On 16 December 1945, US President Harry S. Truman issues a statement on US policy towards China and deplores the rise of the Communists.

In 1946, Chiang Kai-shek, former Head of the Chinese Nationalist Government, addresses the Chinese people upon his return to Shanghai following the Japanese occupation. On Chiang’s right is Lieutenant-General A. C. Wedemeyer, Commander of the US forces in China, and on his left is his wife, Soong May-ling.

The leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party, Chiang Kai-shek (1886–1975), fought against Japanese control and then against the Communist Party led by Mao Tse-Tung. Defeated in 1949, he went into exile in Formosa.

On 22 January 1949, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung paints a picture of the Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, who is forced to retreat after Chinese Communists troops take Peking.

The founder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Mao Tse-tung (1893–1976), was President of the People’s Republic of China from 1954 to 1959. He was behind the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1965–1968).

On 27 May 1949, the special correspondent of the French daily newspaper Le Monde describes how Mao Tse-Tung’s Communist troops took Shanghai.

On 1 October 1949, on the occasion of the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China, the Soviet daily newspaper Pravda praises the Chinese people, led by Mao Tse-Tung, for their efforts in this successful revolution.

Dans ses Mémoires, le président américain Harry S. Truman se souvient de la politique menée par les États-Unis face à la guerre civile en Chine au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

On 5 January 1950, in the French newspaper Le Figaro, Raymond Aron examines the causes and the consequences of the Communist victory in China.

On 7 January 1950, the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera comments on the recognition of Mao Tse-Tung’s Communist China by Great Britain and describes the position taken by the United States towards the Communist leader’s accession to power.

People’s parade through the streets of Peking in honour of the Chinese Communist leader, Mao Tse-Tung.