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MODERN HISTORY OF CHINA

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

1939

• January - Increased emphasis on guerrilla warfare behind Japanese lines.
  
• February - Japanese capture Hainan Island.
  
• March - A Japanese force of 50,000 capture Nanchang, an important railway junction providing supplies from the South.
  
• April – Spring offensive. Chinese troops counterattack across several war zones without much success.
  
• April - Armed conflicts between Nationalist and Communist forces behind Japanese lines.
  
• May – Japanese launch an attack northwest of Wuhan with 120,000 troops. The attack is stopped by over 200,000 Chinese defenders.
  
• May - Japanese and Soviet troops clash in Outer Mongolia and Manchuria for four months.
  
• May - Nationalists encircle Yan'an and surrounding Communist areas with heavy forces.
  
• June - Chiang Kai-shek demands Communist forces obey military orders.
  
• June - Communists establish base in Shangdong province that later grows to about  70,000 men.
  
• August - Ceasefire between Soviet and Japanese troops after the Japanese suffer a serious defeat.
  
• August – Germany signs a nonaggression treaty with the Soviet Union.
  
• September– Germany invades Poland from the West.
  
• September - Britain and France declare war on Germany.
  
• September - Japan signs truce agreement with the Soviet Union.
  
• September - The Soviet Union seizes eastern part of Poland.
  
• September – First battle of Changsha. Japanese attack  the city of Changsha from three directions with 150,000 men. The advancing forces are stopped by a Chinese force of 400,000.
  
• October – Communist forces clash with Nationalist troops in northern Jiangsu, killing the commander of Nationalist 89th Army and capturing thousands of soldiers.
  
• November – Japanese forces land in Guangxi province and capture Nanning, cutting off transportation between China and Vietnam.
  
• November – Japan recognizes the government led by Wang Jingwei as the legitimate government of China.
  
• December – Winter offensive. 450,000 Chinese troops mount a general counterattack without much success.