainland China has 115,000 state-owned companies

[2008.12] Mainland China holds an estimated $1 trillion in USA government debt

[2008.12] The Shanghai stock market loses almost 65% in 2008

[2009] Mainland China's Inner Mongolia has become the country's largest producer of coal and the world's largest producer of rare earths

[2009] Mainland China's car market becomes the world's largest (for the first time more new cars are sold in mainland China than in the USA)

[2009] The government of mainland China injects a $4 trillion stimulus package into the economy to offset the international financial crisis

[2009.03] Bank of China's governor Zhou Xiaochuan proposes that international trade be based on a global currency instead of the dollar

[2009.05] Mainland China buys $22 billion worth of Australian mining operations

[2009.05] former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, accused of corruption, commits suicide

[2009.06] Mainland China mandates censorship software on all computers sold in mainland China

[2009.06] Pro-democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo is jailed by mainland China

[2009.07] fearing an aging population, Shanghai repels the one-child only policy

[2009.07] three Uighurs from the province of Xinjiang set themselves on fire in Beijing and ethnic violence in Xinjiang between Uighurs and Hans kills 197 people (for which several Muslims are sentenced to death)

[2009.12] A gas pipeline between Turkmenistan and mainland China is inaugurated, bypassing Russia

[2009.12] Mainland China limits the creation and viewing of websites by its citizens

[2009.12] Mainland China passes Germany as the world's top exporter ($1.2 trillion a year) and mainland China passes Canada as the USA top exporter

[2010] Mainland China holds about $1.6 trillion in Treasury bonds of the USA

[2010] South Korea's Hyundai-Kia passes Ford to become the fourth automaker in the world after Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen

[2010] The European Union becomes mainland China's biggest export market, while the USA remains the European Union's biggest export market

[2010] The USA has become mainland China's second-largest export market and mainland China has become the USA's third-largest export market and the fastest-growing one

[2010] There are about 200,000 people in gulags throughout North Korea

[2010.01] The USA sells Patriot air defense rockets to Taiwan

[2010.05] Evidence emerges that North Korea sank a South Korean warship, causing the deaths of 46 sailors

[2010.06] Chinese workers led by Tan Guocheng go on strike at a Honda plant

[2010.06] General Motors sells more cars in mainland China than in the USA

[2010.06] Mainland China surpasses the USA to become the world's biggest energy consumer

[2010.08] A bomb set off by a Uighur kills seven people in Aksu, Xinjiang, mainland China

[2010.09] Kim Jong Il's youngest son Kim Jong-Un is appointed to succeed his father as North Korea's leader

[2010.09] Mainland China produces 95% of the rare earths of the world and stops shipments to Japan over a territorial dispute

[2010.11] North Korea shells the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong killing two civilians

[2010.12] Mainland China (GDP of $5.75 trillion) overtakes Japan (GDP of $5.39 trillion) as the world's second largest economy after the USA, although mainland China's GDP per head ($4,500) is only 11% of Japan's ($40,000)

[2010.12] Mainland China pressures countries to boycott the Nobel Prize ceremony after the peace price is awarded to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo

[2010.12] The first study to include Chinese students finds that Chinese students outperform the rest of the world in Science, Reading and Math

[2010.12] The social network Renren reaches 100 million users in mainland China, where Facebook and Twitter are banned

[2010.12] Village advocate Qian Yunhui who was fighting illegal land seizures is killed in a mysterious truck accident

[2011] The USA has 413 billionaires, mainland China has 115 billionaires, Russia 101, India 55, Germany 52, Britain 32, Brazil 30, and Japan 26

[2011] The USA spends $739bn in defense while China spends $90bn

[2011.03] A Tibetan monk sets himself on fire in Sichuan, starting protests centered around the monastery of Kirti

[2011.04] Mainland China creates the State Internet Information Office to censor the Internet

[2011.04] Russia and mainland China allow the United Nations Security Council to vote a resolution which authorized NATO military attacks in Libya to protect anti-government protesters, but do not allow a similar resolution against Syria that is also killing hundre

[2011.05] Ethnic Mongols stage a protest in Inner Mongolia of Mainland China

[2011.05] Mainland China cracks down on young people trying to organize protests (the "jasmine revolution")

[2011.06] Mainland China invests in the port of Piraeus of Greece

[2011.06] Vietnam and mainland China trade accusations over oil exploration in the South China Sea

[2011.07] Dozens of people are killed in riots in Western China (Uighurs)

[2011.07] Mainland China introduces regulations that require bars, restaurants, hotels and bookstores to install Web monitoring software

[2011.07] 18 people are killed suring political unrest in China's Uighur region

[2011.07] A high-speed train crashes in mainland China killing 40 people

[2011.09] Russia and mainland China are the only countries to support Syria's crackdown on dissidents while even Syria's ally Iran distances itself from Assad's regime

[2011.09] Several Tibetan monks set themselves on fire in Kirti

[2011.10] 20-year-old Tibetan nun Tenzin Wangmo set herself on fire in Mainland China

[2011.10] The USA signs free-trade treaties with Colombia, Panama and South Korea

[2011.10] The world's population is 7 billion up from 1 billion in 1850 and less than 3 billion in 1950.

[2011.12] Chinese writer Chen Wei is jailed for nine years by a court in Sichuan for "inciting subversion" through pro-democracy essays.

[2011.12] Mainland China owns $800 billion of euro zone government bonds

[2011.12] Mainland China's foreign exchange reserves are worth $3.2 trillion or 5% of the world's GDP

[2011.12] North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il dies and is succeeded by his son Kim Jong-un

[2012.01] In one year 15 Tibetan monks have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese occupation

[2012.03] Bo Xilai, the populist leader of the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, is removed from power, the first major purge in decades

[2012.05] Two monks that set themselves on fire in Lhasa bring to 36 the number of self-immolations in Tibet since march 2011

[2012.06] Hong Kong holds huge protests against its newly appointed leader Leung Chun-ying

[2012.08] A teenager kills eight people with a knife in northeast China

[2012.09] Anti-Japanese protests erupt in mainland China over contested islands

[2012.09] China launches its first aircraft carrier