2000 March 26 Vladimir Putin is elected president of Russia. He is a former KGB agent who was stationed in East Germany and speaks fluent German. German history is said to have been his favorite subject in school.

2000 April 17 The Republic of China Finance Ministry allows two local insurance companies to set up offices in mainland China, marking the first mainland foray for the island's insurance industry.

2000 April 18 Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui confers the Order of Brilliant Starwith Grand Cordon on U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) for his contributions to promoting bilateral relations between the ROC and the United States.

2000 April 19 Taipei's president-elect, Chen Shui-bian, promises that his administration will help the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (WJIB) transform itself into a " National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)."

2000 July 20 The New York Times reports that an expected 20 percent drop in German population by 2050 could only be made up for by raising the retirement age and importing millions of immigrant workers. A study by the Federal Statistics Office said Germany's population is expected to drop by 17 million from 82 million in 2000 to 65 million in 2050, even if 100,000 more people move to Germany each year than leave. In 1950 there were twice as many people in Germany under 20 as over 60, a ratio that will be reversed by 2050. (New York Times)

2000 November 9 The eleventh anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. More than 200,000 gather at the Oranienburgstrasse Synagogue and march to the Brandenburg gate in support of "Humanity and Tolerance." Neo-Nazis and violent nationalists avoid the celebration. Several desecrations and violent incidents take place in a number of smaller cities. (See Blutzeuge, Munich Putsch, Kristallnacht)

2000 November - December The winner of the U.S. presidential election remains uncertain for weeks until finally settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

2001 January George W. Bush, Jr. becomes president of the United States.

2001 April US-China relations are strained during the 11-day detention of 24 crewmembers of a US surveillance plane, crippled in a collision with a Chinese fighter.

2001 May 1 President Bush in a speech at the National Defense University stops just short of saying the U.S. will withdraw from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM). Bush made it clear that he intends to build a network of installations that will unquestionably violate a treaty that arms-control advocates argue has been the cornerstone of nuclear deterrence since Richard M. Nixon and Leonid I. Brezhnev signed it. That pact bans the very systems Mr. Bush alluded to today.

Note: A senior administration official said the most promising approach in the near future appeared to be the Airborne Laser Program, being developed by Boeing, Lockheed Martin and TRW and promoted as the first laser-armed combat aircraft. The contractors plan to test the system, a multimegawatt oxygen-iodine laser mounted on a retrofitted 747, in 2003.

"Nuclear weapons will still have a vital role to play in our security and that of our allies," Bush said. "We can and will change the size, composition, the character of our nuclear forces in a way that reflects the reality that the cold war is over."