China’s 1.4 billion people have gone through periods of tremendous upheaval and change under 70 years of Communist rule.

The once impoverished war-torn country has grown into the world’s second-largest economy. In between, tens of millions died in the Great Leap Forward, which was anything but that; the Cultural Revolution ushered in a decade of chaos and a brutal crackdown on student protesters snuffed out hopes for democracy.

It has been a long march for the Chinese Communist Party, which came to power on Oct. 1, 1949, after defeating the Nationalist Party in a civil war. The Nationalists retreated to Taiwan, moving their rival government there.

Crowds holding posters of Mao Zedong fill the street of a city in China, celebrating the triumph of the Communist revolution in 1949. (AP Photo)

On a tour of Peiping, which he has selected as the capital of Red China, communist chief Mao Zedong (center, dark coat), greets a group of Communist army commanders, Gen. Chu Teh in Peiping, China, Sept. 18, 1949. (AP Photo)

Main street in Peking, China with older type housing estates on right, shown May 11, 1966. (AP Photo)

Chinese farmer Hung Chin-Chi kneels before a Communist court in Fukang in 1953, before being condemned to death. (AP Photo)

These hunger-ridden refugees from Communist China face the prospect of being returned to that country after they were rounded up by British authorities in Hong Kong, May 1962. Many of them, poorly clothed and barefoot, are seen after being taken into custody by Hong Kong police and British army troops to be sent back across the border. (AP Photo)

Men and women in broad hats walk along a road in Futshan, a rural community near Canton in China, Nov. 20, 1961. (AP Photo)

EARLY UPS AND DOWNS

1950: China backs North Korea in the Korean War and fights the U.S-led coalition to a standstill at the 38th parallel in 1953.

1950s: Technical assistance from the Soviet Union helps develop industry and agriculture. Landlords are executed, their land given to peasants.

1957: An anti-rightist campaign begins to purge intellectuals deemed to be anti-socialist.

1958-1960: The Great Leap Forward to transform the agricultural nation into an industrial power is an economic disaster. By some estimates, 30 million people die in a resulting famine.

1959: The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s leader, flees into exile.

Chairman Mao Tse-tung in 1966.(AP Photo)

Lee Ying in Hong Kong, after being told she must go back to China in 1962. (AP Photo)

China's Chairman Mao Tse-tung, front, swims in the Yangtze River in this July 25, 1966 photo. (AP Photo)

Shanghai citizen's crowd in front of illuminated bulletin boards to read wall newspapers on Nanking street in Shanghai, China, Jan. 6. 1967. (AP Photo)

Four red Chinese-built tanks, with guns raised, parade in Beijing during communist China’s ninth national day parade Oct. 1, 1957. (AP Photo)

Yenan in Shaanxi Province in China where Mao Tse-Tung lived, shown in 1972. (AP Photo)

President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-Lai toast each other at the end of the banquet in the Great Hall of the People in Peking on Feb. 21, 1972. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty)

President Richard Nixon and first lady Pat Nixon lead the way as they take a tour of China's famed Great Wall, near Beijing, Feb. 21, 1972. (AP Photo)

China's Premier Chou En-lai, left, gestures while U.S. President Richard Nixon eats with chop sticks in Shanghai, China, on Sunday, February 28, 1972. (AP Photo)

JOINING THE WORLD, THE RED GUARDS

1964: China conducts its first successful atomic bomb test.

1966: Leader Mao Zedong launches the ultra-radical Cultural Revolution to reassert his authority. Schools are shut, youthful Red Guards attack political enemies and intellectuals are persecuted or driven to suicide.

1971: The U.N. recognizes the communist government in Beijing as China’s representative, replacing Taiwan. A U.S. table tennis team visits Beijing in “pingpong diplomacy” that sets the stage for further exchanges.

1972: Richard Nixon becomes the first American president to visit Communist China.

1976: Mao dies at age 82. The Tangshan earthquake in northeastern China kills more than 240,000 people.

Mao Museum, in Shansi Province, China, in 1971. (AP Photo)

Acrobats perform in a park behind Tiananmen Square May 1, 1967. (AP Photo/Chie Nishio)

Students in a classroom of Beijing High School, February, 1972. (AP Photo)

Cadres and commune peasants in Shantung Province, China, pitch in spring farming, April 1976. (AP Photo)

A joint farming project using both civilian and army personnel is underway, somewhere in the countryside of the People's Republic of China, in 1971. (AP Photo)

Typical street scene in modern-day Peking, China’s capital in 1978. (AP Photo)

Party and state leaders stand vigil before the remains of the great leader and teacher Chairman Mao Tsetung, September 13, 1976. (AP Photo)

Chinese sight-seers flock to the snow-covered courtyards of the famed Forbidden City of Peking, former seat of the Ming and Ching dynasties, Jan. 28, 1985. (AP Photo/Neal Ulevich)

A youth propaganda team of Number 125 middle school, armed with a loudspeaker, explain the merits of launching Socialist Ethics Month Sunday, Feb. 28, 1982 in Dondang street, Beijing, China. (AP Photo)

A Chinese youngster wears a play Army cap in Peking’s Tiananmen Square, China, in 1979. (AP Photo/Neal Ulevich)

Chinese actors in elaborate traditional costumes, during a performance of the Peking Opera in China in 1979. (AP Photo/Neal Ulevich)

Opening session of National People's Congress in Beijing, China, March 27, 1985. (AP Photo)

Three boys with reflective sunglasses pose in the Simao district, Yunnan province in 1981. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)

An aide helps Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping try on a cowboy hat presented to him at a rodeo in Simonton, Texas, Feb. 2, 1979. (AP Photo)

The long awaited sentencing of the trial of the so-called Gang of Four and Lin Piao followers takes place in No. 1 Justice Road in Peking on Sunday, Jan. 25, 1980. (AP Photo)

A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Cangan Blvd. in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989. (AP Photo/Jeff Widener)

OPENING UP, BUT NOT POLITICALLY

1978: Leader Deng Xiaoping introduces market-style reforms, allowing small-scale free enterprise but leaving in place the dominant state-owned companies.

1979: China and the U.S. establish diplomatic relations.

1980: A policy allowing most couples only one child is launched nationwide. Special economic zones are created in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen.

1989: Thousands of students demonstrate for democracy in Tiananmen Square. Hundreds die when Deng decides to send in troops.

A poster for the "one child" policy, Aug. 4, 1988 in Lanzhou, China. (AP Photo)

Fireworks mark the Hong Kong handover, Monday midnight June 30, 1997. (AP Photo)

CHINA’S RISE

1990: Beijing hosts the Asian Games, the first major international sports event in China. McDonald’s opens its first Chinese outlet.

1997: Hong Kong, the former British colony, returns to Chinese rule under the principle of “one country, two systems.”

2001: China joins the World Trade Organization.

2003: The SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus kills more than 770 people, mostly in mainland China and Hong Kong. China send a person into space on its own, the third country to do so after the Soviet Union and the United States.

2008: Beijing hosts the Summer Olympics. Violent anti-government protests erupt in Tibet. An earthquake in Sichuan province kills nearly 90,000 people.

Thirty-six couples are showered with confetti during a wedding ceremony on the Great Wall at Mutianyu north of Beijing October 1, 1997. The mass-wedding was planned to coincide with the country's national day as China celebrates 48 years of Communist Party rule. (AP Photo/Mike Fiala)

Chinese soldiers wade through the waters of the Nenjiang River, Heilongjiang Province, Monday Aug. 17, 1998, as the rain-swollen rivers breached a dike in northeastern China. (AP Photo/Lan Hongguang)

A black and white photograph of Mao Tse-tung, founder of the People's Republic of China, in photo at right, and Lin Piao, Chinese Communist general and political leader, in photo at left, and antiquated Red Books from the Cultural Revolution are placed at a local antique stall, Tuesday, May 25, 1999 in a back alley in Shanghai. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A Chinese man sleeps with his legs drapped across a Ronald McDonald mannequin outside the McDonald's restaurant at the south end of Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Wednesday, May 27, 1998. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)

GLOBAL POWER, FRICTIONS

2010: China surpasses Japan to become the second-largest economy. Imprisoned activist writer Liu Xiaobo is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2013: China launches the Belt and Road Initiative to expand its trade and influence by building roads, ports and other infrastructure overseas.

2016: An international panel rules against China’s definition of its South China Sea territorial claims, but China continues to expand its presence in the strategically important waters.

2018: President Donald Trump starts a tariff and trade war with China as concern grows over China’s challenge to U.S. technological might. The legislature scraps term limits, setting the stage for Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely.

2019: Major democracy protests erupt in Hong Kong, raising questions about the viability of the “one country, two systems” framework that China applies there and wants to extend to Taiwan.

Text from AP News story AP Photos: 70 years of Communist rule in China.

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