A country

China

8 stories set here.

The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Legation Quarter, Beijing

The 55-Day Siege of the Beijing Foreign Legations Quarter by the Boxer Movement and Imperial Chinese Army in Summer 1900

The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists — the Boxers — were an anti-foreign, anti-Christian Chinese militia movement of the late 1890s. In June 1900 they besieged the foreign legations in Beijing for 55 days. The Eight-Nation Alliance — a combined force of approximately 20,000 troops from eight powers — broke the siege on 14 August 1900. The Qing dynasty paid an indemnity of 450 million silver taels, payable over 39 years.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Beijing

The Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976 That Killed an Estimated 500,000 to 2 Million and Reshaped Chinese Society

Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in May 1966 to purge his Party rivals and reassert ideological authority. The mass-mobilization campaign ran for a decade until Mao's death on 9 September 1976. The death toll from political killing, suicide, and famine across the campaign is estimated at 500,000 to 2 million.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Forbidden City, Beijing

The Manchu Junior Concubine Who Became the Effective Ruler of China for 47 Years and Died the Day After Her Adopted Nephew the Emperor

Cixi entered the Forbidden City as a junior fifth-rank concubine in 1851 at age 16. By 1861 she was co-regent for her infant son the Tongzhi Emperor. She ruled the Qing dynasty in fact if not in title from 1861 to her death on 15 November 1908. The Guangxu Emperor — her adopted nephew, whom she had kept under house arrest for ten years — died of arsenic poisoning the day before. The dynasty fell three years later.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Nanjing

The Failed Civil Service Candidate Who Decided He Was the Younger Brother of Jesus Christ and Started a Civil War That Killed 20 Million People

Hong Xiuquan failed the Qing civil service examination four times. After his 1837 nervous breakdown he became convinced he was the second son of the Christian God and the younger brother of Jesus. The 1850-1864 Taiping Rebellion he led against the Qing dynasty killed approximately 20 million people — the deadliest civil war in human history.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Yan'an, Shaanxi

The 9,000-Kilometre Communist Long March of October 1934 to October 1935 That Established Mao Zedong's Leadership of the Chinese Communist Party

Approximately 86,000 Chinese Communist soldiers and political workers broke out of the Nationalist encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet on 16 October 1934 and began a 370-day, approximately 9,000-kilometre retreat across southern and western China to the Shaanxi base area. Approximately 8,000 reached Yan'an in October 1935. The march established Mao Zedong's leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Canton (Guangzhou)

The British Naval Campaign of 1839-1842 to Force China to Buy Indian Opium That Ended With the Cession of Hong Kong

The First Opium War (1839-1842) was a British naval campaign to force the Qing Empire to legalise the import of Indian opium into China. The Chinese imperial commissioner Lin Zexu had destroyed 1,200 tonnes of British opium at Canton in June 1839. Britain responded with a 5,000-troop expeditionary force. The 1842 Treaty of Nanking ended the war with the cession of Hong Kong, the opening of five treaty ports, and a £21 million indemnity.

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The Coroner’s Report June 27, 2026 · Tiananmen Square, Beijing

The Chinese Army's Suppression of the Tiananmen Square Protests on the Night of 3-4 June 1989

Chinese student-led protests had occupied Tiananmen Square in central Beijing since 15 April 1989. On the night of 3-4 June 1989 the People's Liberation Army cleared the square and the surrounding boulevards with armoured vehicles and live fire. The death toll has never been officially published; credible estimates range from several hundred to several thousand.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Luoyang, Henan

The Only Woman in 2,000 Years of Chinese Imperial History to Rule as Emperor in Her Own Name and Found Her Own Dynasty

Wu Zetian (624-705) entered the Tang court at age 14 as a concubine, became empress consort to Emperor Gaozong in 655, ruled as effective regent for 23 years through her sons, and declared herself Emperor of the new Zhou dynasty in 690 at age 66. She is the only woman in 2,000 years of Chinese imperial history to hold the title of Emperor (huangdi) in her own name.

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