October 1, 1949: Mao Tse-tung declares the founding of the People's Republic of China in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. 1956-57: An estimated 500,000 intellectuals are sent to labour camps, despite having been urged by Mao to criticise the Communist Party. 1958: Mao launches the Great Leap Forward, demanding massive rises in industrial production. The resulting economic catastrophe causes a famine which kills an estimated 30 million people. March 1959: Chinese troops crush a rebellion in Tibet. Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and his followers flee to India. October 16, 1964: China detonates its first nuclear bomb in the western region of Xinjiang. May 1966: A power struggle between Mao and other leaders prompts the Cultural Revolution, a decade of chaos in which predominantly youthful radicals wage a campaign of terror against "counter-revolutionaries". October 23, 1971: Beijing takes Taiwan's seat as the officially recognised Chinese government at the United Nations. September 9, 1976: Mao dies. Hua Guofeng takes power and the Gang of Four, including Mao's wife Jiang Qing, are arrested. 1978: Deng Xiaoping becomes supreme leader and begins tentative economic reforms. April 15, 1989: Death of ousted party chief Hu Yaobang, a reformer, sparks pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. June 3-4, 1989: The army crushes Tiananmen Square protests, causing hundreds, perhaps thousands of deaths. March 21, 1990: Deng steps down from his last official post, but remains supreme leader from behind the scenes. March 1993: Jiang Zemin becomes president. February 19, 1997: Deng dies. July 1, 1997: Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule. December 17, 2001: China joins the World Trade Organisation. November 15, 2002: Longtime heir-in-waiting Hu Jintao becomes Communist Party general secretary. March 15, 2003: Jiang steps down as president, handing over to Hu. October 15, 2003: Yang Liwei becomes China's first man in space. March 14, 2008: Anti-Chinese riots explode in Lhasa and spread to other Tibetan populated areas around China. They are crushed by security forces. March 15, 2008: Hu is given another five years as president and Wen Jiabao begins his second term as prime minister. May 12, 2008: A devastating earthquake strikes southwestern Sichuan province, leaving nearly 87,000 people dead or missing. August 8-24, 2008: China hosts the Olympic Games in Beijing July 5, 2009: Ethnic unrest erupts in mainly Muslim Xinjiang. Nearly 200 people are killed, most of them Han Chinese, according to the official toll.China anniversary: key dates in 60 years of communism
China is celebrating 60 years of communist rule. Below are key dates during the past six decades.
Friday, 2 October 2009
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