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MODERN HISTORY OF CHINA

Objective chronological listing of significant events leading up to modern China.

1937 - 1945

• Full scale war starts between China and Japan. (1937)
  
• Communists agree to follow leadership of Chiang Kai-shek. (1937)
  
• Battle of Shanghai and Nanjing. (1937)
  
• Nanjing Massacre. (1937)
  
• Battle of Wuhan. (1938)
  
• Stalemate. (1938)
  
• Chinese counteroffensives fail. (1939)
  
• The "United Front" between Nationalists and Communists fails. (1939)
  
• War in Europe. (1939)
  
• Communist expansion begins. (1940)
  
• Japanese offensive with limited success. (1940)
  
• China under blockade. (1940)
  
• Germany invades the Soviet Union. (1941)
  
• Nationalists and Communists begin negotiations. (1941)
  
• Japanese offensives fail. (1941)
  
• Japan attacks south. United States enter the war. (1941)
  
• Defeat in Burma. China is cut off. (1942)
  
• Political cleansing in Communist Party - Mao Zedong gains power. (1942)
  
• The Soviet Union survives. (1943)
  
• Negotiations between Nationalists and Communists fail. (1943)
  
• The tide is turned in the Pacific. (1943)
  
• Cairo Declaration - China recovers lost territories. (1943)
  
• Burma offensive - China's fight for supplies. (1943)
  
• Operation Ichigo - Japan's fight for survival. (1944)
  
• Communists seen as democracy fighters. (1944)
  
• U.S. and Nationalists disagree on the Communists (1944)
  
• Yalta Agreement - agreement on China without China. (1945)
  
• Mao Zedong becomes absolute leader of the Communists. (1945)
  
• Germany surrenders to the Allies. (1945)
  
• The Soviet Union declares war on Japan. (1945)
  
• Soviet troops enter Manchuria. (1945)
  
• Japan surrenders. Civil war begins. (1945)