January 15
The CPC Central Committee and the State Council adopted the Decision on Health Reform and Development.
February 19
Deng Xiaoping passed away.
March 14
The 5th Session of the 8th NPC approved Chongqing as a municipality under the direct administration of the central government. Its status as a prefecture-level city was to be revoked.
April 15
The CPC Central Committee and the State Council released the Circular on Further Promoting Land Management and Protecting Cultivated Land, where a land use management system was officially established. On July 13, 2006, the General Office of the State Council released the Circular on Relevant Issues Concerning Establishing the National Land Supervision System, formally setting up the national land supervision system.
June 4
The 3rd Meeting of the National Science and Technology Leading Group decided to formulate and implement the National Plan for the Development of Key Basic Research Projects. The Ministry of Science and Technology was responsible for the implementation of the National Program for the Development of Key Basic Research Projects (also known as the “Program 973”).
Midnight, June 30–Early Morning, July 1
The Chinese and British governments held a ceremony for the handover of the sovereignty of Hong Kong and declared China’s resumption of its exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the PRC was officially established. Following the handover ceremony, the ceremony for the establishment of the HKSAR of the PRC and the swearing-in of HKSAR officials was held. The PLA Hong Kong Garrison was to perform their defense duties from 00:00, July 1, 1997.
July
The Asian financial crisis broke out against the backdrop of international hot money attacks and panic-induced capital flights. On December 6, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Circular on Deepening Financial Reform, Rectifying Financial Order and Guarding against Financial Risks.
September 2
The State Council issued the Circular on Establishing a National Minimum Living Security System for Urban Residents.
September 12–18
The 15th CPC National Congress was held. It adopted the report entitled “Hold High the Great Banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory and Comprehensively Advance the Cause of Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the 21st Century.” The Report laid stress on the historical position and guiding significance of Deng Xiaoping Theory, put forward the basic line for the primary stage of socialism, and explicitly affirmed that upholding and improving the basic economic system whereby socialist public ownership was dominant and economic entities under diverse ownership forms developed side by side was a basic economic system of China at the early stage of socialism. It also emphasized the importance of law-based governance and the need to build a socialist country under the rule of law, and clearly defined the cross-century development goals of reform and opening up, and modernization. The Congress adopted the Constitution of the Communist Party of China (Revised) that included Deng Xiaoping Theory as a guiding ideology of the CPC along with Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.
September 12
Jiang Zemin announced in his report to the 15th CPC National Congress that in addition to a reduction of 1 million military personnel in the 1980s, the army would cut another 500,000 over the next three years. On September 1, 2003, when attending the ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National University of Defense Technology, Jiang Zemin announced that the army would cut 200,000 military personnel by the end of 2005 on top of 500,000 cuts made during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period.
September 19
At the 1st Plenary Session of the 15th CPC Central Committee, Jiang Zemin was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission. Wei Jianxing was appointed as secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
November 8
The Three Gorges Water Control Project successfully dammed the Yangtze River. On July 4, 2012, the last giant hydro turbine with a capacity of 700 MW was installed and put into operation.
December 24
When addressing the delegates to a national conference on utilizing foreign capital, Jiang Zemin pointed out that “bringing in” and “going global” were two closely-linked and mutually-reinforcing aspects of China’s basic state policy of opening up, neither of which could be dispensed with, and that they constituted a major strategy.
December
The Central Military Commission convened an enlarged meeting, at which it proposed two time-honored topics of “win battles” and “never degenerate.” The meeting formulated the “three-step” development strategy for the modernization of national defense and military forces.
From:Chronicle of the People's Republic of China(October 1949—September 2019), edited by The Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, PP.164-169.