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Portrait of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China, 1972.

China

Documents, timelines, essays, and other resources related to the modern international history of China. The majority of sources pertain to the domestic political and economic history and evolving global role of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from its founding in October 1949 up through the brutal crackdown on protestors in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Portrait of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China, 1972.

Timeline

Popular Documents

February 15, 1957

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1957, No. 6 (Overall Issue No. 79)

This issue contains content on China's relations with Ceylon (Sri Lanka). It also has sections on the five year plan, cotton, construction bonds for farmers, electricity fees, rural commercial taxation, coal production, agricultural loans, and village name changes.

November 2, 1979

Letter Dated 2 November 1979 from the Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

The Vietnamese Permanent Representative to the UN submits an excerpt from a record of conversation between Pol Pot and Hua Guofeng, dated September 29, 1977.

December 27, 1952

Telegram from Stalin to Mao Zedong

Stalin agrees to send ammunitions to Mao in preparation for a US attack.

July 18, 1973

Letter, Oskar Fischer to Cde. Hermann Axen, 'Text of a Statement to be Presented Verbally to the Council of the Embassy of the PR China to the GDR'

Documents related to East Germany's protest against the intended establishment of a Chinese trade representation in West Berlin. The East German Ministry of Foreign Affairs stresses that West Berlin cannot be regarded as part of West Germany. Therefore, by initiating diplomatic relations with West Berlin without considering the existence of the internationally acknowledged Four Power Agreement on Berlin between the US, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, China is deliberately acting against the interests of East Germany.

October 9, 1964

Conversation between Comrade Beqir Balluku and Comrade Mao Zedong on 9 October 1964

Mao Zedong and Beqir Balluku ridicule Nikita Khrushchev and discuss the grievances that both Albania and China have towards the Soviet Union.