2500BC: ink, tea and silk are invented
2357BC: Yao rules northeastern China
2205BC: the Xia dynasty is founded by Yu: Yellow River (Huang He) valley
1766BC: Tang deposes the last Xia and founds the Shang dynasty
1500BC: the Shang dynasty expands in the northern plains of the Yellow River (Huang He): advanced bronze casting, Chinese alphabet, human sacrifice, war chariot, succession from elder brother to younger brother and then to the oldest maternal nephew,
1395BC: the Shang move their capital to Yin (near Anyang)
1133BC: Wu becomes king of the Zhou (a population that originated in Central Asia) and builds the capital of Hao (near Xian)
1122BC: Wu conquers the Shang empire and founds the Zhou dynasty: father-to-son succession system, decentralized feudal rule (federation of city-states)
1116BC: the Zhou build a city at Luoyang
900BC: I Ching/Yi Jing
771BC: Western barbarians sack Zhou's capital and the Zhous move their capital east to Luoyang
700 BC: the Chinese invent gunpowder
600BC: Confucius
550BC: Taoism/Daoism
403BC: the Zhou empire begins to split in several states (Qin in the west, Qi in the east, Chu in the south and smaller ones)
350BC: the period of the "warring states" is characterized by coins, iron weapons, public works (canals, walls)
256BC: the Qin depose the last Zhou emperor, the Zhou dynasty ends after over 800 years of rule
221BC: Qin Shi Huangdi conquers all of China and becomes the first emperor of China (first Great Wall of China, about 5,000 kms)
213BC: Shi Huangdi outlaws all schools of thought except the legalist one and buries alive 346 scholars
210BC: Shi Huangdi is buried in a colossal tomb near Xian, surrounded by thousands of terracotta soldiers
206BC: the Han dynasty unifies China again and develops bureaucracy
200BC: Mao-tun unites the Turkic-speaking Huns (Xiongnu, Hsiung-nu) in Central Asia around Lake Bajkal and southeastern Mongolia
176BC: the Huns attack eastern China
140BC: Han emperor Wu-ti conducts campaigns against the Huns
121BC: China defeats the Huns
121BC: Chinese invent the magic lantern
106BC: the Silk Road is inaugurated (a treaty between Chinese emperor Wu-Ti/Wu Di and Parthian king Mithridates II)
57 BC: a kingdom is established in the Silla region of south Korea with capital in Kyongju
51 BC: the Hsiung-nu/Xiongnu split into two hordes, with the eastern (southern) horde surrendering to China
2 AD: the Han empire has 57 million people, the most populous country in the world
48 AD: the Hsiung-nu empire is defeated by the Han and dissolves
68 AD: Buddhism is introduced in China
68 AD: Youstol Dispage
105 AD: Cai Lun/Tsai Luns invents paper
190: the Chinese invent the abacus
220: a new wave of invasions by the Hsiung-nu cause population movement to the south (from the Yellow River to the Yangze in the south) and the Han dynasty collapses, allowing from three kingdoms to appear: Wei (founded by Wei Wen Di), Shu (founded by Liu Bei) and Wu (founded by Sun Quan)
265: the Qin dynasty
317: the Qin move their capital from Luoyang to Nanjing/Nanking
366: Buddhists begin the Mogao caves near Dunhuang
372: Buddhism is introduced from China into the kingdom of Koguryo (Korea)
386: Chinese astronomers witness a supernova
420: the Qin fall
465: Buddhists begin the Yungang caves near Datong in China (Wei)
494: Buddhists begin the Longmen caves near Luoyang in China (Wei)
520: Bodhidharma (520AD, Buddhist): Chan (Zen) Buddhism
527: the Korean kingdom of Paekche builds the Buddhist temple Taetong-sa in the capital Ungjin (Kongju)
538: the Korean kingdom of Paekche dispatches a delegation to introduce Buddhism to the Japanese emperor
552: the Turks conquer the Rouran state and establish the Ashina Kaghanate
553: the Korean kingdom of Silla builds the Buddhist temple Hwangnyong-sa in the capital Kumsong (Kyongju)
589: the Sui dynasty re-unifies China (Grand Canal) and builds a new capital in Changan/Xian
602: Tibet is unified under Namri Songtsen
618: Li Yuan overthrows the Sui dynasty and becomes the first Tang emperor of China, with capital still in Xian
629: the eastern Ashina kaghanate is defeated by the Tang
629: Tibet expands to Nepal under Songtsen Gampo
643: Buddhist pilgrim Hiuan-tsang/ Xuanzang brings sanskrit manuscripts from India to China
650: the Tang dynasty extends the boundaries of China west into Afghanistan, north into Siberia, east into Korea and south into Vietnam, golden age of art and literature (ideal of the universal man, combining the qualities of scholar, poet, painter, statesman)
650: acupuncture
659: the western Ashina kaghanate is defeated by the Tang
668: Silla, with the help of the Tang, conquers Koguryo and Paekche, thereby uniting the whole of Korea, with capital in Kyongju
682: Elterish rebels to the Chinese and founds a second Turk Kaghanate
725: Xian is probably the largest city in the world
744: the Turk Kaghanate collapses and the Uigur empire is founded in Mongolia with capital in Ordubalik
751: the Arabs defeat the Chinese at the battle of the Talas River
751: Korean prime Minister Kim Tae-song orders the construction of the Buddhist cave temple Sokkuram at Mount Toham
755: An Lushan's revolution
763: Tibetans sack of Chinese capital Xian
781: Tibetans occupy Dunhuang
821: Peace treaty between Tibet and China
842: The Tibetan emperor Langdarma is assassinated and the empire disintegrates
846: the Kirghiz drive the Uighurs west to the Tarim Basin
868: the Diamond Sutra (Jingang Jing) is printed (oldest extant book in 2000)
907: northern invaders terminate the Tang dynasty
918: end of the Silla dynasty in Korea and beginning of the Goryeo dynasty
932: the Turkic Qarakhanid dynasty is founded in Kashgar
936: Wang Kon seizes power in Korea, founds the Koryo dynasty and moves the capital north to Songdo (Kaesong)
938: the Vietnamese repel the Chinese at the battle of Bach Dang
960: the Song dynasty re-unifies China: farming technology, decline of Buddhism
1000: Kaifeng is the largest city in the world with about one million inhabitants
1024: the first paper money is introduced in China
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1041: Bi Sheng invents the printing press with movable type
1087: the Korean court has the entire Tripitaka carved in woodblocks
1115: the Jurchen/Nuzhen (Manchu) invade from the north and establish the Jin dynasty with capital in Beijing
1125: the Jurchen/Jin force the Song to move their capital to Hangzhou in the south
1234: Mongols led by Ogodai Khagan conquer northern China and expel the Jurchen
1264: the Mongols invade China and Kublai Khan founds the Yuan dynasty and moves the capital from Karakorum to Khanbaligh (Beijing)
1266: the Polo brothers travel from Venezia to China
1279: Mongols complete the conquest of entire China and terminate the Song dynasty
1284: the Uighur empire is absorbed by the Mongols
1330: An outbreak of bubonic plague kills thousands of people
1368: the Ming dynasty is founded by a Chinese peasant and former Buddhist monk turned rebel, Zhu Yuanzhang/ Chu Yuanchang, under whose leadership China regains independence from the Mongols
1368: the renovation of the Great Wall of China is begun
1388: Yi Song-gye overthrows the Koryo dynasty, founds the Choson dynasty and moves the Korean capital south to Seoul
1389: the Uigurs convert to Islam
1392: the Yi dynasty founds Seoul
1392: end of the Goryeo dynasty in Korea and beginning of the Joseon dynasty
1405: Zheng He/ Cheng Ho (a former Muslim slave) sails west with a fleet of 300 ships, invading Sumatra and Ceylon and eventually reaching the coast of Africa
1421: construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing
1500: 100 million live in the Ming empire
1550: the renovation of the Great Wall of China is completed
1556: an earthquake kills 800,000 people in Shensi
1557: Portugal establishes a trading post in Macao (first European settlement in the Far East)
1573: The Mongol emperor invites the Dalai Lama of Tibet to the Mongol capital of Altan Khan and begins conversion of Mongolia to Buddhism
1583: Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci arrives in China
1592: Japan invades Korea and destroys dozens of temples
1600: the Chinese empire is the largest nation in the world
1616: Nurhachi unifies the Jurchen (Manchus) and creates the state of Jin/Qing in northeastern China
1636: Nurhachi's son and successor Hong Taiji changes the name of his people from Jurchen to Manchu ("pure")
1637: the Manchus invade Korea and Korea becomes a vassal state of the Manchus
1644: the Manchus, led by Dorgon, regent for Hong Taiji's six-year old son Fulin, invade northern China and take Beijing, overthrowing the Ming and establishing the Qing dynasty
1650: the pirate Koxinga founds a pirate kingdom in the South China Seas
1683: Koxinga's grandson cedes Formosa (Taiwan) to the Manchus
1689: China signs a border treaty with Russia (first bilateral agreement with a European power), the treaty of Nerchinsk, to settle the border between Russian Siberia and Chinese Manchuria, declaring Outer Mongolia a neutral land (partition of the steppe world between Russia and China)
1708: Jesuit missionaries draw the first accurate map of China
1728: France establishes a trading post in Canton
1729: the emperor issues a decree banning the sale of opium
1750: Dream of the Red Chamber
1757: China invades eastern Turkestan and renames it Sinkiang/Xinjiang
1760: all foreign trade is confined to Guangzhou
1801: China's population is 295 million
1830: corruption, decentralization of power, popular rebellions
1839: A Chinese attempt at suppressing the illicit British trade in opium causes the Opium war
1842: under the Treaty of Nanjing, China cedes the island of Hong Kong to Britain
1851: the Taiping rebels, led by a village teacher, Hong Xiuquan, stage an anti-Manchu rebellion that will last 14 years (30 million people killed)
1856: China is attacked by British and French forces
1860: British and French forces occupy Beijing
1860: Russia secures north Manchuria
1861: the new Manchu/Qing emperor, Tongzhi, is five years old (power in the hands of his mother Cixi)
1875: Tongzhi dies and is succeeded by his three-year old cousin Guangxu (power remains in the hands of Cixi)
1876: First railway
1882: First telegraph
1884: France expands in Indochina after winning a war against China
1895: Japan defeats China and China is forced to cede Taiwan and recognize Japanese sovereignity over Korea.
1898: the "Hundred Days' Reform", launched by emperor Guang Hsu/Guang Xu to modernize China, fails when the mother of the emperor, Tsu Hsi/Ci Xi, has him arrested and confined in the Forbidden City
1900: the anti-western Boxer (Yihetuan) rebellion is crushed by foreign troops (Russia, Britain, France, Japan, USA) and Tsu Hsi flees to the mountains
1900: China's population is 467 million
1903: Britain gains control of Tibet
1905: the Confucian system of examination is abolished
1905: Sun Yatsen founds in exile the nationalistic and pro-democracy Tongmeng Hui (United League)
1907: Britain and Russia negotiate the status of Persia, Tibet and Afghanistan
1908: both Qing/Manchu emperor Guang Xu and his aunt Cixi die and are succeeded by another child, Puyi
1910: Japan annexes Korea and thereby terminates the Choson dynasty
1910: Chinese troops enter Lhasa, Tibet
1911: Bogh Haan proclaims Mongolia independent
1911: Wuhan revolutionaries launch an uprising (the 10/10 revolution) and Sun Yatsen returns to China
1912: Sun Yatsen installs a republic in Wuhan and the Qing dynasty abdicates
1912: Song Jiaoren, an associate of Sun, founds the Guomindang/Kuomintang (KMT) party
1912: China adopts the Gregorian calendar
1913: Song's KMT wins the majority of votes but Song is assassinated and Sun flees the country, while power is seized by the authoritarian Yuan Shikai (11 million die)
1914: Foreign investment in China is $1.4 billion
1915: The south of China secedes
1916: Yuan dies, is succeeded by Duan Qirui and Sun Yatsen returns to China
1917: China joins World War I on the side of Britain, France, Japan and the USA, the first time ever that Chinese soldiers walk into another continent
1919: students join in a protest in the Tiananmen Square of Beijing against the European powers' decision to grant German-controlled Shandong to Japan, and thus create a new nationalist Chinese movement ("May Fourth movement")
1920: Duan Qirui is ousted
1921: Marxist intellectuals found the communist party of China
1922: at the Washington Conference with Britain and the USA, Japan accepts to return disputed territories to China
1923: the Communists and the Guomindang ally in Canton under the leadership of Sun Yatsen and the supervision of Soviet agent Borodin
1925: Sun dies of cancer and leadership of the KMT passes to Chiang Kaishek/Jiang Jieshi
1926: the Guomindang prepare plans to fight the warlords and reunify China
1927: A young communist leader, Mao Zedong, organizes the Autumn Harvest Uprising, which fails
1927: Chiang Kai-shek's Guomindang troops take Shanghai, and Chiang Kai-shek establishes his capital at Nanjing/Nanking
1928: Chiang Kai-shek defeats the northern warlords and takes Beijing (hundreds of thousands die)
1931: the Japanese army invades Manchuria (1.1 million die)
1933: the Japanese army invades Hebei
1934: the Japanese install former Manchu emperor Puyj as head of the puppet state of Manchukuo
1934: in order to avoid persecution by Chiang, Mao Zedong leads the "Long March" of the communist "Red Army" (170,000 die)
1936: Japan invades the northern province of Suiyuan
1937: Japan captures Nanjing/Nanking (350,000 Chinese are killed and 100,000 women are raped during the "rape of Nanking")
1938: Japan seizes Canton
1938: Japan installs five puppet regimes in China (Manchukuo, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Nanjing, Taiwan) 1941: USA pilots ("flying tigers") help the KMT 1941: Japan attacks the USA that enters the war on the side of the KMT 1943: Cairo Conference between Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kaishek 1945: the USA tries to mediate between KMT and Communists but the KMT attacks the Communists
1945: World War II ends and Japan is forced to retreat (20 million Chinese dead)
1945: at the end of World War II the Korean peninsula is occupied by the Soviet Union (north) and the USA (south)
1946: China recognizes Mongolia but not Tibet nor Xinjiang
1946: The Far Eastern Economic Review begins publication in Hong Kong
1946: Civil war between Chiang and Mao continues, with Chiang (southern China and northern cities) helped by the USA and Mao (northern countryside) helped by the Soviet Union
1946: The Far Eastern Economic Review of Hong Kong shuts down
1947: an uprising in Taiwan ("2/28 uprising") against the Kuomintang leaves thousands dead
1948: communist North Korea declares independence under its leader Kim Il Sung
1949: Chiang and his KMT government flee to Taiwan while Mao Zedong proclaims the People's Republic of China (1.2 million have died in three years)
1949: Zhou Enlai is appointed premier of Communist China, while Mao retains the chairmanship of the communist party
1949: Communist China invades eastern Tibet
1950: communist North Korea, helped by Communist China, attacks capitalist South Korea, but the invasion fails after USA intervention
1950: Mao orders the persecution of "counter-revolutionaries" which causes the deaths of 710,000 people
1950: Communist China annexes Xinjiang/Sinkiang (eastern Turkestan)
1951: Communist China annexes Tibet/ Xizang
1951: The communists conduct mass trials against "counterrevolutionaries"
1952: Mao orders the persecution of landlords which causes the deaths of about one million people
1953: The communist party launches the first five-year plan with the aims of industrialization, collectivization of agriculture, and political centralization
1953: Korea is permanently partitioned across the DMV (55,000 USA soldiers, one million south Koreans, one million Chinese soldiers, two million North Koreans have died)
1953: the population of mainland (communist) China is 583 million
1953: Taiwan (non-communist China) begins an economic miracle that will turn it into one of the richest countries in Asia and the second most powerful economy after Japan
1954: Deng Xiao Ping is appointed secretary general of the communist party
1954: mutual defense treaty between the USA and Taiwan
1958: Mao launches the "Great Leap Forward" (mass mobilization and collectivization of the farms to increase crop production and steel production
1959: between 16 million and 30 million people starve to death because of the 1959-62 famine caused by the "great leap forward" (the population of Communist China declined by 4.5%)
1959: Liu Shaoqi replaces Mao as president, while Lin Biao becomes minister of defense and launches purges in the military
1959: Tibetans riot against Chinese occupation (87,000 dead) and the Dalai Lama flees to India
1960: Communist China launches its first ballistic missile
1961: general Park Chung-hee stages a coup in South Korea
1961: China sends aid to Albania
1962: Mao breaks with the Soviet Union
1962: China-India border war
1964: Communist China becomes the fifth nuclear power
1966: Mao launches the "Cultural Revolution" (call upon students to form units of "Red Guards" and rebel against authority: millions people die in the next three years, the Great Wall is destroyed, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiao Ping are ousted)
1966: During the "cultural revolution" 2,692 Tibetan monasteries are destroyed
1966: Youstol Dispage
1969: Chinese and Soviet troops clash along the border
1970: Communist China launches its first satellite
1970: a South Korean ferry sinks in the Korea Strait killing 308 people
1971: after trying to overthrow Mao's government, Lin Biao dies in an airplane crash in Mongolia on his way to exile
1971: Communist China takes over the seat at the United Nations that was held by Taiwan (non-communist China)
1972: USA president Richard Nixon visits Communist China
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1974: Zhou Enlai rehabilitates Deng Xiaoping
1975: the Shimantan Dam collapses in the Henan province, killing 85,000 people and causing the subsequent death of about 100,000 people
1975: Zhou Enlai, at the fourth Congress, outlines a program of Four Modernizations (agriculture, industry, army, science)
1975: Chiang Kai-shek dies and is succeeded as dictator of Taiwan (non-communist China) by his son Chiang Ching-kuo
1976: Zhou Enlai and Mao die and Hua Guofend seizes power
1976: mass demonstrations against the communist party
1976: "Democracy Wall" protests
1976: Tangshan earthquake
1976: China begins a campaign to resettle ethnic Chinese in Tibet
1977: Deng Xiaoping engineers the "Beijing Spring" of political liberation
1978: The Plenum of the 11th Party Congress ushers in capitalist-style economic reform
1979: Border war with Vietnam
1979: Park Chung-hee of South Korea is assassinated, and succeded by another general, Chun Doo-hwan
1979: China opens Tibet to foreign tourists
1980: month-long trial of the "Gang of Four" (Mao associates)
1980: Hua Guofeng is replaced by Zhao Ziyang (an ally of Deng Xiaoping) as premier of Communist China
1981: the Communist Party formally condemns Mao for the economic disasters from 1957 till his death
1981: Hua Guofeng is replaced by Hu Yaobang (an ally of Deng Xiaoping) as as party chairman of Communist China
1981: Deng Xiaoping seizes power and launches pseudo-capitalistic economic reforms
1985: South Korea is one of the "Asian tigers" whose economy booms
1985: Jiang Zemin becomes mayor of Shangai and oversees the spectacular economic development of the city
1986: the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is formed in Taiwan (non-communist China)
1986: pro-democracy demonstrations by students in Beijing
1987: a Korean Airlines flights crashes in the sea due to a bomb planted by North Korean agents (115 dead)
1987: South Korea becomes a democracy under president Roh Tae-woo
1987: Hu Yaobang, Communist China's main reformer, is forced to resign
1987: the Chinese government establishes a special school in Beijing to educate the reincarnate Tibetan lamas
1989: students join in a pro-democracy protest in the Tiananmen Square of Beijing
1989: the dalai lama of Tibet is awarded the Nobel Prize for peace
1990: the Shanghai stock exchange is established
1991: Communist China joins the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
1991: the panchen lama of Tibet dies, opening a conflict with China over the appointment of the successor
1992: Communist China launches a program to put men into space
1992: the religious sect Fulan Gong is founded by Li Hongzhi
1993: Jiang Zemin is appointed president of Communist China
1993: The world's largest bronze Buddha statue opens at the Po Lin monastery in Hong Kong
1994: Communist China's gross domestic product grows at an average annual rate of about 10%, the highest in the world, between 1994 and 2000
1994: North Korea's leader Kim Il Sung dies and is succeeded by his son Kim Jong II
1996: China, Russia and three (later four) former Soviet republics (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan) form the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
1997: Deng dies and Jiang Zemin, who was already ruling Communist China, becomes the sole leader
1997: Britain cedes Hong Kong back to Communist China, and Jiang Zemin appoints Tung Chee-hwa as chief executive of the city
1997: Jiang Zemin legalizes private enterprise and unveils a plan to privatize Communist China's state-owned enterprises
1998: Kim Dae-jung is elected president of South Korea
1998: Pakistan provides North Korea with nuclear technology in exchange for missile technology
1998: Zhu Rongji is appointed prime minister of Communist China
1999: Chen Shui-bian becomes the first democratically elected president of Taiwan and the first to advocate independence from Communist China
1999: a ferry sinks killing over 275 near Yantai
2001: Jiang Zemin invites capitalists in the Chinese communist party
2002: Jiang Zemin resigns and Hu Jintao succeeds him, the first peaceful transition of power since 1949
2002: Tenzin Delek Rinpoche and other Tibetan leaders are arrested by the government of mainland China
2002: North Korea admits that is developing nuclear weapons in violation of a treaty with the USA
2003: Roh Moo-hyun wins the election in South Korea with a program that calls for US withdrawal and negotiations with North Korea
2003: 130 people die in a South Korean subway fire set by a madman
2003: Wen Jiabao is appointed prime minister of Communist China, replacing Zhu Rongji
2003: an unknown type of pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), spreads out of southern Communist China and kills hundreds of people
2003: Communist China quarantines 10,000 people in Nanjing to control the spread of the Sars virus
2003: Communist China's "Three Gorges Dam" on the Yangtze (2.3 km long and 185 meters tall), the world's largest dam, becomes operational
2003: Communist China sends a man in space, Yang Liwei, the third country to do so after the USSR and the USA, and announces plans to send a man to the moon by 2020
2003: about 200 people die of an explosion at a gas field in Chongqing
2003: Communist China's economy grows 9.1% in 2003
2004: Roh Moo-hyun is impeached in South Korea for illegal actions
2004: president Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan is re-elected by very few votes after a man tried to kill him, sparking protests in the island
2004: 150 passengers die in a train collision in North Korea
2004: the totalitarian regime of Communist China threates to invade the democratic nation of Taiwan
2004: "Taipei 101" becomes the tallest skyscraper in the world, unseating Malaysia's Petronas Towers
2004: South Korea's per-capita GDP passes Taiwan's to become the second in Asia after Japan
2005: North Korea announces that it has nuclear weapons and pulls out of nuclear talks
2005: a mine explosion kills more than 200 people in communist China
2005: Hong Kong's chief executive Tung Chee-hwa resigns after pro-democracy protests
2005: China and India sign a treaty in which China gives up any claim on the state of Sikkim
2005: there are more than 300 skyscrapers in Shangai (up from one in 1985)
2005: Shenzhen's population is 12 million (up from 1.7 in 1990)
2005: two Chinese astronauts orbit Earth for five days
2005: Hu Yaobang is rehabilitated by Communist China
2005: 100 tons of toxic material contaminate rivers in China (near Harbin) and Russia
2005: Hong Kong holds the largest pro-democracy demonstration ever in the history of mainland China
2005: Mainland China's trade surplus triples in one year to a record $102 billion, and mainland China becomes the world's third-largest foreign trader after the United States and Germany with trade of $1.4 trillion, as well as second only to Japan for foreign currency reserves ($794 billion)
2005: Mainland China becomes the fourth world economy after the USA, Japan and Germany
2006: American search engine Google accepts to cooperate with the government of mainland China in censoring the world-wide web
2006: the Beijing government does not even mention the 40th anniversary of Mao's "Cultural Revolution"
2006: a railway connection between mainland China and Tibet is inaugurated (the 1,140km Golmud-Lhasa being the world's highest)
2006: North Korea tests missiles, angering the USA, Japan and South Korea
2006: North Korea announces its first nuclear test
2007: Mainland China shoots a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite
2007: an edition in modern Chinese of "The Analects of Confucius" becomes the all-time bestselling book in mainland China
2007: the USA and South Korea sign a free-trade treaty
2007: Mainland China overtakes the USA to become the world's second largest exporter (after Germany) and overtakes Canada to become the main exporter to the USA
2007: Mainland China's exports to Europe surpass mainland China's exports to the USA
2007: Mainland China overtakes the USA as the world's main polluter
2007: For the first time since 1951 a train crosses the border between North and South Korea
2007: Under pressure from the USA and mainland China, North Korea accepts to dismantle its nuclear program
2007: Lee Myung-bak wins the election in South Korea despite being under investigation for corruption
2007: The economy of mainland China grows by 11.4%, its fastest growth rate in 13 years
2007: Mainland China attracts almost $83 billions of foreign industrial investment in 2007, the highest amount of any country in the world
2008: Taiwan's opposition party Kuomintang (KMT), that wants closer ties with mainland China, wins a landslide victory in parliamentary polls
2008: Tibetan protesters and Chinese civilians are killed and hundred of Tibetans are arrested in pro-independence riots
2008: An earthquake kills more than 60,000 people in mainland China
2008: Opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou wins Taiwan's presidential elections
2008: Mainland China and Taiwan sign a deal to launch regular flights between the two countries
2008: Chinese policemen kill five Islamist militants in Xinjiang
2008: Two people are killed by bombs placed on buses in Kunming
august 2008: Uighur Islamic separatists kill 16 Chinese border policemen in East Turkestan (Xinjiang)
august 2008: The Olympic Games are held in mainland China
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