CHINA

1946 Civil War

1949 Peoples Republic of China (PRC) established

1950 Korean War (to 1953)

1958 Great Leap Forward (to 1961)

1966 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (to 1969)

1972 President Nixon visits China

1976 Mao Zedong dies

1978 Deng Xiaoping's Four Modernizations

1989 Tiananmen

2001 WTO accession

2004 Economic growth. Constitutional amendments. Taiwan elections

JAPAN

1945 SCAP occupation begins.

1947 General MacArthur bans strike. New constitution.

1950 Korean War. "Red Purge."

1960 Security Treaty Demonstrations. PM Kishi resigns.

1972 Prime Minister Tanaka visits China.

1989 Showa Emperor (Hirohito) dies.

1991 Recession starts. First Iraq War (Japan pays $13 billion)

1995 Kobe earthquake, Aum Shinrikyo subway bombing.

2004 Economic recovery slow. Self Defense Forces to Iraq.