Clinton and Jiang Zemin hold summit talks in Beijing

The PRC launched missile tests near Taiwan during a period of political tension ahead of Taiwan’s first direct presidential election. The crisis brought US carrier deployments and exposed the risk...

The UN conference brought governments and a large international civil-society forum to Beijing. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action became a major global gender-equality framework; the...

Voters elected Taiwan’s president directly for the first time, choosing Lee Teng-hui. The election consolidated democratic legitimacy rooted in Taiwan’s electorate and took place amid military...

China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan signed an agreement on military confidence-building in border areas. This was an early step toward the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and...

The United Kingdom transferred Hong Kong to China under the Joint Declaration and Basic Law framework. The event ended formal British colonial rule and carried symbolic weight in China’s recovery of...

NATO aircraft struck the Chinese embassy during the Kosovo war, killing three Chinese journalists and injuring staff. NATO described the bombing as a targeting error; China condemned it as a serious...

The United States and China reached a bilateral market-access agreement that cleared a major step toward China’s WTO accession. The agreement followed years of negotiation and required China to accept...

Portugal transferred administration of Macau to China under a high-autonomy arrangement. The event completed the transfer of the last major European colonial possession on the Chinese coast, while...

China and African states launched FOCAC as a multilateral platform for political and economic cooperation. The forum institutionalized South-South engagement, while raising questions about African...

A US reconnaissance plane and Chinese interceptor collided over the South China Sea; the Chinese pilot died and the US aircraft made an emergency landing on Hainan. The incident produced a...