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In the Opium Wars, China and Western nations battle over trade issues.
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Japan invades the province of Manchuria. After Japan is defeated in World War II, civil war breaks out in China.
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Mao Zedong, head of the Communist Party, establishes the People's Republic of China. Rivals belonging to the Nationalist Party move to Taiwan, off China's eastern coast.
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Mao's plan to change China's economy and farming system fails. Millions of people die of starvation.
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Richard M. Nixon becomes the first U.S. President to visit Communist China.
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About 1 million students hold pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. The uprising is crushed by the army.
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China regains control of Hong Kong, which had been under British rule for 99 years.
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The Three Gorges River Dam across the Yangtze is completed. It took 13 years to build.
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Beijing gears up to host the XXIX Olympiad, set for August 2008.
