The Xinhua News Agency has listed the following 20 major events as having impact on China's history in the 20th century, after consulting experts and scholars from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The 20 events are as follows:
1. The Eight-Power Allied Forces (aggressive troops sent by Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Tsarist Russia, Japan, Italy and Austria in 1900, to suppress the anti-imperialist Yihetuan Movement) invaded China and forced the Qing court to sign the International Protocol of 1901 in the ninth lunar month of 1901 with 11 countries, which turned China into a semi-colonial and semi-feudalist society.
2. The Revolution of 1911, the Chinese bourgeois democratic revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, led to the founding of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912, and the fall of the Qing Dynasty on February 12, 1912, ending the 2,000-year-old feudalist society in China.
3. The May 4th Patriotic Movement in 1919, a great anti- imperialist, anti-feudal revolutionary movement, marked the beginning of the new democratic revolution in China.
4. The founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on July 1, 1921, opened a new chapter in the Chinese revolution.
5. The Northern Expeditionary War in 1926 dealt a heavy blow to the reactionary rule of the Northern Warlords and the imperialist powers in China.
6. The Nanchang Uprising, which occurred on August 1, 1927, marked the beginning of the CPC-led armed revolution against the Kuomintang regime.
7. The CPC Central Committee Political Bureau held an enlarged meeting in Zunyi, southwestern Guizhou Province, from January 15-17, 1935. The meeting elected Mao Zedong a member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee and established Mao's leading position in both the Red Army and the Party Central Committee. The meeting saved the Party, the Red Army and the Chinese Revolution at a critical juncture.
8. The War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-45) was the first time that China won a complete victory in the fight against foreign invasion in its modern history.
9. The CPC held its Seventh National Congress in 1945, which made Mao Zedong Thought the guiding theory for the Party.
10. The War of Liberation (1945-49) ended the Kuomintang reactionary rule and the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded on October 1, 1949.
11. The War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53).
12. In 1952, the CPC put forward the general line for the country's transition to socialism and by 1956, China accomplished the socialist transformation.
13. China exploded its first A-bomb, on October 16, 1964, and its first H-bomb, on June 17, 1967, and launched its first satellite on April 24, 1970. These represent an important achievement in New China's construction.
14. The legitimate seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations was restored in 1971.
15. The downfall of the "Gang of Four" and the end of the " Cultural Revolution" in 1976 marked a new development stage for China.
16. The National Conference on Science and Technology was convened on March 18, 1978, at which Deng Xiaoping highlighted the important role of science and technology as a productive force.
17. The convening of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee in late 1978 marked the beginning of China's ongoing reform and opening.
18. Deng Xiaoping's inspection tour of south China in early 1992 and the 14th CPC National Congress marked the start of a new stage of China's reform, opening and modernization drive.
19. The return to the motherland of Hong Kong and Macao, in 1997 and 1999, respectively, put an end to the history of humiliation for China in its modern history and represented a big step forward toward the country's complete reunification.
20. The CPC held its 15th National Congress in September 1997, at which Deng Xiaoping Theory was made the Party's guiding ideology.
(Xinhua 12/30/2000)
