By the ninth century, growing political and military divisions brought on the collapse of Tang imperial rule and the decentralization of power. The Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279) regained central control and adopted a more inward-looking policy, with a re-evaluation of Confucian concepts and Buddhist thinking. But increasingly frequent forays by northern tribes posed a growing threat to the Song. Since 1206, the Mongols under Genghis Khan had been growing in military strength in a bid to conquer northern China and regions further west. In 1279, Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan swept the Song aside and established the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368).

But the Mongols' inability to embrace a sedentary lifestyle and their failure to assimilate Chinese culture sparked popular dissent and a series of rebellions which culminated in their downfall and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). For the next 450 years, China turned its back on the world, losing many of its valuable diplomatic and trading links with foreign powers. Inevitably, this isolationist policy was to prompt curiosity from outside, particularly at a time when European traders and explorers were embarking on ambitious world voyages. In 1514, Portuguese ships arrived at Guangzhou, and 1557 Portugal colonised nearby Macau. 

The Ming Dynasty was weakened by a succession of ineffectual rulers whose power was controlled by an increasingly self-serving imperial bureaucracy. As external threats (once again from Mongols in the north) and internal dissent grew, some 100,000 eunuchs living within Beijing's Forbidden City held on to power by effectively controlling government ministries. In the end, the dynasty was toppled by a peasant army from Shaanxi province, but it was the non-Chinese Manchus who eventually invaded from the northeast and seized Beijing in 1644.

Under the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Manchus copied the Ming system of government, though they themselves were careful to keep themselves separate from the local population. Inter-marriage was forbidden, as were certain occupations (including trade). The Qing grew in size and wealth for over 150 years, bringing areas such as Yunnan and Xinjiang under control and cultivating relations with Mongol and Tibetan leaders.

Although they survived into the 20th century, the Qing were unable to escape the fate of many previous empires, with official corruption rising and costly military campaigns placing a heavy burden on the increasingly disgruntled population. A series of peasant rebellions heralded the fall of the dynasty - a process accelerated by the Western colonial powers, who scrambled to grab the best parts of China for themselves.

China's defeat by British forces in the First Opium War (1839-42) began a period of conflict and turmoil known the Century of Humiliation. National sovereignty was undermined by foreign invasions, aggressive colonisation and massive internal rebellions which accelerated the collapse of the ancient dynastic imperial system. Further suffering followed during occupation by Japanese forces in the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). It was against this backdrop of war and disintegration that Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power in October 1949, following a 28-year struggle against the ruling Kuomintang (Nationalist) government of Chiang Kai Shek.

The after-effects of the Second World War and the growth of communism fuelled regional instability. The Korean War (1950-53) and Chinese intervention in that struggle against a perceived threat from the United States prompted China to lean heavily on assistance from the USSR. China's rural population (80% of the total) was collectivised to exploit the country's massive human resources but with no investment or technology, productivity remained low.

Disastrous economic policies in the late 1950s and a subsequent massive famine caused Mao to be relegated to the second rank of leadership, but not for long. In 1964 he called for a 'cultural revolution', inspiring students and factory workers to take up arms as 'Red Guards' against anti-revolutionary symbols of tradition and westernisation. The party and state infrastructures were thrown into chaos. Mao's political rivals were disgraced, the educational system closed down, releasing students to travel around the country. Fighting between Red Guard factions, verging on civil war, finally forced the army to intervene.

Throughout the chaos, Mao seemed to have reigned supreme. But by the beginning of the 1970s he was seriously ill and power fell into the hands of his wife Jiang Qing, head of a radical group known as the Gang of Four. After Mao's death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping and other more moderate leaders were rehabilitated. Deng himself gained sufficient political and military support to bring about the downfall of the Gang of Four and eventually to assume the leadership himself.

Now it was time to get the economy back on track. In 1979, Deng introduced the Open Door Policy, an economic reform programme designed to introduce market forces into China's central planned economy. In the countryside, communes were broken up and individual incentives programmes introduced. Change was slower in the lumbering industrial sector, but Deng emphasised the development of light industry and greater foreign investment. His aim was to raise living standards rather than maintain ideological purity. What mattered was whether a cat could catch mice, not whether it was black or white. IN other words, expertise, rather than ideological purity, was what was needed. 

The catastrophic events of Tiananmen in June 1989 led to the freezing of Deng's reform programme for almost three years. But in January 1992 he visited Shenzhen in the south, praising the area's individual enterprise and development. This was the green light that local entrepreneurs and overseas companies had been waiting for. Foreign investment soared and growth rates reached double-digits, with officials happily chanting the Dengist mantra, 'to get rich is glorious'. In recent years, steady growth has continued, despite occasional government measures to cool the economy and the negative effects of the recent regional economic crisis.