China's Communist Party has overseen the country's transformation from war-racked poverty in 1949 to emerging Asian superpower.
But the human cost of one-party rule has been high, from the millions who died of famine in the 1950s to the hundreds of unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators killed around Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Click on the sub-headings on the left to read more about key people and events in the last 50 years.