China and the world from 1949 to the end of the twentieth century
1895 : Sino-Japanese War = Taiwan occupied by Japan after China’s defeat
December 1943 : Cairo Declaration
→ Japan should return to China all territories seized
October 1945 : Chinese government gets back Taiwan
→ USA considered Taiwan as a buffer against communist expansion.
1949 : Communist victory “Loss of China” → led to USA’s involvement in the
Far East : Truman decides to send the 7th Fleet to Taiwan Strait (1950).
PRC issues The Declaration to the Frontline Fighters and the Entire Nation =
emphasizes the importance of unifying China and liberating Taiwan
→ included the recovering of Tibet, Manchuria and Mongolia
→ Mao was for ‘continuous revolution’
1950 : Sino Soviet Treaty / Sino Soviet Mutual Assistance Pact = Stalin agrees to
restore Manchuria but decides to keep Mongolia + refuses to give aid to conquer
Taiwan
→ Stalin was afraid of a Cold War with the USA & didn’t want a too
powerful China.
→ Mao prepared to invade Taiwan, however, this was disrupted by the
start of the Korean war.
1950: Invasion and annexation of Tibet
→ Dalai Lama (spiritual leader of Tibet) fled to exile in India
→ Today China still is aiming at the suppression of Tibetan separatism
1950-1953: Korean War → N.Korea invades S. Korea
➔ Truman intervenes immediately (feared communist expansion) and sends
General MacArthur.
➔ He drove the forces out of S. Korea, crossed the 38th parallel and invaded
N.Korea.
➔ When it seemed that he would cross China, Mao sent the Chinese Red Army
and a huge number of soldiers died.
1953: China’s first Five Year Plan
➔ Stalin sent advisors to help China develop (close alliance in the 50’s)
➔ Mao wasn’t satisfied with what Stalin had planned: he didn’t want heavy industry
but a nation of small peasant communes. model of “peasant communism”
1953: Stalin dies, replaced by Khrushchev
➔ Khrushchev, who denounced the “crimes of Stalin”, was trying to achieve a thaw
whereas Mao was still ready to fight US.
, 1954: Manila Pact → creation of SEATO (South-East Asia Treaty Organisation) =
Eisenhower’s aim is to encircle Mao with anti-communist buffer states (Japan, South
Korea…)
1954-1955 : First Taiwan Strait crisis
→1954: Chiang starts a military build up on several island offshore
→ PLA ( People’s Liberation Army) retaliates by launching attacks
→ Sino American Mutual Defense Treaty (1954) : USA supply arms to Taiwan
→ Formosa Resolution in Congress (1955) : allows the US to defend Taiwan
→ 1955 : PLA ceases attacks
1955 : Bandung conference : ‘non-aligned’ movement (29 countries including China
with foreign minister Chou En-Lai, Indonesia, India, Egypt, Ghana, Yugoslavia...)
China tried to spread its model of Maoist peasant communism to newly-independent
countries, especially in Africa. Tanzania adopted a Maoist approach under President
Julius Nyerere, with little success in the end. he launched the Ujamaa project : peasant
communism for Africa
1958: Great Leap Forward
→ radical program to forcibly collectivize agriculture & industry
→ huge disaster, famine: peasants wasting their time trying to make steel
in backyard furnaces, agricultural production disastrous (faced with the
Four Asian Tigers economic boom)
1958 : Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
→ 1957: military build up starts again with missiles threatening Communist China’s
main coastal cities.
→ 1958 : PLA bombards ROC’s offshore islands
→ Eisenhower replies by protecting offshore islands + giving more arms
to Chiang
→ 1958: PLA ceased its bombardments.
→ Khrushchev tries to talk Mao out of engaging military forces for fear of
American retaliation + denied him military support = tensions between
the two countries
1960 : Sino-Soviet Split
→ Russians refused to share their nuclear technology with China
1962: China provokes India into war over disputed territories along their border
→ War inconclusive ; still disputed today
→ Wanted to defend its territorial integrity
1964: China tested their first nuclear device
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