China launches its first satellite

Premier Zhou Enlai began a 14-country Afro-Asian tour, including visits to ten African states. China presented its diplomacy as solidarity among recently decolonized peoples and promoted the Five...

France and the PRC established diplomatic relations, making France the first major Western power to recognize Beijing. The move widened China’s diplomatic space and signaled that Western recognition...

China detonated its first atomic device at Lop Nur, becoming the fifth state to test a nuclear weapon. The test was presented as a deterrent against nuclear coercion by the United States and Soviet...

A Communist Party circular initiated the Cultural Revolution, triggering mass political campaigns, persecution, upheaval in education and institutions, and struggles over authority. This period...

Chinese and Soviet forces fought on the Ussuri River island known in China as Zhenbao and in the Soviet Union as Damansky. The border confrontation exposed the fragility of socialist...

The PRC invited the US table tennis team to visit after informal contact at an international tournament. “Ping-pong diplomacy” helped prepare public opinion for rapprochement, showing how symbolic...

Henry Kissinger arrived secretly in Beijing through a Pakistani diplomatic channel and met Premier Zhou Enlai. The talks prepared President Richard Nixon’s visit and began a major realignment in...

US President Richard Nixon announced that he would visit China, making public a dramatic opening after decades of estrangement. The rapprochement reflected triangular diplomacy with the Soviet Union...

The General Assembly voted to restore the People’s Republic of China’s rights at the United Nations and recognize its representatives as China’s representatives, replacing the Republic of China...

Nixon arrived in Beijing for a historic visit that culminated in the Shanghai Communiqué. The opening helped normalize relations and reconfigure Cold War diplomacy; it also showed how postcolonial and...