The author explores the process of modernization in China from the accession of the Qing dynasty in 1644 to the celebrated 2019. The 70th anniversary of the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 2019. Special attention is paid to the circumstances of China’s transformation into a semi-colony as a result of the Opium Wars of the nineteenth century, the struggle of the Chinese people for national and social liberation during the Great Civil War of 1912-1950, and the rise of the People’s Republic of China. With the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the Communist Party of China fully unified the mainland and freed it from semi-colonial dependence. After the completion of agrarian reform, the CCP carried out the collectivization of agriculture along with the socialist transformation of industry and commerce. Despite all the excesses of the 'Great Leap Forward' and the 'Cultural Revolution', the socialist industrialization that was carried out allowed the CCP to follow the course of reform and opening up since 1978, which turned China into a powerful modern power by the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century. China has become a powerful modern power with a large domestic market, competing with the U.S. in the struggle for world leadership.