About
Chronicles of Modern China
An independent, non-partisan bilingual digital archive of modern Chinese history from 1912 to the present. We place primary sources side by side — without editorial bias — and let the evidence speak.
Our Philosophy
Sources Side by Side
Wherever possible, we place published Beijing official documents, publicly available Taiwan sources, academic research and eyewitness testimony alongside one another. Everything we cite has been publicly published or released, and every item is referenced so readers can locate the original, compare and draw their own conclusions.
Data Speaks
Where numbers and documents can make the case, we avoid narrative editorialising. Every casualty figure and policy outcome carries a source citation and credibility grade for verification and academic citation.
Decentralised Interpretation
For contested events, we use a Narrative Comparison table to surface diverging perspectives rather than synthesise them into a single conclusion. The right to historical judgement belongs to the reader, not the editor.
Content Standards
Source Types
Government documents, party resolutions, official communiqués, and state-issued records.
Peer-reviewed journals, university press monographs, and scholarly conference proceedings.
Contemporary journalistic accounts from domestic and international outlets.
Memoirs, oral histories, diaries, and first-hand witness accounts.
Previously classified government intelligence and diplomatic cables.
Credibility Grades
Original documents, direct testimony, or data produced at the time of the event.
Analysis or synthesis of primary sources that has undergone academic peer review.
Included for reference; credibility or provenance has not yet been fully verified.
Scope
CMC covers major events from the founding of the Republic of China in 1912 to the present, across four categories — political, economic, social, and diplomatic — organised into seven historical periods:
- 1912–1949Republican Era & Revolution
- 1949–1957Early PRC
- 1956–1966Leap Forward Era
- 1966–1976Cultural Revolution
- 1978–1989Reform & Opening Up
- 1989–2012Economic Rise
- 2012–presentXi Jinping Era
Reuse & Licensing
Unless otherwise noted, the original text written for this site (event narratives and summaries, biographies, glossary definitions, narrative comparison tables, etc.) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). You may copy, republish, translate and adapt it, including for commercial purposes, provided you credit “Chronicles of Modern China” and link to the original page; adaptations must be released under the same license. A ready-made citation is available under “Cite this page” at the end of every event and figure page.
Quoted documents, photographs, images and map data remain the property of their original authors or rights holders and are not covered by this license; see the credits and source notes accompanying each item.
Contact & Contribute
CMC is an ongoing open project. If you identify factual errors, missing sources, or translation issues, please reach out via the channels below. We also welcome researchers with backgrounds in history, archival studies, or related fields to participate in content review.