Late Imperial: Haijin

Late imperial
A 19th-century depiction of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864)
The Qing dynasty, which lasted from 1644 until 1912, was the
last imperial dynasty of China. Its conquest of the Ming (1618–
1683) cost 25 million lives and the economy of China shrank
drastically.[88] After the Southern Ming ended, the further
conquest of the Dzungar Khanate added Mongolia, Tibet and
Xinjiang to the empire.[89] The centralized autocracy was
strengthened to crack down on anti-Qing sentiment with the
policy of valuing agriculture and restraining commerce,
the Haijin ("sea ban"), and ideological control as represented by
the literary inquisition, causing social and technological
stagnation.[90][91] In the mid-19th century, the dynasty
experienced Western imperialism in the Opium Wars with
Britain and France. China was forced to pay compensation,
open treaty ports, allow extraterritoriality for foreign nationals,
and cede Hong Kong to the British[92] under the 1842 Treaty of
Nanking, the first of the Unequal Treaties. The First Sino-
Japanese War (1894–95) resulted in Qing China's loss of
influence in the Korean Peninsula, as well as the cession of
Taiwan to Japan.[93]
The Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China to defeat the anti-

foreign Boxers and their Qing backers. The image shows a celebration
ceremony inside the Chinese imperial palace, the Forbidden City after
the signing of the Boxer Protocol in 1901.
The Qing dynasty also began experiencing internal unrest in
which tens of millions of people died, especially in the White
Lotus Rebellion, the failed Taiping Rebellion that ravaged
southern China in the 1850s and 1860s and the Dungan
Revolt (1862–77) in the northwest. The initial success of
the Self-Strengthening Movement of the 1860s was frustrated
by a series of military defeats in the 1880s and 1890s.[citation needed]
In the 19th century, the great Chinese diaspora began. Losses
due to emigration were added to by conflicts and catastrophes
such as the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79, in which
between 9 and 13 million people died.[94] The Guangxu
Emperor drafted a reform plan in 1898 to establish a
modern constitutional monarchy, but these plans were thwarted
by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The ill-fated anti-foreign Boxer
Rebellion of 1899–1901 further weakened the dynasty.
Although Cixi sponsored a program of reforms, the Xinhai
Revolution of 1911–12 brought an end to the Qing dynasty and
established the Republic of China.[citation needed] Puyi, the last
Emperor of China, abdicated in 1912.[citation needed]
Republic (1912–1949)
Main article: Republic of China (1912–1949)
Sun Yat-sen proclaiming the establishment of the ROC in 1912
On 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established,

and Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (the KMT or Nationalist
Party) was proclaimed provisional president.[95] However, the
presidency was later given to Yuan Shikai, a former Qing
general who in 1915 proclaimed himself Emperor of China. In
the face of popular condemnation and opposition from his
own Beiyang Army, he was forced to abdicate and re-establish
the republic.[96]
After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, China was politically
fragmented. Its Beijing-based government was internationally
recognized but virtually powerless; regional warlords controlled
most of its territory.[97][98] In the late 1920s, the Kuomintang,
under Chiang Kai-shek, the then Principal of the Republic of
China Military Academy, was able to reunify the country under
its own control with a series of deft military and political
manoeuvrings, known collectively as the Northern Expedition.[99]
[100]
The Kuomintang moved the nation's capital to Nanjing and
implemented "political tutelage", an intermediate stage of
political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's San-
min program for transforming China into a modern democratic
state.[101][102] The political division in China made it difficult for
Chiang to battle the communist People's Liberation
Army (PLA), against whom the Kuomintang had been warring
since 1927 in the Chinese Civil War. This war continued
successfully for the Kuomintang, especially after the PLA
retreated in the Long March, until Japanese aggression and the
1936 Xi'an Incident forced Chiang to confront Imperial Japan.[103]
Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong toasting together in 1946 following

the end of World War II
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945),

a theater of World War II, forced an uneasy alliance between
the Kuomintang and the PLA. Japanese forces committed
numerous war atrocities against the civilian population; in all, as
many as 20 million Chinese civilians died.[104] An estimated
40,000 to 300,000 Chinese were massacred in the city of
Nanjing alone during the Japanese occupation.[105] During the
war, China, along with the UK, the US, and the Soviet Union,
were referred to as "trusteeship of the powerful"[106] and were
recognized as the Allied "Big Four" in the Declaration by United
Nations.[107][108] Along with the other three great powers, China
was one of the four major Allies of World War II, and was later
considered one of the primary victors in the war.[109][110] After
the surrender of Japan in 1945, Taiwan, including
the Pescadores, was returned to Chinese control. China
emerged victorious but war-ravaged and financially drained.
The continued distrust between the Kuomintang and the
Communists led to the resumption of civil war. Constitutional
rule was established in 1947, but because of the ongoing
unrest, many provisions of the ROC constitution were never
implemented in mainland China.[111]
People's Republic (1949–present)
Main article: History of the People's Republic of China
Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the PRC in 1949
Major combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the

Communist Party in control of most of mainland China, and
the Kuomintang retreating offshore, reducing its territory to
only Taiwan, Hainan, and their surrounding islands. On 21
September 1949, Communist Party Chairman Mao
Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic
of China with a speech at the First Plenary Session of the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference[112][113]
[114]
followed by a public proclamation and celebration
in Tiananmen Square.[115] In 1950, the People's Liberation
Army captured Hainan from the ROC[116] and incorporated Tibet.
[117]
However, remaining Kuomintang forces continued to
wage an insurgency in western China throughout the 1950s.[118]
Deng Xiaoping with U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 1979
The regime consolidated its popularity among the peasants

through land reform, which included the execution of between 1
and 2 million landlords.[119] China developed an independent
industrial system and its own nuclear weapons.[120] The Chinese
population increased from 550 million in 1950 to 900 million in
1974.[121] However, the Great Leap Forward, an idealistic
massive reform project, resulted in an estimated 15 to 35
million deaths between 1958 and 1961, mostly from starvation.
[122][123][124]
In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural
Revolution, sparking a decade of political recrimination and
social upheaval that lasted until Mao's death in 1976. In
October 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic in the United
Nations, and took its seat as a permanent member of the
Security Council.[125]
After Mao's death, the Gang of Four was quickly arrested and
held responsible for the excesses of the Cultural
Revolution. Deng Xiaoping took power in 1978, and instituted
significant economic reforms. The Party loosened
governmental control over citizens' personal lives, and
the communes were gradually disbanded in favor of working
contracted to households. This marked China's transition from
a planned economy to a mixed economy with an increasingly
open-market environment.[126] China adopted its
current constitution on 4 December 1982. In 1989,
the suppression of student protests in Tiananmen
Square brought condemnations and sanctions against the
Chinese government from various foreign countries.[127]
People lining up in Wuhan railway station for checking body temperature
during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown in Hubei, an effort to quarantine
the center of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jiang Zemin, Li Peng and Zhu Rongji led the nation in the

1990s. Under their administration, China's economic
performance pulled an estimated 150 million peasants out of
poverty and sustained an average annual gross domestic
product growth rate of 11.2%.[128][better source needed][129][better source needed] The
country joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and
maintained its high rate of economic growth under Hu
Jintao and Wen Jiabao's leadership in the 2000s. However, the
growth also severely impacted the country's resources and
environment,[130][131] and caused major social displacement.[132][133]
Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping has
ruled since 2012 and has pursued large-scale efforts to reform
China's economy [134][135] (which has suffered from structural
instabilities and slowing growth),[136][137][138] and has also reformed
the one-child policy and prison system,[139] as well as instituting a
vast anti corruption crackdown.[140] In 2013, China initiated
the Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure investment
project.[141]

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Late imperial

A 19th-century depiction of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864)

The Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China to defeat the anti-

Sun Yat-sen proclaiming the establishment of the ROC in 1912

On 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established,

Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong toasting together in 1946 following

The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945),

Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the PRC in 1949

Major combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the

The regime consolidated its popularity among the peasants

Jiang Zemin, Li Peng and Zhu Rongji led the nation in the

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