Outline of the military history of the People's Republic of China

Last updated November 07, 2024

The following is a topical outline of English Wikipedia articles about the military history of the People's Republic of China.^{[lower-alpha 1]} It includes the military events, individuals, and topics involving the People's Republic of China from the Chinese Civil War to the present. The events are outlined chronologically with topical subsections.^[1]^[2]

Overview articles

History

History of the People's Republic of China

Military branches and services

Major conflicts

Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with armed conflict continuing intermittently from 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949, resulting in a CCP victory and control of mainland China in the Chinese Communist Revolution.

Main article: Outline of the Chinese Civil War

Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. It began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea and ceased after an armistice on 27 July 1953. The north was supported by China and the Soviet Union while the south was supported by United Nations (UN) forces led by the United States.
Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was a major conflict of the Cold War. While the war was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, the north was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist states, while the south was supported by the United States and other anti-communist allies. The conflict spilled over into neighboring states, exacerbating the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War.

Short conflicts and events

Battle of Chamdo (or Qamdo; Chinese :昌都战役)^{[lower-alpha 2]} was a military campaign by the People's Republic of China from 6 to 24 October 1950 to take the Chamdo Region from a de facto independent Tibetan state. The campaign resulted in the capture of Chamdo and the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China.^[3]
First Taiwan Strait Crisis (also known as the Formosa Crisis, the 1954–1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the Offshore Islands Crisis, the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis, and the 1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis) was a brief armed conflict between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The conflict focused on several groups of islands in the Taiwan Strait that were held by the ROC but were located only a few miles from mainland China.
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis (also called the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis), was a conflict between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (ROC). During the conflict, the PRC shelled the islands of Kinmen (Quemoy) and the Matsu Islands along the east coast of mainland China (in the Taiwan Strait) in an attempt to take control of Taiwan from the Chinese Nationalist Party, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT), and to probe the extent of the United States' defense of Taiwan's territory. A naval battle also took place around Dongding Island when the ROC Navy repelled an attempted amphibious landing by the PRC Navy.
1960–61 campaign at the China–Burma border (simplified Chinese :中缅边境作战; traditional Chinese :中緬邊境作戰) was a series of battles fought along the China–Burma border after the Chinese Civil War, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Burma on one side and the nationalist forces of the Republic of China (ROC) on the other. The government of the PRC refers to the campaign as the China–Burma border demarcation and security operation (simplified Chinese:中缅边境勘界警卫作战; traditional Chinese:中緬邊境勘界警衛作戰).
Sino-Indian War, also known as the China–India War or the Indo–China War, was an armed conflict between China and India that took place from October to November 1962. It was a military escalation of the Sino–Indian border dispute. Fighting occurred along India's border with China, in India's North-East Frontier Agency east of Bhutan, and in Aksai Chin west of Nepal.
Sino-Soviet border conflict was a seven-month undeclared military conflict between the Soviet Union and China in 1969, following the Sino-Soviet split. The most serious border clash, which brought the world's two largest communist states to the brink of war, occurred near Damansky (Zhenbao) Island on the Ussuri (Wusuli) River in Manchuria. Clashes also took place in Xinjiang.
Battle of the Paracel Islands (Chinese: 西沙海战, Pinyin: Xisha Haizhan；Vietnamese: Hải chiến Hoàng Sa) was a military engagement between the naval forces of China and South Vietnam in the Paracel Islands on January 19, 1974. The battle was an attempt by the South Vietnamese navy to expel the Chinese navy from the vicinity. The confrontation took place towards the end of the Vietnam War.
Sino-Vietnamese War, also known by other names), was a brief conflict that occurred in early 1979 between China and Vietnam. China launched an offensive in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978, which ended the rule of the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge. The conflict lasted for about a month, with China withdrawing its troops in March 1979.
Sino-Vietnamese conflicts (1979–1991) were a series of border and naval clashes between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam following the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979. These clashes lasted from the end of the Sino-Vietnamese War until the normalization of ties in 1991.
Johnson South Reef skirmish took place on 14 March 1988 between military forces of the People's Republic of China and Vietnam, on the Johnson South Reef in the Union Banks region of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea.
Third Taiwan Strait Crisis (also called the 1995–1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis or the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis), was the effect of a series of missile tests conducted by the People's Republic of China in the waters surrounding Taiwan, including the Taiwan Strait from 21 July 1995 to 23 March 1996. The first set of missiles fired in mid-to-late 1995 were allegedly intended to send a strong signal to the Republic of China government under President Lee Teng-hui, who had been seen as "moving its foreign policy away from the One-China policy", as claimed by PRC.^[4] The second set of missiles were fired in early 1996, allegedly intending to intimidate the Taiwanese electorate in the run-up to the 1996 presidential election.
Scarborough Shoal standoff is a dispute between the Philippines and the People's Republic of China over the Scarborough Shoal. Tensions began on April 8, 2012, after the attempted apprehension by the Philippine Navy of eight mainland Chinese fishing vessels near the shoal.
2020–2021 China–India skirmishes began on 5 May 2020, when Chinese and Indian troops engaged in aggressive melee, face-offs, and skirmishes at locations along the Sino-Indian border, including near the disputed Pangong Lake in Ladakh and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and near the border between Sikkim and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Additional clashes also took place at locations in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Major individuals and groups

Political

Below are a lists of primarily political individuals and groups serving the People's Republic of China that spanned multiple conflicts and events. See the events for specific individuals and units involved in one particular conflict.

Individuals^{[lower-alpha 3]}

Mao Zedong (1949–1976)
Lin Biao (1949–1971)
Chen Yi (marshal) (1949–1972)
Hua Guofeng (1976–1978)
Deng Xiaoping (1978–1989)
Jiang Zemin (1989–2002)
Hu Jintao (2002–2012)
Xi Jinping (2012 to present)

Groups

Military

Below are a lists of primarily military individuals and units serving the People's Republic of China that spanned multiple conflicts and events. See the events for specific individuals and units involved in one particular conflict.

Individuals

Theater Commands

Theater Commands (China)

Formations and units

Hong Kong Garrison

Reform and modernization

Geography and locations

Documents, speeches, and proclamation

Military history related lists

Below includes lists of military history topics related to the People's Republic of China.

Related Research Articles

The Republic of China Armed Forces are the armed forces of the Republic of China (ROC), which once ruled Mainland China and is now currently restricted to its territorial jurisdictions of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu Islands. They consist of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Military Police Force. The military is under the civilian control of the Ministry of National Defense, a cabinet-level agency overseen by the Legislative Yuan.

The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with armed conflict continuing intermittently from 1 August 1927 until Communist victory resulted in their total control over mainland China on 7 December 1949.

Chinese unification, also known as Cross-Strait unification or Chinese reunification, is the potential unification of territories currently controlled, or claimed, by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China ("Taiwan") under one political entity, possibly the formation of a political union between the two republics. Together with full Taiwan independence, unification is one of the main proposals to address questions on the political status of Taiwan, which is a central focus of Cross-Strait relations.

The Sino-Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War. This was primarily caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Leninism, as influenced by their respective geopolitics during the Cold War of 1947–1991. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Sino-Soviet debates about the interpretation of orthodox Marxism became specific disputes about the Soviet Union's policies of national de-Stalinization and international peaceful coexistence with the Western Bloc, which Chinese leader Mao Zedong decried as revisionism. Against that ideological background, China took a belligerent stance towards the Western world, and publicly rejected the Soviet Union's policy of peaceful coexistence between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc. In addition, Beijing resented the Soviet Union's growing ties with India due to factors such as the Sino-Indian border dispute, and Moscow feared that Mao was too nonchalant about the horrors of nuclear warfare.

The First Taiwan Strait Crisis was a brief armed conflict between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The conflict focused on several groups of islands in the Taiwan Strait that were held by the ROC but were located only a few miles from mainland China.

The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, also known as the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis, was a conflict between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). The PRC shelled the islands of Kinmen (Quemoy) and the Matsu Islands along the east coast of mainland China in an attempt to take them from the Chinese Nationalist Party, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT), and to probe the extent of American commitment to defend the Republic of China. The conflict also involved air, naval, and amphibious operations. Then U.S. Secretary of State Christian Herter reportedly described it as the "first serious nuclear crisis".

The Formosa Resolution of 1955 was a joint resolution passed by the U.S. Senate and signed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 29, 1955, to counteract the threat of an invasion of Taiwan by the People's Republic of China (PRC). The resolution gave the U.S. president the authority "to employ the Armed Forces of the United States as he deems necessary for the specific purpose of securing and protecting Formosa and the Pescadores against armed attack [by the Communists]".

Cross-strait relations are the political and economic relations between mainland China and Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait. Due to the existing controversy over the status of Taiwan, they are also not defined as diplomatic relations by both sides.

The history of the People's Liberation Army began in 1927 with the start of the Chinese Civil War and spans to the present, having developed from a peasant guerrilla force into the largest armed force in the world.

Sino-Soviet relations, or China–Soviet Union relations, refers to the diplomatic relationship between China and the various forms of Soviet Power which emerged from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to 1991, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

The Battle of Dengbu Island was a conflict between the Republic of China Army and People's Liberation Army over Dengbu Island near mainland China. This conflict occurred from 3 November 1949 to 5 November 1949 and resulted in a Republic of China victory.

The Battle of Hainan Island occurred in 1950, during the final phase of the Chinese Civil War. The People's Republic of China (PRC) conducted an amphibious assault on Hainan Island on 16 April, assisted by the Hainan communist movement which controlled much of the island's interior, while the Republic of China (ROC) controlled the coast; their forces were concentrated in the north near Haikou and were forced to retreat south after the landings. The communists secured Hainan's southern cities by the end of the month and declared victory on 1 May.

Project Guoguang was an attempt by the Republic of China (ROC), based in Taiwan, to reconquer mainland China from the People's Republic of China (PRC) by large scale invasion. It was the most elaborate of the ROCs plans or studies to invade the mainland after 1949. Guoguang was initiated in 1961 in response to events involving the PRC, particularly the Great Leap Forward, the Sino-Soviet split, and the development of nuclear weapons. Guoguang was never executed; it required more troops and material than the ROC could muster, and it lacked support from the United States. The use of a large scale invasion as the initial stage of reunification was effectively abandoned after 1966, although the Guoguang planning organization was not abolished until 1972. The ROC did not abandon the policy of using force for reunification until 1990.

The territory of the People's Republic of China (PRC) has frequently been revised since its formation on 1 October 1949.

The Battle of Chamdo occurred from 6 to 24 October 1950. It was a military campaign by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to take the Chamdo Region from a de facto independent Tibetan state. The campaign resulted in the capture of Chamdo and the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China.

The Tibet Area was a province-level administrative division of China in the 20th century. It was de jure created after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, and nominally includes the Ü-Tsang and Ngari areas, but not the Amdo and Kham areas. The territories were merely claimed by the ROC, but actually controlled by an independent Tibet with a government headed by the Dalai Lama in Lhasa. At this time, the scope of de facto independent Tibet included the "Tibet area" and the Chamdo area west of the Jinsha River, which claimed by China. The ROC retreated to Taiwan and lost control of mainland China to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949; afterwards, the ROC continued to claim Tibet.

Following their defeat in the Chinese Civil War, on December 7, 1949, the remnants of the Nationalist government of the Republic of China (ROC), alongside many refugees, retreated to the island of Taiwan (Formosa). The exodus is sometimes called the Great Retreat in Taiwan. The Nationalist Kuomintang party (KMT), its officers, and approximately 2 million ROC troops took part in the retreat, in addition to many civilians and refugees, fleeing the advance of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP, who now effectively controlled most of mainland China, spent the subsequent years purging any remnant Nationalist agents in western and southern China, solidifying the rule of the newly established People's Republic of China (PRC).

The proclamation of the People's Republic of China was made by Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on October 1, 1949, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The government of a new state under the CCP, formally called the Central People's Government, was proclaimed by Mao at the ceremony, which marked the foundation of the People's Republic of China.

Chinese irredentism involves irredentist claims to the territories of former Chinese dynasties made by the Republic of China (ROC) and subsequently the People's Republic of China (PRC).

References

Bibliography

Bernstein, R. (2015). China 1945: Mao's revolution and America's fateful choice. Vintage.
Fairbank, J. K., & Goldman, M. (2006). China: A new history (2nd ed.). Harvard University Press.
Fenby, J. (2009). Modern China: The fall and rise of a great power, 1850 to the present. Harper Perennial.
Fenby, J. (2014). Chiang Kai Shek: China's generalissimo and the nation he lost. Carroll & Graf.
Gillin, D. (2011). The Last Imperial War: Warlords, Revolutionaries, and the Making of Modern China, 1927–1950. Bloomsbury Academic.
Griffith, S. G. (2013). Chinese Civil War and the Korean War: Military Strategy and Tactics. Taylor & Francis.
Hsiung, J. C., & Levine, S. I. (Eds.). (1992). China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945. M.E. Sharpe.
Lawrance, A. (2017). The Chinese Civil War 1945–49. Bloomsbury Academic.
Lynch, M. (2010). The Chinese Civil War, 1945–49. Osprey Publishing.
Mao, Z., & Schram, S. (1966). Quotations from chairman Mao Tse-tung. Little Red Book.
Meisner, M. (1999). Mao's China and after: A history of the People's Republic. Free Press.
Mitter, R. (2013). China's war with Japan, 1937–1945: The struggle for survival. Harvard University Press.
Schaller, M. (1989). The US Crusade in China, 1938–1945. Columbia University Press.
Schram, S. R. (1966). Mao Tse-tung. Simon and Schuster.
Spence, J. D. (1991). The search for modern China. W.W. Norton & Company.
Tuchman, B. W. (2014). Stilwell and the American experience in China, 1911–45. Random House.
Van de Ven, H. (2017). The Chinese Civil War: A military history. Cambridge University Press.
Van de Ven, H. (2003). War and nationalism in China, 1925–1945. Routledge.
Westad, O. A. (2003). The Chinese Civil War: 1945–1949. Basic Books.
Zarrow, P. (2005). China in war and revolution, 1895–1949. Routledge.

Notes

↑ See Outline of the Chinese Civil War for a full outline of the military history of the event.
↑ The exiled Tibetan government in India calls The battle "The invasion of Tibet by the People's Liberation Army of China".
↑ Years represent the period the individual was influencial and in a position of power in the People's Republic of China.

Citations

↑ Li, Xiaobing (2012). China at War: An Encyclopedia. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 295. ISBN 9781598844153. Archived from the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
↑ Lew, Christopher R.; Leung, Pak-Wah, eds. (2013). Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 3. ISBN 978-0810878730. Archived from the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
↑ "Chinese Reds Promise the 'Liberation' of Tibet". The New York Times. 3 September 1949.
↑ "Taiwan's President Speaks at Cornell Reunion Weekend". Cornell University. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2010.

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[1] See Outline of the Chinese Civil War for a full outline of the military history of the event.

[4] The exiled Tibetan government in India calls The battle "The invasion of Tibet by the People's Liberation Army of China".

[7] Years represent the period the individual was influencial and in a position of power in the People's Republic of China.

[Nanchang-2] Li, Xiaobing (2012). China at War: An Encyclopedia. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 295. ISBN 9781598844153. Archived from the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 27 June 2015.

[3] Lew, Christopher R.; Leung, Pak-Wah, eds. (2013). Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 3. ISBN 978-0810878730. Archived from the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2017.

[5] "Chinese Reds Promise the 'Liberation' of Tibet". The New York Times. 3 September 1949.

[CornellNews-6] "Taiwan's President Speaks at Cornell Reunion Weekend". Cornell University. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2010.

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