By Michael Kramer
October 17, 2025
This article is a chapter in the soon-to-be-released book “China Changes Everything.”
U.S. ground, air and naval forces from a Jim Crow-era segregated military occupied and patrolled Chinese cities, coastal waters and rivers from the 1820s until 1949. This brutal and racist occupation was always resisted by the Chinese people. This historic chronology was originally prepared for a workshop given in 2020 by the Veterans For Peace – China Working Group.
Since 2020, aggressive and provocative naval deployments and maneuvers off the coast of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) by the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet and its NATO allies have continued. U.S. Army Special Forces from the 1st Special Forces Group maintain a presence on the large island of Taiwan and on the smaller Kinmen Islands, which are located just six miles off the coast of mainland China. All of these islands are an integral part of the PRC. In testimony to the U.S. Congress on May 15, 2025, retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery disclosed that around 500 U.S. military personnel are stationed on Taiwan. U.S. Air Force reconnaissance flights off the coast of the PRC have been reported by Newsweek on Aug. 20. These spy planes are RC-135V/W Rivet Joint aircraft and are flown by the 55th Wing, 38th Reconnaissance Squadron out of Kadema Air Base on the Japanese-occupied island of Okinawa.
Chronology
May 16, 1820: The USS Congress, a three-masted, wooden-hulled heavy frigate with 38 guns and a crew of 340, docks unannounced and uninvited in Guangzhou on the Pearl River.
1835: The U.S. Navy East India Squadron is established.
1854: The East India Squadron forms the Yangtze River Patrol Force to protect U.S. citizens, U.S. property and Christian missionaries. It operates between Shanghai and Chongqing, a distance of over 1,000 miles, until 1949.
April 4, 1854: Marines and sailors from the USS Perry land in Shanghai to protect U.S. and European commercial interests in a joint operation with Great Britain. They do not withdraw until June 1854.
May 19, 1855: Marines and sailors from the USS Powhatan land in Shanghai to protect U.S. citizens.
August 4 – 5, 1855: The USS Powhatan along with British allies seize 17 Chinese ships and destroy another in the Battle of Ty-ho Bay off the coast of Hong Kong. The U.S. demonizes the Chinese as pirates. Hundreds of Chinese are killed and over 1,000 are taken prisoner.
Oct. 22, 1856: Marines and sailors from the USS Portsmouth land in Guangzhou to protect U.S. interests. This force is continuously reinforced over the next few weeks.
November 16-24, 1856: The USS Portsmouth, USS San Jacinto and USS Levant bombard and occupy Chinese forts on the Pearl River in an alliance with British drug dealers during the Second Opium War.
June 24-26, 1859: The Second Battle of Taku Forts takes place during the Second Opium War. U.S., British and French forces are defeated as they fail to seize forts from Chinese defenders on the Haihe River in Tianjin.
July 31, 1859: Marines and sailors from the USS Mississippi deploy to Shanghai with British help to protect U.S. interests.
June 20, 1866: Marines and sailors from the USS Washusett land at Yingkou on a punitive expedition after the U.S. consul is allegedly assaulted. The force is reinforced five days later. Tens of Chinese are tried and punished by the U.S. Navy before the USS Washusett withdraws.
June 18, 1867: Marines and sailors from the USS Wyoming and USS Hartford land on Taiwan to conduct a punitive expedition. Within six hours the expedition is forced to retreat after meeting fierce resistance and its leader, Lt. Commander Alexander Slidell MacKenzie, is killed.
1868: The East India Squadron is disbanded and the Asiatic Squadron is formed. In 1902 it is upgraded to the Asiatic Fleet.
Dec. 4, 1894: Marines from the USS Baltimore deploy to Tianjin. They remain there until May 1895.
Nov. 4, 1898: Marines from the USS Baltimore, USS Boston and USS Raleigh establish bases in Beijing and Tianjin to protect U.S. diplomatic missions. The Marines withdraw in March 1899.
May 24, 1900: The first U.S. ground forces land at Taku on the Haihe River in northeastern China and join with eight other countries to put down the anti-foreign occupation uprising known as the Boxer Rebellion. The so-called China Relief Expedition grows to over 19,000 soldiers before it occupies the Imperial City in Beijing on August 15, 1900. Most military units are withdrawn from Beijing on September 28, 1900. The U.S. Army 9th Infantry Regiment remains to guard the U.S. legation.
Sept. 12, 1905: Marines from the Philippines arrive in Beijing to replace the U.S. Army 9th Infantry Regiment.
Dec. 20, 1905: Marines and sailors from the USS Baltimore land in Shanghai to “help preserve order” in response to anti-foreign demonstrations. They are joined by British, German and Japanese troops.
Nov. 4, 1911: Marines from the USS Albany and USS Rainbow land in Shanghai to protect U.S. interests. They withdraw on November 14, 1911.
Jan. 18, 1912: Less than three weeks after the Republic of China is established, the U.S. Army 15th Infantry Regiment deploys to Tianjin. It does not leave China until March 2, 1938.
July 7-Aug. 17, 1913: Marines from the USS Baltimore and USS Rainbow land five times in Shanghai to protect U.S. interests.
April 28, 1922: Marines from the USS Baltimore deploy to Beijing to strengthen forces guarding the U.S. legation.
May 5, 1922: Marines from the USS Huron deploy to Shanghai to protect U.S. interests.
Oct. 6, 1924: Marines from the USS Asheville form the First Expeditionary Force and land in Shanghai. They then proceed to Tianjin and do not withdraw until Feb. 8, 1925.
January 22, 1925: Marines form the Second Expeditionary Force and deploy to Shanghai from the Philippines. Numerous other Marine deployments take place throughout the rest of the year.
February 24, 1927: The 4th Marine Regiment commanded by Brigadier General Smedley Butler arrives from San Diego aboard the USS Chaumont. The ship docks at the Standard Oil Company terminal in Shanghai. U.S. military forces in China now total 6,000 troops and 44 naval vessels in Chinese waters. Butler later writes, “In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.”
March 4, 1927: Marines from the USS Pittsburgh seize a ship being held by Chinese authorities and return it to the Standard Oil Company.
March 25, 1927: Marines from the USS Pittsburgh begin patrolling the main waterfront boulevard in downtown Shanghai. Marines from the USS Sacramento begin guarding the property of the Universal Leaf and Tobacco Company.
April 25, 1927: Marine aviation units VF-3M and VO-5M arrive from San Diego and Guam. Chinese pasture land 35 miles from Tianjin is seized and occupied by the Marines to facilitate the building of an airfield for the aviation units.
May 2, 1927: The 6th Marine Regiment arrives in Shanghai on board the USS Henderson. It withdraws in March 1929.
February 4, 1932: The U.S. Army 31st Regiment arrives in Shanghai to reinforce the 4th Marine Regiment. It withdraws to the Philippines on July 5, 1932.
November 27-28, 1941: The 4th Marine Regiment withdraws to the Philippines.
September 30, 1945: Operation Beleaguer begins with the 1st Marine Division arriving in China and deploying to Shanghai and Beijing. It is followed by an additional 50,000 Marines from the III Amphibious Corps, warships from the 7th Fleet, the 14th Air Force and two Navy Construction Battalions. The stated mission is to facilitate the surrender and repatriation of 600,000 Japanese soldiers after the end of World War II.
October 6, 1945: The 14th Air Force begins airlifting 50,000 Kuomintang troops around China for three weeks as they fight a losing battle against the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
July 13, 1946: PLA forces capture seven Marines guarding a bridge in Hebei Province.
July 29, 1946: PLA forces ambush a Marine patrol outside the village of An Ping on the Beijing-Tianjin highway in a battle that lasts four hours. Four Marines are killed.
April 4, 1947: The last major clash occurs between the PLA and the Marines, who suffer five killed and sixteen wounded.
May 26, 1949: Operation Beleaguer ends with the USS Manchester departing Qingdao. The U.S. occupation of China has finally ended.
1958-1974: The CIA Tibetan Program trains thousands of Tibetan Chinese at Camp Hale in Colorado to wage war against the People’s Republic of China. The program includes airdrops and support for a low-intensity guerrilla war that is defeated by the PLA.
July 2020: Carrier strike groups from the 7th Fleet organized around the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan conduct aggressive maneuvers off the coast of China in the South China Sea.
Sources
Captain Harry Allanson Ellsworth, USMC, One Hundred Eighty Landings of United States Marines 1800-1934 (History and Museums Division Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1974).
U.S. Department of the Navy, Yangtze River Patrol and Other US Navy Asiatic Fleet Activities in China 1920-1942 (Annual Reports of the Navy Department, 1920-1942).
“The China Marines: Dedicated to Documenting the United States Marine Corps China Experience 1818-1949,” 2014, chinamarine.org/.
Michael Kramer is a member of Veterans For Peace Chapter 021 (Northern New Jersey) and is the co-coordinator of the national Veterans For Peace – China Working Group. He has travelled in China and has long been inspired by the Chinese Revolution and the heroism of the People’s Liberation Army.
