2003 in China

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See also:	Other events of 2003; History of China • Timeline • Years

Events in the year 2003 in China.

Incumbents

January 7 to January 8 – Hefei student protests occur, marking the largest student protests since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

February 24 – 2003 Bachu earthquake: An earthquake measuring 6.3 in magnitude occurred in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in northwest China, killing 191 people and 291 hospitalised. Almost 10,000 homes were leveled by the earthquake.

June 1 – The People's Republic of China begins filling the lake behind the massive Three Gorges Dam, raising the water level near the dam over 100 meters.

October 15 – China successfully launches Shenzhou 5, their first manned space mission, becoming the third country in the world to have independent human spaceflight capability after the Soviet Union and the United States.

December 23 - A PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion in Chongqing, 234 people lives.^[1]

February 11 – Ma Sanli, Chinese comedian (born 1914)
March 17 – Su Buqing, Chinese mathematician and educator (born 1902)
April 1 – Zhang Guorong, Cantonese singer and actor (born 1956)
June 17 – Zheng Wenguang, science fiction author (born 1929)
July 5 – Zhang Aiping, Chinese communist military leader (born 1908)
October 25 – Yao Guang, diplomat, foreign ambassador (born 1921)^[2]
November 15 – T. Y. Lin, Chinese-born civil engineer (born 1912)
November 19 – Shi Zhecun, Chinese author (born 1905)
December 27 – Ying Ruocheng, Chinese actor, director, playwright and Vice Minister of Culture from 1986 to 1990 (born 1929)

^ "Gas well blowout kills at least 191".
^ "外交部原副部长姚广同志逝世享年82岁". Xinhua Net (in Chinese). November 17, 2003. Archived from the original on October 18, 2009. Retrieved October 1, 2017.