Resources

Timeline

Refer to caption
Map of China courtesy Central Intelligence Agency

1644–1911 The QING DYNASTY

  • 1845 Treaty of Wanghia formalizes China-U.S. diplomatic relations
  • 1849 California gold rush and first wave of Chinese immigration to U.S.
  • 1867 Pacific Mail Steamship Company opens Pacific mail route to China
  • 1867 U.S. Postal Agency in Shanghai begins operation
  • 1882 Exclusion Act effectively ends Chinese immigration to the U.S.
  • 1896 China establishes a national postal system
  • 1899–1911 Boxer Rebellion against the Qing dynasty
  • 1908 Construction of Chinese Bureau of Engraving and Printing begins
  • 1911 Revolution

1912–1949 The REPUBLIC of CHINA

  • 1911–12 Sun Yat-sen is provisional president
  • 1912–16 Yuan Shikai is president
  • 1916–28 Warlord Era
  • 1921 Communist Party of China founded
  • 1927–37 Civil war between Guomindang (Chinese Nationalist Party) under Chiang Kai-shek and Communists
  • 1937 Pan American Airways provides Pacific airmail routes to China
  • 1937–45 China at war with Japan
  • 1939–45 World War II; U.S. declares war 1941, forms alliance with China
  • 1945–49 Chinese civil war resumes
  • 1949 Guomindang retreats to Taiwan

1949–Present The PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC of CHINA

  • 1949 Mao Zedong becomes chairman of the People’s Republic of China
  • 1956–75 Vietnam War
  • 1965 United States restores significant Chinese immigration to the U.S.
  • 1966–76 Cultural Revolution
  • 1971 Secretary of State Kissinger visits Beijing
  • 1972 President Nixon visits Beijing, meets with Chairman Mao