Events in the year 2012 in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Incumbents

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party The general secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party ( zh, s=中国共产党中央委员会总书记, p=Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Wěiyuánhuì Zǒngshūjì) is the leader of the Chinese Communist Part ...

–

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping, pronounced (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission ...

(from 15 Nov) *

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

–

Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese retired politician who served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the president of China from 2003 to 2013, and chairman of the Central Military Comm ...

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

–

Wen Jiabao Wen Jiabao ( zh, s=温家宝, p=Wēn Jiābǎo; born 15 September 1942) is a Chinese retired politician who served as the 6th premier of China from 2003 to 2013. In his capacity as head of government, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behin ...

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

–

* Vice Premier – Li Keqiang * Congress Chairman – Wu Bangguo * Conference Chairman – Jia Qinglin

Governors

* Governor of Anhui Province – Li Bin * Governor of Fujian Province – Su Shulin * Governor of Gansu Province –

Liu Weiping Liu Weiping (; born May 1953) is a Chinese politician, currently serving as Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He served as Governor of Gansu from 2010 to 2016, and prior to that, Vice-Governor of Qinghai Province and mayor of N ...

* Governor of Guangdong Province – Zhu Xiaodan * Governor of Guizhou Province – Zhao Kezhi (until December), Chen Min'er (starting December) * Governor of Hainan Province – Jiang Dingzhi * Governor of Hebei Province –

Zhang Qingwei Zhang Qingwei (; born 7 November 1961) is a Chinese politician, business executive, and aerospace engineer, who is a vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. He was formerly the Party Secretary of Hunan, the ...

* Governor of Heilongjiang Province: – Wang Xiankui * Governor of Henan Province – Guo Gengmao * Governor of Hubei Province – Wang Guosheng * Governor of Hunan Province – Xu Shousheng * Governor of Jiangsu Province – Li Xueyong * Governor of Jiangxi Province – Lu Xinshe * Governor of Jilin Province – Wang Rulin (until December), Bayanqolu (starting December) * Governor of Liaoning Province – Chen Zhenggao * Governor of Qinghai Province –

Luo Huining Luo Huining (; born 5 October 1954) is a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party who was the director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong between 2020 and 2023. A native of Yiwu, Zhejiang, he was previous ...

* Governor of Shaanxi Province – Zhao Zhengyong (until December), Lou Qinjian (starting December) * Governor of Shandong Province – Jiang Daming * Governor of Shanxi Province – Wang Jun (until December), Li Xiaopeng (starting December) * Governor of Sichuan Province – Jiang Jufeng * Governor of Yunnan Province: Li Jiheng * Governor of Zhejiang Province – Xia Baolong (until December),

Li Qiang Li Qiang (; born July 1959) is a Chinese politician who has been serving as the eighth and current premier of China since March 2023. He has been elevated to the second-ranking member on the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist ...

(starting December)

Events

January

* January 15 - 2012 Guangxi cadmium spill * January 17 – Wanggang village rally * January 22 – Kong Qingdong comment and Early 2012 Hong Kong protests * January 30 –

Ganzhou Ganzhou (), alternately romanized as Kanchow, is a prefecture-level city in the south of Jiangxi province, China, bordering Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Hunan to the west. Its administrative seat is at Zhanggong District. His ...

Ningdu County riot with 5000 citizens

February

* February 1 - Guizhentang Pharmaceutical company IPO controversy * February 8 - **

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

public security bureau head Wang Lijun seek political asylum in US consulate. ** Cross-strait language database introduced by both sides of strait. * February 11 - Elections in Wukan following the Protests of Wukan * February 22 - Chinese coast guard opens fire on Vietnamese ships at

Paracel Islands The Paracel Islands, also known as the Xisha Islands () and the Hoàng Sa Archipelago (), are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea and currently controlled by the People's Republic of China. The word ''paracel'' is of Portuguese origi ...

with no casualties reported. * February 28 - Terrorists kill 15 people in Yecheng,

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

March

* March 1 – ** Guangdong National Language Regulations ** Hong Kong mainland China driving scheme * March 14 - Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law of the PRC was passed by the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress (NPC) is the highest organ of state power of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The NPC is the only branch of government in China, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs from the Sta ...

. * March 15 -

Bo Xilai Bo Xilai ( zh, s=薄熙来, p=Bó Xīlái; born 3 July 1949) is a Chinese former politician who was convicted on bribery and embezzlement charges. He came to prominence through his tenures as Mayor of Dalian and then the governor of Liaoning. ...

was removed from his post as

Party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

Secretary.

April

* April 8 – 10 – The

Philippine Navy The Philippine Navy (PN) () is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It has an estimated strength of 24,500 active service personnel, including the 10,300-strong Philippine Marine Corps. It operates 91 combat ...

spotted Chinese fishermen fishing on the disputed Scarborough Shoal and attempted to detain the fishermen on April 10 but was blocked by the Chinese maritime surveillance ship which led to a diplomatic standoff over the shoal and the further severance of Chinese ties with the Philippines. * April 10 - The

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

suspends the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

membership of former senior official

, while his wife Gu Kailai is named as a suspect in the murder of a British businessman. * April 19 - In

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

, 13-year-old Chinese Guan Tian-lang becomes the youngest player to compete on the PGA European Tour when he bogeys at the Volvo China Open. * April 28 - Blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng – who fled from

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

– reportedly takes refuge in the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

embassy in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

May

* May 7 -

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

seizes thousands of smuggled capsules from Northeastern

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

filled with powdered human flesh. * May 11 - Chinese scientists use

quantum teleportation Quantum teleportation is a technique for transferring quantum information from a sender at one location to a receiver some distance away. While teleportation is commonly portrayed in science fiction as a means to transfer physical objects from on ...

to transmit

photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can ...

s over a distance of – a world record for quantum teleportation. * May 13 - **Torrential rainfall and flooding in

's Hunan Province destroys a bridge and 3,500 homes, leading to the evacuation of 28,000 people in Pingjiang County. ** Chinese security ''tsar'' and

Politburo Standing Committee The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), officially the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is a committee consisting of the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) an ...

member Zhou Yongkang reportedly transfers his security-related duties to Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu, following the Bo Xilai scandal. * May 16 - China Central Television Headquarters in Beijing is completed, a decade after its design by OMA. * May 19 - At least 20 people are killed in an explosion in a road tunnel being constructed in central China. * May 20 - Two women in

Jieyang Jieyang ( zh, s=揭阳, p=Jiēyáng, t=揭陽; Chaozhou dialect: gig4 iên5; Jieyang dialect: gêg4 ion5) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong Province (Yuedong), People's Republic of China, part of the Chaoshan region whose peopl ...

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

, PRC, are executed for counterfeiting nearly 300 million yuan RMB.

June

* June 16 – 22 - 4th Straits Forum * June 24 - China successfully carries out its first manual docking of a spacecraft between the Shenzhou 9 capsule and Tiangong-1 station. * June 29 - Tianjin Airlines Flight GS7554 from Hotan Airport, Embraer E-190, to Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport, passengers and crew members thwart an attempt to hijack a plane in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, local authorities say. * June 30 - Fire breaks out in a mall in

Ji County, Tianjin Jizhou District (), formerly a county known as Ji County, is a district in the far north of the municipality of Tianjin, People's Republic of China, holding cultural and historical significance (''e.g''., the Buddhist Temple of Solitary Joy). O ...

, killing 10 people, all of which are female. Many netizens accuse the authority of a cover-up and believe, based on unconfirmed reports, that hundreds may have perished during the fire.

July

* July 21 - Flash flooding in

and northern

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

kills 79 people in the worst-ever storm to hit the Beijing area.

August

* August 19 - Massive anti-Japanese protest takes place in many Chinese cities, following the landings of several

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and Japanese activists on the disputed

Senkaku Islands The Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in China and the Tiaoyutai Islands in Taiwan, are a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan. They were historically known in the Western world as the Pinnacle ...

September

* September 7 - Twin earthquake on the border between

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

and

Guizhou ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_map = Guizhou in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_alt = Map showing the location of Guizhou Province , map_caption = Map s ...

kills at least 81 people, mostly in Yiliang, Zhaotong. * September 15 – 19 - Second wave of anti-Japanese protests erupts in at least 19 cities in China.

re-appears after a two-week absence.

October

* October 4 - Landslide buries at least 19 people in the Southwestern province of

November

* November 8 – 14 - The 18th National Congress of Chinese Communist Party is held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. On November 15,

is chosen as the new

. He now also leads the Central Military Commission after

hands over the chairmanship to Xi.

December

* December 14 **23 children and an elderly woman were injured during a stabbing incident. **SM City Chongqing, the sixth SM Mall in the Chinese mainland was opened.

References

{{Asia topic, 2012 in Years of the 21st century in China