1925
According to a 1998 article by Benjamin Garrett, in 1925 Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin builds a chemical plant in Shengyang with the help of German contracting firm Witte. German and Russian scientists are hired to supervise the production of chlorine, phosgene and mustard gas. Equipment for the factory is shipped in by A.L Gran, a Norwegian firm.
--Benjamin Garrett, "The Chinese Warlords' Chemical Arms Race," The CW Almanac, August 1998, 98-4, issue no. 67; www.asanltr.com/ASANews-98/cwalmanac.html.

1927
In 1927, representatives from A.L. Gran, a Norwegian firm, visit the Shengyang plant to oversee installation of the equipment for chlorine, phosgene and mustard gas.
--Benjamin Garrett, "The Chinese Warlords' Chemical Arms Race," The CW Almanac, August 1998, 98-4, issue no. 67; www.asanltr.com/ASANews-98/cwalmanac.html.

1937-1945
The Imperial Japanese Army deploys and uses chemical weapons in China during World War II.
--"Japan Held Responsible for Destruction of Abandoned Chemical Weapons in China," Xinhua News Agency, 3 May 2000, in Lexis-Nexis, www.lexis-nexis.com.

1938-1942
The Imperial Japanese Army reportedly conducts 56 cases of poison gas operations against Chinese troops.
--Evidence Shows Japan Used Poison Gas in China," Associated Press, 15 June 1984, in Lexis-Nexis, www.lexis-nexis.com.

1938-1942
The Japanese army reportedly uses lethal and non-lethal poison gas in at least 1,300 cases during its occupation of China in World War II.
--Evidence Shows Japan Used Poison Gas in China," Associated Press, 15 June 1984, in Lexis-Nexis, www.lexis-nexis.com

1940
Unit 731, based in Harbin, reportedly has 26 experimental centers around China and employs more than 10,000 people.
Note: Researchers working for Unit 731 injected Chinese and Soviet prisoners with typhus, cholera and a variety of other germs, induced gangrene, performed live dissections and froze victims to death in endurance tests.
--Irene M. Kunii, "Researchers Find Japanese Produced Banned Chemical Weapons in 1930s and 40s," Associated Press, 30 September 1988, in Lexis-Nexis, www.lexis-nexis.com

1940
One chemical weapons factory in Okuno producing mustard gas, lewisite, nausea gas (diphenylcyanoarsine) and hydrocyanic acid gas, is deleted from Japanese maps to keep production a secret.
Note: It is suspected that the chemical weapons were produced for use in China.
--Irene M. Kunii, "Researchers Find Japanese Produced Banned Chemical Weapons in 1930s and 40s," Associated Press, 30 September 1988, in Lexis-Nexis, www.lexis-nexis.com

1946
The Tokyo war crimes tribunal is held, but Japanese officers responsible for the production and use of chemical weapons are not prosecuted.
--William C. Hidlay, "Japan Operated Secret Chemical Weapons Factory in WWII," Associated Press, 17 September 1988, in Lexis-Nexis, www.lexis-nexis.com

1950
The People's Liberation Army establishes an anti-chemical warfare school.
--The CBW Conventions Bulletin, Issue No. 37, September 1997, p. 28; "Army Official Says China Has Mighty Anti-nuclear, Anti-chemical Capacity," Zhongguo Xinwenshe, Beijing, 13 July 1997/BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 22 July 1997, in Lexis-Nexis, www.lexis-nexis.com

1950's - 1980's
According to the Pentagon's 1996 report Proliferation: Threat and Response, China has maintained a chemical warfare program since the 1950's to the 1980's. The report states:
"China has a mature chemical warfare capability and may well have maintained the biological warfare program it had prior to acceding to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1984. It has funded a chemical warfare program since the 1950s and has produced and weaponized a wide variety of agents."
-- Office of the Secretary of Defense, "Proliferation: Threat and Response," April 1996, www.defenselink.mil/pubs/prolif/ne_asia.html.

13 July 1952
China declares it will abide by the "Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous, or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare" as long as other signatories do the same.
Note: The Geneva Protocol was opened for signature on 17 June 1925 and entered into force on 8 February 1928.
--"Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare," Bureau of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State, 25 September 2002, www.state.gov/t/ac/trt/4784.htm.

1956
China's Central Military Commission (CMC) establishes the Anti-Chemical Warfare Department, making the Anti-Chemical Warfare Corps a formal branch of the ground forces.
--The CBW Conventions Bulletin, Issue No. 37, September 1997, p. 28; "Army Official Says China Has Mighty Anti-Nuclear, Anti-Chemical Capacity," Zhongguo Xinwenshe, Beijing, 13 July 1997/BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 22 July 1997, in Lexis-Nexis, www.lexis-nexis.com

6 December 1973
China votes in favor of UN Resolution 3076, which "invites the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts to consider the question of the use of napalm and other incendiary weapons."
--Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Yearbook 1974: World Armaments and Disarmaments, Stockholm, MIT Press, 1974.

	Updated March 2006