China
1939-45- Allied
1959 Chinese forces suppress large-scale revolt in Tibet
1949 Communist's victory against the Nationlists
1950 China sends People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops into Tibet enforcing a longstanding claim
1958 Mao launches the "Great Leap Forward"
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1962 Brief conflict with India over disputed Himalayan border.
1972US President Richard Nixon visits. Both countries declare a desire to normalise relations.
1966 "Cultural Revolution", Mao's 10-year political and ideological campaign aimed at reviving revolutionary spirit, produces massive social, economic and political upheaval.
1976 - Mao dies. "Gang of Four", including Mao's widow, jockey for power but are arrested and convicted of crimes against the state.
1979 - Diplomatic relations established with the US.
1989 - Troops open fire on demonstrators who have camped for weeks in Tiananmen Square initially to demand the posthumous rehabilitation of former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang, who was forced to resign in 1987. The official death toll is 200. International outrage leads to sanctions.
1986 China's "Open-door policy" opens the country to foreign investment and encourages development of a market economy.
1992 - Russia and China sign declaration restoring friendly ties.
1993 - Jiang Zemin officially replaces Yang Shangkun as president.
1994 - China abolishes the official renminbi (RMB) currency exchange rate and fixes its first floating rate since 1949.
1995 - China tests missiles and holds military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, apparently to intimidate Taiwan during its presidential elections.
1993 - Jiang Zemin officially replaces Yang Shangkun as president.
1996 - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - dubbed the Shanghai Five - meet in Shanghai and agree to cooperate to combat ethnic and religious tensions in each others' countries.
1997 - Deng Xiaoping dies, aged 92. Rioting erupts in Yining, Xinjiang and on day of Deng's funeral Xinjiang separatists plant three bombs on buses in Urumqi, Xinjiang, killing nine and injuring 74.
1999 - Nato bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, souring Sino-US relations.
1998 - Zhu Rongji succeeds Li Peng as premier, announces reforms in the wake of the Asian financial crisis and continued deceleration of the economy. Thousands of state-owned enterprises are to be restructured through amalgamations, share flotations and bankruptcies. About four million civil service jobs to be axed.
2000 - Crackdown on official corruption intensifies, with the execution for bribe taking of a former deputy chairman of the National People's Congress.
2001 June - China carries out military exercises simulating an invasion of Taiwan, at the same time as the island's armed forces test their capability to defend Taiwan against a missile attack from China.
2002 February - US President George W Bush visits, on the 30th anniversary of President Nixon's visit to China - the first by a US president.
2003 March - National People's Congress elects Hu Jintao as president. He replaces Jiang Zemin, who steps down after 10 years in the post.
2004 November - China signs a landmark trade agreement with 10 south-east Asian countries; the accord could eventually unite 25% of the world's population in a free-trade zone
2005 April - Relations with Japan deteriorate amid sometimes-violent anti-Japanese protests in Chinese cities, sparked by a Japanese textbook which China says glosses over Japan's World War II record.
2006 August - Official news agency says 18 million people are affected by what it describes as the country's worst drought in 50 years.
2007 January - Reports say China has carried out a missile test in space, shooting down an old weather satellite. The US, Japan and others express concern at China's military build-up.
2008 July - China and Russia sign a treaty ending 40-year-old border dispute which led to armed clashes during the Cold War.
2010 March - The web giant Google ends its compliance with Chinese internet censorship and starts re-directing web searches to a Hong Kong, in response to cyber attacks on e-mail accounts of human rights activists.
2009 July - Scores of people are killed and hundreds injured in the worst ethnic violence in decades as a protest in the restive Xinjiang region turns violent.
2011 February - China formally overtakes Japan to become the world's second-largest economy after Tokyo published figures showing a Japanese GDP rise of only four per cent in 2010.
2013 February - China denies allegations by Japan that its navy ships twice put radar locks on Japanese military vessels, amid mounting tension over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea.
2012 May - Philippines and Chinese naval vessels confront one another off the Scarborough Shoal reef in the South China Sea. Both countries claim the reef, which may have significant reserves of oil and gas.
2014 May - The US charges five Chinese army officers with industrial cyber-espionage, in the first case of its kind.
2015 October - China expresses anger at US naval ship sailing by artificial reefs Beijing is building among disputed Spratly Islands in South China Sea.
2016 January - Economic growth in 2015 falls to lowest rate in 25 years (6.9%, down from 7.3% in 2014), and International Monetary Fund predicts further deceleration over next two years.
2018 April - China announces it will impose 25% trade tariffs on a list of 106 US goods, including soybeans, cars, and orange juice, in retaliation for similar US tariffs on about 1,300 Chinese products.
2017 April - President Xi urges trade cooperation with the US at his first official meeting with US President Donald Trump in Florida.