HKDSE Chinese History Practice Paper: Late Qing Reform To The People's Republic

HKDSE Chinese History Practice Paper: Late Qing Reform to the People’s Republic

2026-11-04

HKDSE Chinese History: Late Qing Reform to the PRC

HKDSE Chinese History practice paper: 12 questions, 100 marks, 75 minutes, from late Qing reform to the People’s Republic, with full worked answers and marking points.

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Paper details　Level: S6 | Subject: Chinese History | Time: 75 minutes | Marks: 100 | Questions: 12

Section A: Late Qing Reform and the 1911 Revolution (32 marks)

Read each question and give dates, events and effects.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
1	The Late Qing Reform (1901 to 1911) followed the Boxer upheaval. (a) Give two background reasons for the reform. (b) State one measure each in the military, educational and economic fields. (c) Calculate how many years the reform lasted until the fall of the Qing dynasty. (d) Explain why the reform failed to save the dynasty.	(a) Foreign pressure deepened after the Boxer upheaval and the court needed reform to survive; revolutionary uprisings and constitutionalist demands also pressed for change. [2 marks] (b) Military: new armies; education: abolition of the imperial examination and founding of schools; economy: rewards for industry and commerce. [3 marks] (c) 1911 minus 1901 gives 10 years. [1 mark] (d) Conservative officials controlled the pace, the promised constitution was delayed, and the royal cabinet of 1911 alienated constitutionalists; the new armies and schools bred revolutionary forces. [2 marks] Marking note: motives and failure must be distinguished.
2	The 1911 Revolution was a major turning point. (a) Give the date of the Wuchang Uprising. (b) How many days passed between the uprising and the abdication of the Qing emperor on 12 February 1912? (c) State when and where the Nanjing Provisional Government was set up and who was its provisional president. (d) Analyse one success and one limitation of the revolution.	(a) 10 October 1911. [1 mark] (b) 125 days. [2 marks] (c) The provisional government was set up in Nanjing on 1 January 1912 with Sun Yat-sen as provisional president. [2 marks] (d) Success: the monarchy was overthrown and a republic founded; limitation: the revolutionaries were weak, power passed to Yuan Shikai and the social structure was unchanged. [3 marks] Marking note: one success and one limitation are required.
3	The May Fourth Movement broke out in 1919. (a) Identify its immediate trigger. (b) Write two of its main slogans. (c) Explain how a student protest became a nationwide campaign. (d) Analyse two effects on Chinese thought and politics.	(a) The Paris Peace Conference transferred German rights in Shandong to Japan and the Beijing government failed diplomatically. [2 marks] (b) Defend sovereignty and remove traitors; return Qingdao. [1 mark] (c) Students demonstrated in Beijing on 4 May 1919 and were arrested; in June workers struck and merchants closed shops, forcing the government to release students and refuse to sign. [2 marks] (d) The New Culture Movement deepened and Marxist ideas spread, preparing the ground for the party founded in 1921. [3 marks] Marking note: the shift to worker participation must appear.
4	The two parties cooperated in the 1920s. (a) State the event that marked the formation of the first united front. (b) In which year was the Whampoa Military Academy founded and why was it important? (c) In which year did the Northern Expedition begin? (d) Calculate how many years the united front lasted from 1924 to 1927 and explain its collapse.	(a) The first national congress of the Nationalist Party in Guangzhou in 1924 adopted co-operation with the communists. [2 marks] (b) The academy was founded in 1924 to train revolutionary officers and supplied the Northern Expedition. [2 marks] (c) 1926. [1 mark] (d) 1927 minus 1924 gives 3 years; the parties split over agrarian policy and class stance, and the purge of 1927 ended the front. [3 marks] Marking note: years are found by subtraction.

Section B: From May Fourth to the War of Resistance (36 marks)

Answer with specific historical facts, not conclusions alone.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
5	The war of resistance was the largest foreign war in modern Chinese history. (a) Give the date and event that marked its full outbreak. (b) In which year did Japan surrender and how many years did the war last? (c) Name two major battles and their significance. (d) Analyse the effect on China’s international standing.	(a) The Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937 began full-scale war. [2 marks] (b) Japan surrendered in 1945, and the war lasted 8 years. [2 marks] (c) Taierzhuang in 1938 checked the Japanese advance; the Hundred Regiments Offensive in 1940 showed the strength of the guerrilla bases. [2 marks] (d) China became a founding member of the United Nations and a permanent member of the Security Council, and some unequal treaties were ended. [3 marks] Marking note: battles must be paired with significance.
6	The People’s Republic was founded in 1949. (a) Give the date and place of the founding ceremony. (b) In which year did land reform begin and end, and how many years did it take? (c) State the main content of the land reform law. (d) Analyse two effects on rural society.	(a) 1 October 1949 at Tiananmen in Beijing. [2 marks] (b) It began in 1950 and was basically completed in 1952, taking 2 years. [2 marks] (c) The land reform law abolished landlord ownership and established peasant ownership, redistributing land by population. [2 marks] (d) Peasants gained land and farm output rose; class classification reshaped rural power and consolidated the new state. [3 marks] Marking note: economic and political effects are both required.
7	The First Five-Year Plan was the early economic blueprint. (a) Give its start and end years and the number of years. (b) State its development priority and the reason. (c) Name two key projects. (d) Identify two limitations.	(a) 1953 to 1957, 5 years. [2 marks] (b) Heavy industry came first because the industrial base was thin and steel, machinery and power were needed. [2 marks] (c) The Anshan steel works, the Changchun motor plant and the Wuhan Yangtze bridge. [2 marks] (d) Agriculture and light industry were underfunded, and the centralised planning system limited local and enterprise initiative. [3 marks] Marking note: limitations must point to imbalance and the planning system.
8	The Great Leap Forward and the people’s communes began in 1958. (a) State the main targets of the campaign. (b) Explain the meaning of large in size and collective in nature. (c) Identify two consequences for the national economy. (d) Comment on the use of mass campaigns to push industrialisation.	(a) The targets were sharp rises in steel and grain output within a short period through mass mobilisation. [2 marks] (b) Large in size meant very large communes; collective in nature meant a high degree of public ownership with government and commune merged. [2 marks] (c) Sectoral proportions were badly distorted, and farm output fell, causing food shortages. [2 marks] (d) Mass campaigns replaced technical and managerial planning, targets ignored capacity, and inflated reporting led to misallocation. [3 marks] Marking note: the gap between targets and capacity must be stated.

Section C: The People’s Republic: Experiment and Reform (32 marks)

Give fuller analysis supported by factual evidence.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
9	The Cultural Revolution ran from 1966 to 1976. (a) Give the start and end years and the number of years. (b) Name the document that marked its launch. (c) Describe the Red Guards and the destruction of the old. (d) State when and how it ended.	(a) 1966 to 1976, 10 years. [2 marks] (b) The May Sixteenth Circular of 1966 and the big-character poster that followed. [1 mark] (c) Red Guards travelled and exchanged, old customs were attacked, officials and teachers were struggled against and schools closed. [2 marks] (d) It ended in October 1976 when the radical faction was removed. [3 marks] Marking note: both the timing and the manner of the end are needed.
10	Reform and opening began in 1978. (a) Name the meeting and date that adopted the new policy. (b) How many special economic zones were set up in 1980, and name two of them. (c) Explain the household responsibility system. (d) Analyse two effects on the economy.	(a) The third plenary session of the eleventh central committee in December 1978. [2 marks] (b) Four zones were set up, including Shenzhen and Zhuhai. [2 marks] (c) Households contracted collective land, kept the surplus after meeting state and collective quotas and bore their own losses. [2 marks] (d) Farm output recovered quickly and rural enterprises grew; foreign capital and technology entered and export industry expanded. [2 marks] Marking note: the number and names of the zones must be correct.
11	The Hong Kong question was settled in the 1980s. (a) In which year was the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed? (b) In which year did Hong Kong return and how many years passed after the declaration? (c) Explain the content of one country, two systems. (d) Analyse the historical significance of the return.	(a) The declaration was signed in 1984. [1 mark] (b) Hong Kong returned on 1 July 1997, 13 years after the declaration. [2 marks] (c) One country keeps socialism while Hong Kong keeps capitalism and its way of life, with a high degree of autonomy and Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong. [2 marks] (d) It settled a territorial question left from the past, gave reform and opening an external gateway and set an example for similar cases. [3 marks] Marking note: institutional continuity and autonomy must both appear.
12	Twentieth-century China moved from empire to republic and then to a socialist market economy. (a) Distinguish the nature of the changes of regime in 1911 and 1949. (b) State two main themes of the century. (c) Give two features of institutional continuity. (d) Comment on the achievements and costs of modernisation.	(a) 1911 was a revolution within the system that ended the monarchy and founded a republic; 1949 was a class revolution that founded a people’s republic and changed ownership of the means of production. [2 marks] (b) National independence and unification; modernisation and economic development. [2 marks] (c) The tradition of centralised administration; state-led industrialisation. [2 marks] (d) Achievements include restored sovereignty, an industrial system and rapid growth; costs include social trauma from political campaigns, rural-urban gaps and environmental damage. [2 marks] Marking note: achievements and costs must both be assessed.

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