Key Events of China’s History in 20th Century

Before we move to 20th century, we look at some older events of China. In 1279, Mongols under Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis khan) had established the Yuan dynasty in China. Kublai Khan made Beijing as the capital city of a united China. As per the accounts of Marco Polo, Kublai Khan’s empire stretched from the north of Mongolia into Central Asia and at times included parts of Vietnam. Marco Polo had served as Kublai Khan’s court official for 17 years (1275-1292). In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew Mongols and established the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was known for the establishment of sophisticated agricultural economy with strong centralized bureaucracy and military. The main accomplishment of the Ming Dynasty is the completion of Great Wall of China in the form seen today. The Ming Dynasty was overthrown by the Manchu Qing Dynasty in 1644.

Qing Dynasty (1644-1912)

The Qing dynasty was the last imperial dynasty of China which ruled till 1912. It was succeeded by the Republic of China. Under the Qing dynasty, China reached its zenith. During its period, Tibet, Mongolia and present day Xinjiang were annexed with the Chinese empire. The empire laid down the territorial base for the modern Chinese state. However, in the 19^th century the Qing Dynasty began to decline.

Opium Wars and Gunboat Diplomacy

Between the 17th and 19th century, China had developed a relatively advanced and self-sufficient civilization and did not need to import much of the items. However, there was a great demand of the Chinese items such as Silk, Tea, Spices, and Porcelain in Europe. However, Chinese insisted on barter with Silver for these items. Most of the European powers did not have much of Silver to make payments to Due to high custom duties and a trade imbalance, the Europeans stared searching for something which could replace silver to trade with China. Their search ended with Opium, the highly addictive drug which British produced in India. The British exported opium to Chinese and made them addicted to it. Henceforth, Chinese willingly traded silk, tea and other items for Opium. However, the Qing Government in China soon recognized the harm of opium and attempted to ban its trade. British would not let this happen, so they resorted to a form of intimidation called Gunboat Diplomacy.

Gunboat Diplomacy

Gunboat diplomacy refers to accomplishing foreign policy aims through an impressive show of naval power backed up by the threat of war. Basically, it’s pure intimidation. Gunboat diplomacy was characteristic of British imperialism in China.

The Opium Wars

To curb opium use, the Qing government confiscated 20,000 cases of British opium and destroyed it in 1838. This sparked the first Opium war, fought between China and Britain in 1839-1842. British easily defeated the Chinese and forced upon them a humiliating treat called Treaty of Nanking. As per this treaty, China ceded control of Hong Kong to Britain; opened up five trade ports and made payments of reparations to British. Since China did not get anything substantial in return, this treaty was called “unequal” and thus could not last longer. On the other hand, British grew greedier and demanded more concessions. They demanded that all of China should be opened to trade and trade of opium should be full legalized.

The difference grew and triggered the Second Opium War (1856-1860). In this war also British won and forced another humiliating treaty in Chinese called Treaty of Tientsin. This treaty opened additional ports for trade, removed restrictions on activities of Christian missionaries, legalized the use of opium, and granted foreigners permission to travel freely throughout China.

Open Door Policy

After losing two Opium wars to British, the Chinese also lost a war to Japan in 1895. By the end of 19th century, it appeared that China would be partitioned and colonized by imperialist powers such as France, Britain, Japan and Russia. However, United States did not want this to happen. United States not only wanted equal rights of trade with China but also recognized the benefit of an independent China. Thus, United States proposed the so called Open Door Policy with China. It proposed:

• Keeping China open to trade with all countries on an equal basis.
• China was permitted to collect tariffs and engage in open and equal trade.

Outcome of Open Door Policy

This policy was outlined by US Secretary of State John Hay and was principally in place between the late 19th and early 20th century. However, it was just a principle, never formally adopted via treaty or international law. This is why; it is also called a “Pseudo-treaty”. All European powers accepted it in principle but it was never an official / written agreement. Open Door Policy arguably allowed China to remain an independent country and saved it from imperialistic powers taking over.

China’s view on Open Door Policy and Boxer Rebellion

However, China maintains that neither it’s Government nor its Citizens were involved in deciding what was good for China. Due to this, the Chinese scholars regard this policy as an offensive gesture of US. They argue that US imposed it on them without even consulting them. This policy created more resentment towards foreigners in China. This also trigged a uprising called Boxer Rebellion in northern China in 1900, in which 300 foreigners and Chinese Christians were murdered.

Fearful that other countries would use the Boxer Rebellion as an opportunity to declare war, the United States responded preemptively. This time, Secretary of State Hay issued another ‘note’ to European countries, in which he reaffirmed that China should be open. Only this time, the note hinted at American willingness to use force to maintain that openness in China.

Boxer rebellion/Boxer uprising, 1900

Boxer rebellion was aimed at ousting all the foreigners from China. The uprising was led by a Chinese secret organization called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists. The rebels named as Boxers by the westerners were involved in killing foreigners and Chinese Christians. The origin of the rebellion can be traced back to the fact that western countries and Japan made the Qing dynasty to accept larger foreign control over the economic affairs of the country. China had already suffered millions of causalities in the Opium Wars (1839-42, 1856-60), and the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) while trying to resist foreigners. The uprising was subdued by an international force which also included the American troops. The rebellion officially ended in 1901 and China was made to pay around $330 million in reparations.

The Republican Revolution of 1911

The indifference and failure of reforms and the failure of the Boxer rebellion made many Chinese to launch an outright revolution to crush the old order and establish a new one patterned preferably after Japan. Sun Yat-Sen assumed leadership for the revolution. He was a republican and anti-Qing activist.

The republican revolution began on October 10, 1911 in Wuchang. Later, the revolt quickly got spread throughout the country. The support to the revolt was overwhelming so much so that by November, 15 out of 24 provinces declared their independence from the Qing dynasty.

In 1912, at the time when the Sun was to be made as the provisional president of the new Chinese republic, it was known that the power had already passed into the hands of commander-in-chief of the imperial army, Yuan Shikai. In order to check the intervention of foreign powers and the civil war, Sun agreed to the Yuan Shikai’s demand and the later was sworn in as provisional president of the Republic of China.

Republican China

The power wielded by Yuan Shikai was manifold. At times, he began to outstrip the parliament and became dictatorial. He even went to the extent of promulgating new constitution which made him President for life. At the end of 1915, Yuan Shikai made an announcement that he would re-establish the monarchy. This resulted in the widespread rebellions and various provinces started to declare independence. In 1916, Yuan Shikai died of natural causes.

Warlord Era (1916-28)

The period from 1916 to 1928 is commonly called as the Warlord Era. This period was marked with a great chaos as the country got disintegrated into hundreds of states. The infighting between the generals made the lives of the ordinary peasants hard. The division of the country continued even after the Warlord era until the fall of the Nationalist government at the end of the Civil War.

Rise of the Communists

The communist party was founded in the year 1921. In its initial years, it was cooperating with the Kuomintang (KMT) in it struggle against the warlords. With the growing prominence, KMT was thinking it to be strong enough and started to crush the communists. The Communists under Mao Zedong reacted vigorously and established a new power base in northern part of the country.

Mao Zedong was having an unlimited faith in the revolutionary potential of the peasantry. He converted the local peasants into a politicized Guerilla force.

Chinese Civil war (1927-1950)

The Chinese civil war was the result a difference in thinking between the Communist Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang (KMT). Both the parties were fighting intermittently for achieving legitimacy. The fighting between the two parties did not even stop during the Sino-Japanese war. As a result of these fighting, around 2 million people fled to Taiwan in 1949. The war finally ended in 1950. At the end of the war, People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established in mainland China and the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. These both at times claim to be the China’s legitimate governing power.

Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

The increase in population and the quest for power made Japan to begin pushing into the northern China and into the coastal provinces. It also initiated seizure of Manchuria and established an puppet regime in 1932. The growing Japanese influence and economic losses incurred by them made Chinese infuriated which resulted in the second- Sino-Japanese War. However, the defeat of Japan in the hands of the allies in 1945 ended its occupation of China.

Chinese takeover of Tibet

On October 7, 1950, Chinese P.L.A. troops crossed the upper Yangzte River and entered into eastern Tibet. There was a very feeble resistance initially offered by the Tibetan forces. This made China to easily takeover the region. However, Tibetans believed that they are essentially independent. Eventually, China made Tibet to agree to its seventeen point agreement under pressure in October 1951.

In 1959, Tibetan Uprising began in Lhasa when the Tibetan rebels started revolting. The anniversary of the uprising is celebrated by the Tibetan’s living in exile as the Tibetan Uprising Day. Eventually, the Dalai Lama fled into exile. Later, the Government of Tibet was dissolved.

Great Leap Forward, 1958-60

The Great Leap Forward is the economic and social campaign led by Mao Zedong. The campaign aimed to rapidly transform the country from agrarian to Socialist society. It aimed to achieve this transformation through rapid industrialization and collectivization. Under this campaign, private farming was prohibited and agricultural collectivization was made mandatory. However, the many consider the campaign to be the primary reason for the occurrence of the Great Chinese Famine.

Cultural Revolution Decade, 1966-76

Mao Zedong also launched another movement called as Cultural Revolution to reassert his authority over the Chinese government. The revolution is also known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. He called upon the youth of the nation to cleanse the nation from the impure elements of the Chinese society. He revived the revolutionary spirit through this movement as he believed that the Communist leaders of that time were taking China in the wrong direction. The revolution continued in various phases until the death of Mao in 1976.

The Post-Mao Period, 1976-78

Mao’s death resulted in a power struggle between main three contestants: Hua Guofeng (named by Mao as his successor), Deng Xiaoping, and the Gang of Four (led by Jiang Qing, Mao’s widow. Out of them Hua was made the party chairman and Deng Xiaoping was made the vice chairman.

The Cultural Revolution which was started by Mao was formally ended. The National Party Congress stated that the fundamental task of the party was to build a modern, powerful socialist country by the end of the twentieth century. The party also undertook reforms to reorganize the bureaucracy and policy initiatives of the government. extensive educational reforms were instituted and the impositions made during the Cultural Revolution on literature, art, and intellectuals were overturned.

In 1978, there emerged bitter differences between two factions represented by Hua Guofeng (leftists) and Deng (moderates). The leftists were supporting strict adherence to the Mao’s political thought. The period saw the increased political activism by the students who tend to attack the Deng’s opponents and sometimes the Mao himself.

China and the Four Modernizations, 1979-82

In 1963, Zhou Enlai came with the Four Modernization goals. These goals were later enacted by Deng Xiaoping from 1978 onwards. The four goals were aimed at strengthening the fields of agriculture, industry, national defence, and science and technology. These goals were aimed at rejuvenating the Chinese economy after the death of Mao. Unlike under Mao’s tenure, Class struggle was not given the central focus. The government now aimed at creating a society of civilized and productive citizens. The government also relaxed its firm hold on the cultural affairs. The importance was also given to the rebuilding of educational institutions which were dismantled during the Cultural Revolution.