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| 1959, March 13 |
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| Fighting broke out in Lhasa, Tibet, between the populace and PLA forces. | 1 |
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| March 28 |
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| Premier Zhou Enlai dissolved the Tibetan government, headed by the Dalai Lama, and put the Panchen Lama at the head of a preparatory committee for the Tibetan Autonomous Region. On March 31, the Dalai Lama crossed the border into India, seeking asylum. | 2 |
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| April 23 |
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| The government claimed to have dispersed the rebels in southeastern Tibet and sealed the border to India. | 3 |
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| April 27 |
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| Liu Shaoqi (1898–1969) succeeded Mao Zedong as chief of state of the PRC. Mao retained his position as chairman of the CCP. Liu decreased the breakneck pace of social change and turned away from stress on ideology to greater emphasis on expertise. Incentives were reintroduced to boost production. | 4 |
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| July |
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| At a party plenum held in the city of Lushan (Jiangxi Province), Gen. Peng Dehuai (1898–1974) sharply criticized Mao's policies in the Great Leap Forward. Mao retaliated by having Peng removed from his post as minister of defense (a job that was then given to Lin Biao) and publicly lambasting him. | 5 |
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| Sept. 9 |
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| The Dalai Lama called for UN action against Chinese Communist oppression in Tibet. | 6 |
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| Sept |
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| Historian of the Ming period and deputy mayor of Beijing, Wu Han (d. 1969) published in the People's Daily a play about the official Hai Rui (1513–87), who had risked personal safety to excoriate the Ming emperor for wasting public funds while the population starved and who was dismissed from office for his efforts. This clear morality play about Mao (represented by the Ming emperor) and Peng Dehuai (Hai Rui) was first staged in Beijing in Feb. 1961. When it was reprinted in 1965, it set off the Cultural Revolution (See 1965–68). | 7 |
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| Oct. 21 |
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| In a letter to Pres. Eisenhower, Premier Nikita Khrushchev voiced his support of the Chinese Communist claim to the Nationalist-controlled islands, which he termed an “internal” Chinese matter. | 8 |
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| Dec. 19 |
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| In the first instance of aerial combat activity since Nov. 1958, Quemoy was shelled by the Chinese Communists, and MiG fighters flew over the island. | 9 |
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