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| 1919–20 |
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| A work-study program for Chinese students in France commenced, with over 1,000 Chinese taking part. Among the participants were Zhou Enlai (1899–1976) and Deng Xiaoping (1904–97), the youngest member of the group. Both became Communist activists in France. In 1920 Comintern agent Grigorii Voitinsky (1893–1956, or before) traveled to China and met with Li Dazhao in Beijing, and later with Chen Duxiu in Shanghai (May). | 1 |
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| 1920–26 |
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| The WARLORD PERIOD (so named because groups of militarists were in constant contests for power and warfare was nonstop) left no real power in the hands of the national government, which struggled to maintain its envoys abroad. Revenues from customs and salt were already pledged and administered for service of foreign loans. Those from the railways and land taxes were absorbed by local armies for which the civilian population felt no concern because no local interests were served by them. After the death of Yuan Shikai, there was no charismatic personality, no concrete cause strong enough to direct or to claim the loyalty of the majority of Chinese. | 2 |
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| 1920–21 |
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| The northern Chinese provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi farther to the west experienced a severe famine. Half a million people died; nearly 20 million were living in dire poverty. | 3 |
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| 1921, July |
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| The CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY was founded in a school in the French Concession in Shanghai. Neither Chen Duxiu nor Li Dazhao was there, but Mao Zedong, as representative of his native Hunan province, and 11 others were in attendance. Chen was elected secretary-general. The Comintern was represented by the Dutch agent Maring (pseud. Hendricus Sneevliet, 1883–1942). | 4 |
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| 1922, Jan |
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| Some 40 delegates from China were invited by the Soviet Union to a session of the “Toiler of the Far East” in Moscow. Qu Qiubai, who had gone to Moscow in 1920, served as one of the interpreters at the meeting. | 5 |
| Some 30,000 Chinese sailors and dock workers in Hong Kong and Guangzhou went on strike. Local sympathy strikes raised their numbers to 120,000 (March). The owners gave in and awarded them significant pay raises. | 6 |
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| Feb. 4 |
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| The Washington Conference resulted in a nine-power treaty to respect China's sovereignty, independence, and territorial and administrative integrity; to maintain the “open door”; and to afford China the opportunity to develop a stable government. There was also a nine-power treaty (Feb. 6) to grant an immediate customs revenue increase to an effective 5 percent, and to call a conference to prepare for Chinese tariff autonomy; and a Sino-Japanese Treaty (Feb. 4) to evacuate Japanese troops from Shandong, and restore to China all former German interests in Qingdao and the railway to Jinan, in return for their assessed value plus Japanese improvements. The mines were to be operated by a joint company. Britain announced (Feb. 1) the return of Weihaiwei (actually effected Oct. 1, 1930). A joint resolution by eight powers (Dec. 10, 1921) called for reexamination of Chinese law and its administration in relation to extraterritoriality. Sun Zhongshan disavowed all agreements made at the Washington Conference, because the regime in Beijing, and not his in Guangzhou, had been party to them. | 7 |
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| May |
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| Li Lisan (1900–67) and Liu Shaoqi (1898–1969) began organizing “workers' clubs,” fronts for union organization among workers in the Anyuan coal mines and the Daye steel foundry. | 8 |
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| Aug |
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| The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held its second congress in Hangzhou. Following Comintern policy, Maring strongly encouraged aligning with the Guomindang (GMD), designated a “bourgeois democratic party,” for the tasks of ridding China of the divisive militarists. | 9 |
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| Aug |
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| Sun Zhongshan was forced out of his base in Guangzhou by “reformist” militarist Chen Jiongming (1878–1933), who from the previous year had given Sun his protection. There Sun had created a Chinese People's Government and become its president. He thereupon revived the Guomindang (GMD) and entrusted two close supporters, Hu Hanmin (1886–1936) and Wang Jingwei (1883–1947), with the task of composing plans for the reform of the GMD. Sun had been assisted in his getaway from Guangzhou by a young military man in the GMD, JIANG JIESHI (Chiang Kai-shek, 1887–1975). Sun had met with Maring in 1921 about an alliance with the CCP, and he met with Soviet diplomat Adolf Joffe in Jan. 1923. By Feb. 1923, Chen Jiongming had been forced out of Guangzhou, and Sun was back, appealing to the Soviets for financial help. | 10 |
| The CCP, with only about 300 members, was ordered by the Comintern to join with the GMD, though not relinquishing CCP membership, to complete the national revolution. Both GMD and CCP leaders were being supported by the Soviet Union. Li Dazhao was much more sanguine about the partnership than Chen Duxiu. When Comintern agent Borodin (pseud. Mikhail Gruzenberg, 1884–1953, or before), arrived in China (Oct. 6, 1923), he worked with Sun Zhongshan to seal the CCP-GMD bond. | 11 |
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