text: Sibu faced significant challenges in its history, enduring fires in 1889 and 1928 that destroyed the town. However, it was successfully rebuilt on both occasions. During the Second World War, Sibu fell under Japanese occupation, resulting in a renaming of the city to "Sibu-shu" in August 1942. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Sarawak became a British Crown Colony. This led to unrest among young Melanau individuals in Sibu who were in favour of independence, culminating in the assassination of Sir Duncan George Stewart, the second British Governor of Sarawak, during his visit to Sibu in December 1949. The perpetrator, Rosli Dhoby, was subsequently executed in 1950.
  In the post-war period, Sibu and the Rajang basin became a center of communist activities, which continued even after Sarawak gained independence in 1963. The establishment of the Rajang Security Command (RASCOM) aimed to curb communist activities in the area, and the communist insurgency in Sarawak was eventually suppressed in 1973, coming to a complete end in 1990.
  Sibu achieved municipality status in 1981 and received a royal visit in September 2001. Additionally, it has served as a gateway to the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) since 2008. The city celebrated the 110th anniversary of the Fuzhou settlement in 2011.