The Second Sino-Japanese War continued during the earlier part of this period with the most notable engagement being the Hundred Regiments Offensive of the CCP's National Revolutionary Army divisions.

The Yan'an Rectification Movement was the first ideological mass movement initiated by the CCP, going from 1942 to 1945. Although it was during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the CCP was experiencing a time of relative peace when they could focus on internal affairs.

The Cairo Conference was one of the 14 summit meetings during World War II that occurred on November 22-26, 1943. The Conference was held in Cairo, Egypt, between the United Kingdom (Winston Churchill), China (Chiang Kai-shek), and the United States (Franklin D. Roosevelt).

The civil war resumed as soon as it became apparent that the Japanese defeat was imminent, and the CCP gained the upper hand in the second phase of the war from 1945 to 1949, generally referred to as the Chinese Communist Revolution. Although, in 1947, the KMT finally managed to do what the Japanese hadn't, which was capturing Mao's base in Yan'an, that had been established after the end of the Long March, by this time the CCP had already created a new base for their operations in Manchuria. They had selected this region because Russia had a presence nearby, and the CCP and Russia had allied together because of their desire to further a theoretical communist government in their respective countries. Feeling more confident with their new allies nearby, the CCP became more aggressive against the KMT. This confidence proved to be well-founded as the CCP finally defeated the KMT in 1949. The remnants of the KMT fled to Taiwan by the end of the year, leaving continental China in the hands of the CCP.

The February 28th Incident, was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan in 1947 that was violently suppressed by the KMT-led nationalist government of the ROC. The number of deaths from the incident and massacre was estimated to be between 18,000 and 28,000.

The Liaoshen Campaign was the first of the three major military campaigns launched by the Communist People's Liberation Army (PLA) against the KMT Nationalist government during the late stage of the Chinese Civil War. It was followed by the Huaihai Campaign and the Pingjin Campaign.

Following on from the Chinese Communist Revolution, conflict moved to Korea. The Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River was a decisive battle in the Korean War, and it took place from November 25 to December 2, 1950, along the Ch'ongch'on River Valley in the northwestern part of North Korea.

To the west, a peaceful but uncomfortable state of affairs in Tibet ended with the Tibet Agreement.

The "Anti Campaigns" were reform movements originally issued by Mao Zedong a few years after the founding of the PRC in an effort to rid Chinese cities of corruption and enemies of the state. The result turned into a series of campaigns that consolidated Mao's power base by targeting political opponents and capitalists, especially wealthy capitalists. The campaigns negatively impacted the economy of big cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, forcing many businessmen to commit suicide. In Shanghai alone, from January 25 to April 1, 1952, at least 876 people committed suicide.

From 1953, the CCP developed Five-Year Plans - a series of social and economic development initiatives.