Timeline of the Chinese Civil War

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 7 December 1949, resulting in a CCP victory and control of mainland China in the Chinese Communist Revolution.^[1]^[2]

The following is a chronological timeline of the history of the Chinese Civil War (1912–1949):^[a]

Date	Event	Key Figures	Notes
1924–1927	First United Front	Sun Yat-sen (1923–1925) Chiang Kai-shek (1926–1927)	Formed in 1924 as an alliance of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to end warlordism in China. Together they formed the National Revolutionary Army and set out in 1926 on the Northern Expedition.

First phase: Communist insurgency (1927–1937)

From August 1927 to 1937, the First United Front collapsed during the Northern Expedition, and the Nationalists controlled most of China.

Date	Event	Key Figures	Notes
12 April 1927	Shanghai massacre		The violent suppression of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations and leftist elements in Shanghai by forces supporting General Chiang Kai-shek and conservative factions in the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party or KMT).
24 December 1937–7 April 1947^[b]	Second United Front	Chiang Kai-shek Mao Zedong	An alliance between the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to resist the Japanese invasion of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, which suspended the Chinese Civil War from 1937 to 1945.

Interlude: Second Sino-Japanese War period (1937–1945)

From 1937 to 1945, hostilities were mostly put on hold as the Second United Front fought the Japanese invasion of China with eventual help from the Allies of World War II, although co-operation between the KMT and CCP during this time was minimal and armed clashes between the groups were common. Events below are related to the Chinese Civil War during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).

Date	Event	Key Figures	Notes
January 1941	New Fourth Army incident

v t e Years in China (1880–present)
Qing dynasty (1644–1912)	Pre-1880 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912
Beiyang government (1912–1928)	1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928
Nationalist government (1928–1949)	1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
People's Republic of China (1949–present)	1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Republic of China (Taiwan) (1949–present)	1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

v t e Timelines of Chinese history
Ancient	Warring States and Qin dynasty (5th century–207 BC) Chu–Han Contention (206–202 BC) Han dynasty (202 BC–AD 9, AD 25–220)
Medieval	Three Kingdoms (220–280) Jin dynasty and the Sixteen Kingdoms (266–439) Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589) Sui dynasty (581–619) Tang dynasty (618–690, 705–907) Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907–979)
Early Modern	Song dynasty (960–1279) Jin–Song Wars (1125–1234) Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) Northern Yuan (1368–1635) Ming dynasty (1368–1644) Treasure voyages (1405–1433) Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598)
Modern	Qing dynasty (1636–1912) Republic of China (1912–) Chinese Civil War (1927-1949)
Locations	Fuzhou Guangzhou Hangzhou Hong Kong Nanjing Shanghai Taiwan Tibet Yunnan-Guizhou Xinjiang
Non-Han ethnicities	Vietnamese Uyghur Khitan Tangut Jurchen Mongol
Related	Xiongnu Göktürk Turgesh Karluk Tibetan Empire Fragmentation Mongol Empire Oirat
Neighboring countries	Korea Vietnam Early independent Lý Japan Mongolia Pakistan India Russia
Miscellaneous	Chinese texts

Timeline of the Chinese Civil War

First phase: Communist insurgency (1927–1937)

Interlude: Second Sino-Japanese War period (1937–1945)

Second phase: resumption of civil war (1945–1949)

See also

References

Bibliography

Notes

Citations

Related Articles

Date	Event	Notes
14 August 1945	Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance	A treaty signed by the National Government of the Republic of China and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on 14 August 1945.