View source for Biography:Mao Zedong

{{Short description|Chinese communist leader (1893–1976)}}
<!-- Please DO NOT add {{family name hatnote}}; this article uses a footnote template to clarify the name. -->
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{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = Chairman
| name          = Mao Zedong
| native_name   = {{nobold|{{lang-zh|c=毛泽东|labels=no}}}}
| image         = Mao Zedong in 1959 (cropped).jpg
| imagesize     = 
| caption       = Official portrait, 1959
| office        = Chairman of the Communist Party of China
| term_start    = 20 March 1943
| term_end      = 9 September 1976
| predecessor   = Zhang Wentian (as General Secretary)
| successor     = Hua Guofeng
| deputy        = {{unbulleted list|Liu Shaoqi|Lin Biao|Zhou Enlai|Hua Guofeng}}
| order2        = 1st
| office2       = Chairman of the People's Republic of China
| term_start2   = 27 September 1954
| term_end2     = 27 April 1959
| premier2      = Zhou Enlai
| deputy2       = Zhu De
| predecessor2  = 
| successor2    = Liu Shaoqi
| office3       = Chairman of the Central Military Commission
| deputy3       = {{unbulleted list|Zhu De|Lin Biao|Ye Jianying}}
| term_start3   = 8 September 1954
| term_end3     = 9 September 1976
| predecessor3  = 
| successor3    = Hua Guofeng
| office4       = Chairman of the Central People's Government
| term_start4   = 1 October 1949
| term_end4     = 27 September 1954
| deputy4       = 
| premier4      = Zhou Enlai
| predecessor4  = 
| successor4    = 
| birth_name    = 
| birth_place   = Shaoshan, Hunan, Qing China
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1976|9|9|1893|12|26|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Place:Beijing|Beijing]], People's Republic of China
| resting_place = Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, Beijing
| party         = CCP (from 1921)
| otherparty    = Kuomintang (1925–1926)
| spouse        = {{unbulleted list|{{marriage|Luo Yixiu|1907|February 11, 1910|reason=died}}|{{marriage|Yang Kaihui|December 1920|November 14, 1930|reason=died}}|{{marriage|He Zizhen|1928|1937|reason=divorced}}|{{marriage|[[Biography:Jiang Qing|Jiang Qing]]|20 November 1938}}}}
| children      = {{Collapsible list|title={{nobold|10, including:}}|Mao Anying|Mao Anqing|Mao Anlong|Yang Yuehua|Li Min|Li Na}}
| father        = Mao Yichang
| mother        = Wen Qimei
| alma_mater    = Hunan First Normal University
| signature     = Mao Zedong signature.svg
| module2       = {{Collapsible list
| titlestyle    = background-color:#FCF;text-align:center;
| title         = Central institution membership
| bullets       = on
| 1964–1976: Member, National People's Congress
| 1954–1959: Member, National People's Congress
|
| 1938–1976: Member, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Politburo
| 1938–1976: Member, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Central Committee
}}
----
{{Collapsible list
| titlestyle    = background-color:#FCF;text-align:center;
| title         = Other offices held
| bullets       = on
| 1954–1959: Chairman of the People's Republic of China
| 1954–1976: Chairman, CPC Central Military Commission
| 1954–1959: President and Chairman, National Defence Council
| 1954–1976: Honorary Chairman, CPPCC National Committee
| 1949–1954: Chairman, Central People's Revolutionary Military Commission
| 1949–1954: Chairman, CPPCC National Committee
| 1949–1954: Chairman, PRC Central People's Government
| 1943–1956: Chairman, CPC Central Secretariat
| 1936–1949: Chairman, CPC Central Military Commission
}}
| module3       = {{longitem|
'''[[Social:Paramount leader|Paramount Leader of<br />the People's Republic of China]]'''}} {{flatlist
|
* ({{italics correction|''Inaugural holder''}})
* Hua Guofeng {{big|'''→'''}}
}}
| module        = {{Infobox Chinese
| pic           = Mao Zedong (Chinese characters).svg
| piccap        = "Mao Zedong" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
| picupright    = 0.525
| child         = yes
| s             = 毛泽东
| t             = 毛澤東
| w             = Mao² Tsê²-tung¹
| p             = Máo Zédōng
| bpmf          = ㄇㄠˊ&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ㄗㄜˊ&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ㄉㄨㄥ
| gr            = Mau Tzerdong
| mi            = {{IPAc-cmn|AUD|Zh-Mao_Zedong.ogg|m|ao|2|-|z|e|2|.|d|ong|1}}
| suz           = Máu Zéh-ton
| j             = Mou<sup>4</sup> Zaak<sup>6</sup>-dung<sup>1</sup>
| y             = Mòuh Jaahk-dūng
| ci            = {{IPAc-yue|m|ou|4|-|z|aak|6|.|d|ung|1}}
| poj           = Mô͘ Te̍k-tong
| tl            = Môo Ti̍k-tang
| h             = Mô Chhe̍t-tûng
| order         = st
| altname       = Courtesy name
| t2            = 潤之
| s2            = 润之
| w2            = Jun<sup>4</sup>-chih<sup>1</sup>
| p2            = Rùnzhī
| j2            = Jeon<sup>6</sup>-zi<sup>1</sup>
| poj2          = Lūn-chi
}}
}}

'''Mao Zedong'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|aʊ|_|(|t|)|s|ə|ˈ|t|ʊ|ŋ}};<ref>{{cite web |title=Definition of Mao Tse-tung |url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/mao-tse-tung |website=Dictionary.com |access-date=17 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref> {{lang-zh|c=|s=毛泽东|t=|p=Máo Zédōng}} pronounced {{IPAc-cmn|m|ao|2|-|z|e|2|.|d|ong|1}}; traditionally [[Social:Romanization of Chinese|romanised]] as '''Mao Tse-tung'''. {{family name explanation|lang=Chinese|Mao|Ze}}}} (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese politician, [[Philosophy:Marxism|Marxist]] theorist, military strategist, poet, and revolutionary who was the founder of the {{wipe|China}} (PRC). He led the country from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976, while also serving as the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party during that time. His theories, military strategies and policies are known as [[Philosophy:Maoism|Maoism]].

Mao was the son of a prosperous peasant in Shaoshan, Hunan. He supported Chinese nationalism and had an anti-imperialist outlook early in his life, and was particularly influenced by the events of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and May Fourth Movement of 1919. He later adopted Marxism–Leninism while working at Peking University as a librarian and became a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), leading the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927. During the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the CCP, Mao helped to found the Chinese Red Army, led the Jiangxi Soviet's radical land reform policies, and ultimately became head of the CCP during the Long March. Although the CCP temporarily allied with the KMT under the Second United Front during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), China's civil war resumed after Japan's surrender, and Mao's forces defeated the Nationalist government, which withdrew to Taiwan in 1949.

On 1 October 1949, Mao proclaimed the foundation of the PRC, a Marxist–Leninist single-party state controlled by the CCP. In the following years he solidified his control through the land reform campaign against landlords, the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, the "Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns", and through a truce in the Korean War, which altogether resulted in the deaths of several million Chinese. From 1953 to 1958, Mao played an important role in enforcing command economy in China, constructing the first Constitution of the PRC, launching an industrialisation program, and initiating military projects such as the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" project and [[Chemistry:Project 523|Project 523]]. His foreign policies during this time were dominated by the Sino-Soviet split which drove a wedge between China and the Soviet Union. In 1955, Mao launched the Sufan movement, and in 1957 he launched the [[Social:Anti-Rightist Campaign|Anti-Rightist Campaign]], in which at least 550,000 people, mostly intellectuals and dissidents, were persecuted. In 1958, he launched the Great Leap Forward that aimed to rapidly transform China's economy from agrarian to [[Social:Industrial society|industrial]], which led to the Great Chinese Famine and the deaths of 15–55 million people between 1958 and 1962.

In 1963, Mao launched the Socialist Education Movement, and in 1966 he initiated the Cultural Revolution, a program to remove "counter-revolutionary" elements in Chinese society which lasted 10 years and was marked by violent class struggle, widespread destruction of cultural artifacts, and an unprecedented elevation of Mao's cult of personality. Tens of millions of people were persecuted during the Revolution, while the estimated number of deaths ranges from hundreds of thousands to millions. After years of ill health, Mao suffered a series of heart attacks in 1976 and died at the age of 82. During the Mao era, China's population grew from around 550 million to over 900 million while the government did not strictly enforce its family planning policy. During his leadership tenure, China was heavily involved with other Asian communist conflicts such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cambodian Civil War.

<!-- Legacy -->Mao is considered one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. Mao has been credited with transforming China from a semi-colony to a leading world power, with advanced literacy, women's rights, basic healthcare, primary education and improved life expectancy. Mao's policies were responsible for vast numbers of deaths, with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims due to starvation, persecution, prison labour, and mass executions, and his government was described as totalitarian. He became an [[Philosophy:Maoism|ideological figurehead]] and a prominent influence over the international communist movement, being endowed with remembrance, admiration and cult of personality both during and after his life.

== English romanisation of name ==
During Mao's lifetime, the English-language media universally rendered his name as Mao Tse-tung, using the [[Social:Wade–Giles|Wade–Giles]] system of transliteration for Standard Chinese though with the circumflex accent in the syllable ''Tsê'' dropped. Due to its recognizability, the spelling was used widely, even by PRC's foreign ministry after Hanyu Pinyin became the PRC's official romanisation system for [[Social:Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin Chinese]] in 1958; the well-known booklet of Mao's political statements, ''The Little Red Book'', was officially entitled ''Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung'' in English translations. While the pinyin-derived spelling ''Mao Zedong'' is increasingly common, the Wade–Giles-derived spelling ''Mao Tse-tung'' continues to be used in modern publications to some extent.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Explainer: Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-tung? We Have the Answer |last=Pottinger |first=Jesse |work=That's Online |date=26 August 2019 |access-date=24 April 2020 |url=https://www.thatsmags.com/china/post/29208/mao-zedong-or-mao-tse-tung-we-have-the-answer_1}}</ref>

== Early life ==

=== Youth and the Xinhai Revolution: 1893–1911 ===
[[File:Mao Zedong ca1910.jpg|left|thumb|Mao Zedong {{circa|1910s}}]]
Mao Zedong was born on 26 December 1893, in Shaoshan village, Hunan.{{sfnm|1a1=Schram|1y=1966|1p=19|2a1=Hollingworth|2y=1985|2p=15|3a1=Pantsov|3a2=Levine|3y=2012|3p=11}} His father, Mao Yichang, was a formerly impoverished peasant who had become one of the wealthiest farmers in Shaoshan. Growing up in rural Hunan, Mao described his father as a stern disciplinarian, who would beat him and his three siblings, the boys Zemin and Zetan, as well as an adopted girl, Zejian.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=19–20}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|pp=4–5, 15}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=13–14}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=13–}}.</ref> Mao's mother, Wen Qimei, was a devout Buddhist who tried to temper her husband's strict attitude.<ref name="Schram1966 p20 Terrill 1980 11">{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=20}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=11}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=14, 17}}.</ref> Mao too became a Buddhist, but abandoned this faith in his mid-teenage years.<ref name="Schram1966 p20 Terrill 1980 11" /> At age 8, Mao was sent to Shaoshan Primary School. Learning the value systems of [[Philosophy:Confucianism|Confucianism]], he later admitted that he did not enjoy the [[Philosophy:Chinese classics|classical Chinese texts]] preaching Confucian morals, instead favouring classic novels like ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' and ''Water Margin''.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=20–21}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=8}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=15, 20}}</ref> At age 13, Mao finished primary education, and his father united him in an arranged marriage to the 17-year-old Luo Yixiu, thereby uniting their land-owning families. Mao refused to recognise her as his wife, becoming a fierce critic of arranged marriage and temporarily moving away. Luo was locally disgraced and died in 1910 at 21 years old.<ref>{{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=12}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=23}}, {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=25–28}}</ref>

[[File:Shaoshan 01.JPG|thumb|left|Mao Zedong's childhood home in Shaoshan, in 2010, by which time it had become a tourist destination]]

While working on his father's farm, Mao read voraciously<ref>{{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=15}} {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|pp=10–11}}</ref> and developed a "political consciousness" from Zheng Guanying's booklet which lamented the deterioration of Chinese power and argued for the adoption of [[Social:Representative democracy|representative democracy]].<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=23}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|pp=12–13}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=21}}</ref> Mao also read translations of works by Western authors including [[Biography:Adam Smith|Adam Smith]], [[Biography:Montesquieu|Montesquieu]], [[Biography:Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], [[Biography:Charles Darwin|Charles Darwin]], and Thomas Huxley.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last1=Marquis |first1=Christopher |url= |title=Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise |last2=Qiao |first2=Kunyuan |date=2022 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-26883-6 |location=New Haven |oclc=1348572572 |author-link=Christopher Marquis}}</ref>{{Rp|page=34}} Interested in history, Mao was inspired by the military prowess and nationalistic fervour of George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=25}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|pp=20–21}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=29}}</ref> His political views were shaped by Gelaohui-led protests which erupted following a famine in Changsha, the capital of Hunan; Mao supported the protesters' demands, but the armed forces suppressed the dissenters and executed their leaders.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=22}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=13}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=17–18}}</ref> The famine spread to Shaoshan, where starving peasants seized his father's grain. He disapproved of their actions as morally wrong, but claimed sympathy for their situation.<ref>{{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=14}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=18}}</ref> At age 16, Mao moved to a higher primary school in nearby Dongshan,<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=22}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=15}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=18}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=28}}</ref> where he was bullied for his peasant background.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=26}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=19}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=28–30}}</ref>

In 1911, Mao began middle school in Changsha.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=26}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|pp=22–23}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=30}}</ref> Revolutionary sentiment was strong in the city, where there was widespread animosity towards Emperor Puyi's [[Social:Absolute monarchy|absolute monarchy]] and many were advocating [[Philosophy:Republicanism|republicanism]]. The republicans' figurehead was Sun Yat-sen, an American-educated Christian who led the Tongmenghui society.<ref>{{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=32–34}}</ref> In Changsha, Mao was influenced by Sun's newspaper, ''The People's Independence'' (''Minli bao''),<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=27}};{{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=22}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=33}}</ref> and called for Sun to become president in a school essay.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=26–27}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|pp=22–24}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=33}}</ref> As a symbol of rebellion against the Manchu monarch, Mao and a friend cut off their queue pigtails, a sign of subservience to the emperor.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=26}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=23}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=33}}</ref>

Inspired by Sun's republicanism, the army rose up across southern China, sparking the Xinhai Revolution. Changsha's governor fled, leaving the city in republican control.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=30–32}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=32–35}}</ref> Supporting the revolution, Mao joined the rebel army as a private soldier, but was not involved in fighting or combat. The northern provinces remained loyal to the emperor, and hoping to avoid a civil war, Sun—proclaimed "provisional president" by his supporters—compromised with the monarchist general Yuan Shikai. The monarchy was abolished, creating the Republic of China, but the monarchist Yuan became president. The revolution over, Mao resigned from the army in 1912, after six months as a soldier.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=34}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=34–35}}</ref> Around this time, Mao discovered [[Social:Socialism|socialism]] from a newspaper article; proceeding to read pamphlets by Jiang Kanghu, the student founder of the Chinese Socialist Party, Mao remained interested yet unconvinced by the idea.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=34–35}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|pp=23–24}}</ref>

=== Fourth Normal School of Changsha: 1912–1919 ===
Over the next few years, Mao Zedong enrolled and dropped out of a police academy, a soap-production school, a law school, an economics school, and the government-run Changsha Middle School.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=35–36}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|pp=22, 25}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=35}}.</ref> Studying independently, he spent much time in Changsha's library, reading core works of [[Philosophy:Classical liberalism|classical liberalism]] such as [[Biography:Adam Smith|Adam Smith]]'s ''[[Finance:The Wealth of Nations|The Wealth of Nations]]'' and [[Biography:Montesquieu|Montesquieu]]'s ''The Spirit of the Laws'', as well as the works of western scientists and philosophers such as [[Biography:Charles Darwin|Darwin]], [[Biography:John Stuart Mill|Mill]], Rousseau, and [[Biography:Herbert Spencer|Spencer]].<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=36}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=26}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=35–36}}.</ref> Viewing himself as an intellectual, years later he admitted that at this time he thought himself better than working people.{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=36–37}} He was inspired by [[Biography:Friedrich Paulsen|Friedrich Paulsen]], a neo-Kantian philosopher and educator whose emphasis on the achievement of a carefully defined goal as the highest value led Mao to believe that strong individuals were not bound by moral codes but should strive for a great goal.{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=40–41}} His father saw no use in his son's intellectual pursuits, cut off his allowance and forced him to move into a hostel for the destitute.{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=36}}

[[File:Mao Zedong 1913.jpg|thumb|upright|Mao in 1913]]

Mao wanted to become a teacher and enrolled at the Fourth Normal School of Changsha, which soon merged with the First Normal School of Hunan, widely seen as the best in Hunan.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=36–37}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=27}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=37}}.</ref> Befriending Mao, professor Yang Changji urged him to read a radical newspaper, ''New Youth'' (''Xin qingnian''), the creation of his friend Chen Duxiu, a dean at Peking University. Although he was a supporter of Chinese nationalism, Chen argued that China must look to the west to cleanse itself of superstition and autocracy.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=38–39}} In his first school year, Mao befriended an older student, Xiao Zisheng; together they went on a walking tour of Hunan, begging and writing literary couplets to obtain food.<ref>{{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=43}}; see also {{cite book |first=Hsiao |last=Yu |title=Mao Tse-Tung and I Were Beggars |location=Syracuse, N.Y. |publisher=Syracuse University Press |date=1959}}</ref>

A popular student, in 1915 Mao was elected secretary of the Students Society. He organised the Association for Student Self-Government and led protests against school rules.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=42–43}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=32}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=48}}.</ref> Mao published his first article in ''New Youth'' in April 1917, instructing readers to increase their physical strength to serve the revolution.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=41}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=32}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=42}}.</ref> He joined the Society for the Study of Wang Fuzhi (''Chuan-shan Hsüeh-she''), a revolutionary group founded by Changsha literati who wished to emulate the philosopher [[Biography:Wang Fuzhi|Wang Fuzhi]].<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=40–41}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|pp=30–31}}.</ref> In spring 1917, he was elected to command the students' volunteer army, set up to defend the school from marauding soldiers.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=43}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=32}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=49–50}}.</ref> Increasingly interested in the techniques of war, he took a keen interest in [[Social:World War I|World War I]], and also began to develop a sense of solidarity with workers.{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=49–50}} Mao undertook feats of physical endurance with Xiao Zisheng and Cai Hesen, and with other young revolutionaries they formed the Renovation of the People Study Society in April 1918 to debate Chen Duxiu's ideas. Desiring personal and societal transformation, the Society gained 70–80 members, many of whom would later join the Communist Party.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=44}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=33}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=50–52}}.</ref> Mao graduated in June 1919, ranked third in the year.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=45}}; {{harvnb|Terrill|1980|p=34}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=52}}.</ref>

== Early revolutionary activity ==
=== Beijing, anarchism, and Marxism: 1917–1919 ===
[[File:Mao Zedong in 1924.jpg|left|thumb|Mao Zedong in 1924]]
Mao moved to Beijing, where his mentor Yang Changji had taken a job at Peking University.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=48}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=47, 56–57}}.</ref> Yang thought Mao exceptionally "intelligent and handsome",<ref>{{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=18}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=39}}.</ref> securing him a job as assistant to the university librarian Li Dazhao, who would become an early Chinese Communist.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=48}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=59}}.</ref> Li authored a series of ''New Youth'' articles on the October Revolution in Russia, during which the Communist Bolshevik Party under the leadership of [[Biography:Vladimir Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]] had seized power. Lenin was an advocate of the socio-political theory of [[Philosophy:Marxism|Marxism]], first developed by the German sociologists [[Biography:Karl Marx|Karl Marx]] and [[Biography:Friedrich Engels|Friedrich Engels]], and Li's articles added Marxism to the doctrines in Chinese revolutionary movement.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=47}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=59–62}}.</ref>

Becoming "more and more radical", Mao was initially influenced by [[Biography:Peter Kropotkin|Peter Kropotkin]]'s [[Social:Anarchism|anarchism]], which was the most prominent radical doctrine of the day. Chinese anarchists, such as Cai Yuanpei, Chancellor of Peking University, called for complete [[Social:Social revolution|social revolution]] in social relations, family structure, and women's equality, rather than the simple change in the form of government called for by earlier revolutionaries. He joined Li's Study Group and "developed rapidly toward Marxism" during the winter of 1919.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=48–49}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=62–64}}.</ref> Paid a low wage, Mao lived in a cramped room with seven other Hunanese students, but believed that Beijing's beauty offered "vivid and living compensation".<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=48}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=57–58}}.</ref> A number of his friends took advantage of the anarchist-organised ''Mouvement Travail-Études'' to study in France, but Mao declined, perhaps because of an inability to learn languages.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=51}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=53–55, 65}}.</ref> Mao raised funds for the movement, however.<ref name=":11" />{{Rp|page=35}}

At the university, Mao was snubbed by other students due to his rural Hunanese accent and lowly position. He joined the university's Philosophy and Journalism Societies and attended lectures and seminars by the likes of Chen Duxiu, Hu Shih, and Qian Xuantong.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=48}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=62, 66}}.</ref> Mao's time in Beijing ended in the spring of 1919, when he travelled to Shanghai with friends who were preparing to leave for France.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=50–52}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=66}}.</ref> He did not return to Shaoshan, where his mother was terminally ill. She died in October 1919 and her husband died in January 1920.{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=66–67}}

=== New Culture and political protests: 1919–1920 ===
[[File:Mao Zedong in 1919 (02).jpg|thumb|Mao Zedong in 1919]]
On 4 May 1919, students in Beijing gathered at Tiananmen to protest the Chinese government's weak resistance to Japanese expansion in China. Patriots were outraged at the influence given to Japan in the Twenty-One Demands in 1915, the complicity of Duan Qirui's Beiyang government, and the betrayal of China in the Treaty of Versailles, wherein Japan was allowed to receive territories in Shandong which had been surrendered by [[Place:German Empire|Germany]]. These demonstrations ignited the nationwide May Fourth Movement and fuelled the New Culture Movement which blamed China's diplomatic defeats on social and cultural backwardness.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=51–52}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=21–22}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=69–70}}.</ref>

In Changsha, Mao had begun teaching history at the Xiuye Primary School{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=68}} and organising protests against the pro-Duan Governor of Hunan Province, Zhang Jingyao, popularly known as "Zhang the Venomous" due to his corrupt and violent rule.{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=76}} In late May, Mao co-founded the Hunanese Student Association with He Shuheng and Deng Zhongxia, organising a student strike for June and in July 1919 began production of a weekly radical magazine, ''Xiang River Review''. Using vernacular language that would be understandable to the majority of China's populace, he advocated the need for a "Great Union of the Popular Masses", strengthened trade unions able to wage non-violent revolution.{{clarify|date=May 2016}} His ideas were not Marxist, but heavily influenced by Kropotkin's concept of [[Organization:Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution|mutual aid]].<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=53–54}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=71–76}}.</ref>

[[File:Beijing students protesting the Treaty of Versailles (May 4, 1919).jpg|thumb|Students in Beijing rallying during the May Fourth Movement]]
Zhang banned the Student Association, but Mao continued publishing after assuming editorship of the liberal magazine ''New Hunan'' (''Xin Hunan'') and offered articles in popular local newspaper ''Ta Kung Pao''. Several of these advocated feminist views, calling for the liberation of women in Chinese society; Mao was influenced by his forced arranged-marriage.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=55}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=76–77}}.</ref> In fall 1919, Mao organized a seminar in Changsha studying economic and political issues, as well as ways to unite the people, the feasibility of socialism, and issues regarding Confucianism.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Huang |first=Yibing |url= |title=An ideological history of the Communist Party of China |date=2020 |others=Qian Zheng, Guoyou Wu, Xuemei Ding, Li Sun, Shelly Bryant |isbn=978-1-4878-0425-1 |edition= |volume=1 |publisher=Royal Collins Publishing Group |location=Montreal, Quebec |pages=16 |oclc=1165409653}}</ref> During this period, Mao involved himself in political work with manual laborers, setting up night schools and trade unions.<ref name=":9" /> In December 1919, Mao helped organise a general strike in Hunan, securing some concessions, but Mao and other student leaders felt threatened by Zhang, and Mao returned to Beijing, visiting the terminally ill Yang Changji.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=55–56}}; {{harvnb|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=79}}.</ref> Mao found that his articles had achieved a level of fame among the revolutionary movement, and set about soliciting support in overthrowing Zhang.{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=80}} Coming across newly translated Marxist literature by Thomas Kirkup, [[Biography:Karl Kautsky|Karl Kautsky]], and Marx and Engels—notably ''The Communist Manifesto''—he came under their increasing influence, but was still eclectic in his views.{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=81–83}}

Mao visited Tianjin, Jinan, and Qufu,{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|p=84}} before moving to Shanghai, where he worked as a laundryman and met Chen Duxiu, noting that Chen's adoption of Marxism "deeply impressed me at what was probably a critical period in my life". In Shanghai, Mao met an old teacher of his, Yi Peiji, a revolutionary and member of the Kuomintang (KMT), or Chinese Nationalist Party, which was gaining increasing support and influence. Yi introduced Mao to General Tan Yankai, a senior KMT member who held the loyalty of troops stationed along the Hunanese border with Guangdong. Tan was plotting to overthrow Zhang, and Mao aided him by organising the Changsha students. In June 1920, Tan led his troops into Changsha, and Zhang fled. In the subsequent reorganisation of the provincial administration, Mao was appointed headmaster of the junior section of the First Normal School. Now receiving a large income, he married Yang Kaihui, daughter of Yang Changji, in the winter of 1920.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=56–57}}<ref name="Mair_2013_p211">{{cite book |last1=Mair |first1=Victor H. |last2=Sanping |first2=Sanping |last3=Wood |first3=Frances |title=Chinese Lives: The people who made a civilization |date=2013 |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London |isbn=978-0500251928 |page=211}}</ref>

=== Founding the Chinese Communist Party: 1921–1922 ===
[[File:Location of the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party Xintiandi Shanghai July 1921.jpg|thumb|upright|Location of the first Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in July 1921, in Xintiandi, former French Concession, Shanghai]]

The Chinese Communist Party was founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in the Shanghai French Concession in 1921 as a study society and informal network. Mao set up a Changsha branch, also establishing a branch of the Socialist Youth Corps and a Cultural Book Society which opened a bookstore to propagate revolutionary literature throughout Hunan.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=63}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=23, 28}}</ref> He was involved in the movement for Hunan autonomy, in the hope that a Hunanese constitution would increase civil liberties and make his revolutionary activity easier. When the movement was successful in establishing provincial autonomy under a new warlord, Mao forgot his involvement.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=63–64}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=23–24, 28, 30}}</ref>{{clarification needed|date=July 2023}} By 1921, small Marxist groups existed in Shanghai, Beijing, Changsha, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Jinan; it was decided to hold a central meeting, which began in Shanghai on 23 July 1921. The first session of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was attended by 13 delegates, Mao included. After the authorities sent a police spy to the congress, the delegates moved to a boat on South Lake near Jiaxing, in Zhejiang, to escape detection. Although Soviet and Comintern delegates attended, the first congress ignored Lenin's advice to accept a temporary alliance between the Communists and the "bourgeois democrats" who also advocated national revolution; instead they stuck to the orthodox Marxist belief that only the urban proletariat could lead a socialist revolution.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=64–66}}

Mao was party secretary for Hunan stationed in Changsha, and to build the party there he followed a variety of tactics.{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=68}} In August 1921, he founded the Self-Study University, through which readers could gain access to revolutionary literature, housed in the premises of the Society for the Study of [[Biography:Wang Fuzhi|Wang Fuzhi]], a Qing dynasty Hunanese philosopher who had resisted the Manchus.{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=68}} He joined the [[Organization:YMCA|YMCA]] Mass Education Movement to fight illiteracy, though he edited the textbooks to include radical sentiments.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=68–69}} He continued organising workers to strike against the administration of Hunan Governor Zhao Hengti.{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=69}} Yet labour issues remained central. The successful and famous {{Interlanguage link|Anyuan coal mines strikes|zh|安源路矿工人大罢工}} (contrary to later Party historians) depended on both "proletarian" and "bourgeois" strategies. Liu Shaoqi and Li Lisan and Mao not only mobilised the miners, but formed schools and cooperatives and engaged local intellectuals, gentry, military officers, merchants, Red Gang dragon heads and even church clergy.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Elizabeth J. |last=Perry |url=http://apjjf.org/2013/11/1/Elizabeth-Perry/3882/article.html |title=Anyuan: Mining China's Revolutionary Tradition |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal |volume=11 |number=1 |date=14 January 2013 |quote=reprinting Ch 2 of Elizabeth J. Perry. ''Anyuan: Mining China's Revolutionary Tradition.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. |isbn=978-0520271890}}</ref> Mao's labour organizing work in the Anyuan mines also involved his wife Yang Kaihui, who worked for women's rights, including literacy and educational issues, in the nearby peasant communities.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Karl |first=Rebecca E. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/503828045 |title=Mao Zedong and China in the twentieth-century world : a concise history |date=2010 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-4780-4 |location=Durham [NC] |pages=22–23 |oclc=503828045}}</ref> Although Mao and Yang were not the originators of this political organizing method of combining labor organizing among male workers with a focus on women's rights issues in their communities, they were among the most effective at using this method.<ref name=":8" /> Mao's political organizing success in the Anyuan mines resulted in Chen Duxiu inviting him to become a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karl |first=Rebecca E. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/503828045 |title=Mao Zedong and China in the twentieth-century world : a concise history |date=2010 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-4780-4 |location=Durham [NC] |page=23 |oclc=503828045}}</ref>

Mao claimed that he missed the July 1922 Second Congress of the Communist Party in Shanghai because he lost the address. Adopting Lenin's advice, the delegates agreed to an alliance with the "bourgeois democrats" of the KMT for the good of the "national revolution". Communist Party members joined the KMT, hoping to push its politics leftward.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=69–70}}
Mao enthusiastically agreed with this decision, arguing for an alliance across China's socio-economic classes, and eventually rose to become propaganda chief of the KMT.<ref name="Mair_2013_p211"/> Mao was a vocal anti-imperialist and in his writings he lambasted the governments of Japan, the UK and US, describing the latter as "the most murderous of hangmen".<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=73–74}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=33}}</ref>

=== Collaboration with the Kuomintang: 1922–1927 ===
[[File:Chairman Mao-1.webm|thumb|Mao giving a speech (no audio)]]

At the Third Congress of the Communist Party in Shanghai in June 1923, the delegates reaffirmed their commitment to working with the KMT. Supporting this position, Mao was elected to the Party Committee, taking up residence in Shanghai.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=74–76}} At the First KMT Congress, held in Guangzhou in early 1924, Mao was elected an alternate member of the KMT Central Executive Committee, and put forward four resolutions to decentralise power to urban and rural bureaus. His enthusiastic support for the KMT earned him the suspicion of Li Li-san, his Hunan comrade.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=76–82}}

In late 1924, Mao returned to Shaoshan, perhaps to recuperate from an illness. He found that the peasantry were increasingly restless and some had seized land from wealthy landowners to found communes. This convinced him of the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, an idea advocated by the KMT leftists but not the Communists.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=78}}.</ref> Mao and many of his colleagues also proposed the end of cooperation with the KMT, which was rejected by the Comintern representative Mikhail Borodin.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RHIAeZEYjIC |title=Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920–1927 |last1=Wilbur |first1=C. Martin |last2=How |first2=Julie Lien-ying |date=1989 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674576520 |language=en}}</ref> In the winter of 1925, Mao fled to Guangzhou after his revolutionary activities attracted the attention of Zhao's regional authorities.{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=83}} There, he ran the 6th term of the KMT's Peasant Movement Training Institute from May to September 1926.<ref>{{citation |page=465 |last=Mao |first=Zedong |author-mask=Mao Zedong |editor1-last=Schram |editor1-first=Stuart Reynolds |editor2-first=Nancy Jane |editor2-last=Hodes |display-editors=1 |ref={{harvid|Schram & al.|1992}} |series=''Mao's Road to Power'', Vol. II |title=National Revolution and Social Revolution, December 1920 – June 1927 |publisher=[[Company:M. E. Sharpe|M. E. Sharpe]] |date=1992}}.</ref><ref>{{citation |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mpqApZWrJyIC&pg=PA66 66] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mpqApZWrJyIC |title=Frontier Passages: Ethnopolitics and the Rise of Chinese Communism, 1921–1945 |last=Liu |first=Xiaoyuan |author-mask=Liu Xiaoyuan |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford |year=2004 |isbn=978-0804749602 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The Peasant Movement Training Institute under Mao trained cadre and prepared them for militant activity, taking them through military training exercises and getting them to study basic left-wing texts.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=82, 90–91}}

[[File:Mao 1925.jpg|thumb|Mao in Guangzhou in 1925]]

When party leader Sun Yat-sen died in May 1925, he was succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek, who moved to marginalise the left-KMT and the Communists.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=84, 89}} Mao nevertheless supported Chiang's National Revolutionary Army, who embarked on the Northern Expedition attack in 1926 on warlords.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=87, 92–93}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=39}}</ref> In the wake of this expedition, peasants rose up, appropriating the land of the wealthy landowners, who were in many cases killed. Such uprisings angered senior KMT figures, who were themselves landowners, emphasising the growing class and ideological divide within the revolutionary movement.{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=95}}

[[File:KMT 3rd Plenary Session of 2nd Central Committee.jpg|thumb|left|Third Plenum of the KMT Central Executive Committee in March 1927. Mao is third from the right in the second row.]]

In March 1927, Mao appeared at the Third Plenum of the KMT Central Executive Committee in Wuhan, which sought to strip General Chiang of his power by appointing Wang Jingwei leader. There, Mao played an active role in the discussions regarding the peasant issue, defending a set of "Regulations for the Repression of Local Bullies and Bad Gentry", which advocated the death penalty or life imprisonment for anyone found guilty of counter-revolutionary activity, arguing that in a revolutionary situation, "peaceful methods cannot suffice".{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=98}}{{sfn|Feigon|2002|p=42}} In April 1927, Mao was appointed to the KMT's five-member Central Land Committee, urging peasants to refuse to pay rent. Mao led another group to put together a "Draft Resolution on the Land Question", which called for the confiscation of land belonging to "local bullies and bad gentry, corrupt officials, militarists and all counter-revolutionary elements in the villages". Proceeding to carry out a "Land Survey", he stated that anyone owning over 30 ''mou'' (four and a half acres), constituting 13% of the population, were uniformly counter-revolutionary. He accepted that there was great variation in revolutionary enthusiasm across the country, and that a flexible policy of land redistribution was necessary.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=99–100}} Presenting his conclusions at the Enlarged Land Committee meeting, many expressed reservations, some believing that it went too far, and others not far enough. Ultimately, his suggestions were only partially implemented.{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=100}}

== Civil War ==

=== Nanchang and Autumn Harvest Uprisings: 1927 ===
[[File:中國工農紅軍軍旗.svg|thumb|Flag of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army]]

Fresh from the success of the Northern Expedition against the warlords, Chiang turned on the Communists, who by now numbered in the tens of thousands across China. Chiang ignored the orders of the Wuhan-based left KMT government and marched on Shanghai, a city controlled by Communist militias. As the Communists awaited Chiang's arrival, he loosed the White Terror, massacring {{formatnum:5000}} with the aid of the Green Gang.{{sfn|Feigon|2002|p=42}}<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=106}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=61–62}}</ref> In Beijing, 19 leading Communists were killed by Zhang Zuolin.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=106–109, 112–113}}{{sfn|Carter|1976|p=62}} That May, tens of thousands of Communists and those suspected of being communists were killed, and the CCP lost approximately {{formatnum:15000}} of its {{formatnum:25000}} members.{{sfn|Carter|1976|p=62}}

The CCP continued supporting the Wuhan KMT government, a position Mao initially supported,{{sfn|Carter|1976|p=62}} but by the time of the CCP's Fifth Congress he had changed his mind, deciding to stake all hope on the peasant militia.{{sfn|Carter|1976|p=63}} The question was rendered moot when the Wuhan government expelled all Communists from the KMT on 15 July.{{sfn|Carter|1976|p=63}} The CCP founded the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of China, better known as the "Red Army", to battle Chiang. A battalion led by General Zhu De was ordered to take the city of Nanchang on 1 August 1927, in what became known as the Nanchang Uprising. They were initially successful, but were forced into retreat after five days, marching south to Shantou, and from there they were driven into the wilderness of Fujian.{{sfn|Carter|1976|p=63}} Mao was appointed commander-in-chief of the Red Army and led four regiments against Changsha in the Autumn Harvest Uprising, in the hope of sparking peasant uprisings across Hunan. On the eve of the attack, Mao composed a poem—the earliest of his to survive—titled "Changsha". His plan was to attack the KMT-held city from three directions on 9 September, but the Fourth Regiment deserted to the KMT cause, attacking the Third Regiment. Mao's army made it to Changsha, but could not take it; by 15 September, he accepted defeat and with 1000 survivors marched east to the Jinggang Mountains of Jiangxi.<ref>{{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=64}}; {{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=122–125}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=46–47}}</ref>

=== Base in Jinggangshan: 1927–1928 ===
[[File:Mao1927.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Mao in 1927]]
{{Quote box| quote = {{lang|zh|革命不是請客吃飯，不是做文章，不是繪畫繡花，不能那樣雅緻，那樣從容不迫，文質彬彬，那樣溫良恭讓。革命是暴動，是一個階級推翻一個階級的暴烈的行動。}}<br /><br />Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.|source= — Mao, February 1927<ref>{{cite web |url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1900_mao_war.htm |title=Mao Zedong on War and Revolution |work=Quotations from Mao Zedong on War and Revolution |publisher=[[Organization:Columbia University|Columbia University]] |access-date=12 November 2011}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=41}}</ref>
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The CCP Central Committee, hiding in Shanghai, expelled Mao from their ranks and from the Hunan Provincial Committee, as punishment for his "military opportunism", for his focus on rural activity, and for being too lenient with "bad gentry". The more orthodox Communists especially regarded the peasants as backward and ridiculed Mao's idea of mobilizing them.<ref name="Mair_2013_p211"/> They nevertheless adopted three policies he had long championed: the immediate formation of [[Social:Workers' council|workers' council]]s, the confiscation of all land without exemption, and the rejection of the KMT. Mao's response was to ignore them.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=125}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=68}}</ref> He established a base in Jinggangshan City, an area of the Jinggang Mountains, where he united five villages as a self-governing state, and supported the confiscation of land from rich landlords, who were "re-educated" and sometimes executed. He ensured that no massacres took place in the region, and pursued a more lenient approach than that advocated by the Central Committee.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=130}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=67–68}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=48}}</ref> In addition to land redistribution, Mao promoted literacy and non-hierarchical organizational relationships in Jinggangshan, transforming the area's social and economic life and attracted many local supporters.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karl |first=Rebecca E. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/503828045 |title=Mao Zedong and China in the twentieth-century world : a concise history |date=2010 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-4780-4 |location=Durham [NC] |pages=36 |oclc=503828045}}</ref>

Mao proclaimed that "Even the lame, the deaf and the blind could all come in useful for the revolutionary struggle", he boosted the army's numbers,<ref name="Carter1976 p69">{{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=69}}</ref> incorporating two groups of bandits into his army, building a force of around {{formatnum:1800}} troops.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=126–127}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=66–67}}</ref> He laid down rules for his soldiers: prompt obedience to orders, all confiscations were to be turned over to the government, and nothing was to be confiscated from poorer peasants. In doing so, he moulded his men into a disciplined, efficient fighting force.<ref name="Carter1976 p69" />

{{Quote box
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敵駐我騷，
敵疲我打，
敵退我追。}}

When the enemy advances, we retreat.
When the enemy rests, we harass him.
When the enemy avoids a battle, we attack.
When the enemy retreats, we advance.</poem>
| source = — Mao's advice in combating the Kuomintang, 1928<ref name="Carter1976 p70">{{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=70}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=159}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=47}}</ref>
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[[File:Bare foot revolutionary.jpg|thumb|Chinese Communist revolutionaries in the 1920s]]
In spring 1928, the Central Committee ordered Mao's troops to southern Hunan, hoping to spark peasant uprisings. Mao was skeptical, but complied. They reached Hunan, where they were attacked by the KMT and fled after heavy losses. Meanwhile, KMT troops had invaded Jinggangshan, leaving them without a base.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=131}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=68–69}}</ref> Wandering the countryside, Mao's forces came across a CCP regiment led by General Zhu De and Lin Biao; they united, and attempted to retake Jinggangshan. They were initially successful, but the KMT counter-attacked, and pushed the CCP back; over the next few weeks, they fought an entrenched guerrilla war in the mountains.<ref name="Carter1976 p70"/>{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=128, 132}} The Central Committee again ordered Mao to march to south Hunan, but he refused, and remained at his base. Contrastingly, Zhu complied, and led his armies away. Mao's troops fended the KMT off for 25 days while he left the camp at night to find reinforcements. He reunited with the decimated Zhu's army, and together they returned to Jinggangshan and retook the base. There they were joined by a defecting KMT regiment and Peng Dehuai's Fifth Red Army. In the mountainous area they were unable to grow enough crops to feed everyone, leading to food shortages throughout the winter.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=133–137}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=70–71}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=50}}</ref>

In 1928, Mao met and married He Zizhen, an 18-year-old revolutionary who would bear him six children.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/232503.htm |title=Memorial opened to commemorate Mao's 2nd wife |date=20 November 2007 |website=www.china.org.cn |access-date=7 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Ni |first=Ching-ching |date=27 March 2007 |title=Death illuminates niche of Mao life |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-mar-27-fg-mao27-story.html |url-status=live |work={{wipe|Los Angeles Times}} |location=Beijing |publication-place=Los Angeles, California |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201011132708/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-mar-27-fg-mao27-story.html |archive-date=11 October 2020 |access-date=7 October 2021}}</ref>

=== Jiangxi Soviet Republic of China: 1929–1934 ===
[[File:Mao Zedong in Yan'an.jpg|thumb|Mao in Yan'an (1930s)]]

In January 1929, Mao and Zhu evacuated the base with 2,000 men and a further 800 provided by Peng, and took their armies south, to the area around Tonggu and Xinfeng in Jiangxi.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=138}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=71–72}}</ref> The evacuation led to a drop in morale, and many troops became disobedient and began thieving; this worried Li Lisan and the Central Committee, who saw Mao's army as ''lumpenproletariat'', that were unable to share in proletariat [[Philosophy:Class consciousness|class consciousness]].<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=138, 141}}</ref><ref name="Carter1976 p72">{{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=72}}</ref> In keeping with orthodox Marxist thought, Li believed that only the urban proletariat could lead a successful revolution, and saw little need for Mao's peasant guerrillas; he ordered Mao to disband his army into units to be sent out to spread the revolutionary message. Mao replied that while he concurred with Li's theoretical position, he would not disband his army nor abandon his base.<ref name="Carter1976 p72"/>{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=139}} Both Li and Mao saw the Chinese revolution as the key to [[Social:World revolution|world revolution]], believing that a CCP victory would spark the overthrow of global imperialism and capitalism. In this, they disagreed with the official line of the Soviet government and Comintern. Officials in Moscow desired greater control over the CCP and removed Li from power by calling him to Russia for an inquest into his errors.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=146–149}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=75}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=51}}</ref> They replaced him with Soviet-educated Chinese Communists, known as the "28 Bolsheviks", two of whom, Bo Gu and Zhang Wentian, took control of the Central Committee. Mao disagreed with the new leadership, believing they grasped little of the Chinese situation, and he soon emerged as their key rival.{{sfn|Carter|1976|p=75}}{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=149–151}}

[[File:1931 military parade of formation of Chinese Soviet Republic.jpg|thumb|left|Military parade at the founding of a Chinese Soviet Republic in 1931]]
In February 1930, Mao created the Southwest Jiangxi Provincial Soviet Government in the region under his control.{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=149}} In November, he suffered emotional trauma after his second wife Yang Kaihui and sister were captured and beheaded by KMT general He Jian.<ref>{{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=50}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=75}}; {{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=153}}</ref> Facing internal problems, members of the Jiangxi Soviet accused him of being too moderate, and hence anti-revolutionary. In December, they tried to overthrow Mao, resulting in the Futian incident, during which Mao's loyalists tortured many and executed between 2000 and 3000 dissenters.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=152}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=76}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=51–53}}</ref> The CCP Central Committee moved to Jiangxi which it saw as a secure area. In November, it proclaimed Jiangxi to be the Soviet Republic of China, an independent Communist-governed state. Although he was proclaimed Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Mao's power was diminished, as his control of the Red Army was allocated to Zhou Enlai. Meanwhile, Mao recovered from [[Medicine:Tuberculosis|tuberculosis]].<ref>{{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=77}}; {{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=154–155}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=54–55}}</ref>

The KMT armies adopted a policy of encirclement and annihilation of the Red armies. Outnumbered, Mao responded with guerrilla tactics influenced by the works of ancient military strategists like [[Biography:Sun Tzu|Sun Tzu]], but Zhou and the new leadership followed a policy of open confrontation and conventional warfare. In doing so, the Red Army successfully defeated the first and second encirclements.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=155–161}}</ref><ref name="Carter1976 p78">{{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=78}}</ref> Angered at his armies' failure, Chiang Kai-shek personally arrived to lead the operation. He too faced setbacks and retreated to deal with the further Japanese incursions into China.<ref>{{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=77}}; {{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=161–165}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=53–54}}</ref> As a result of the KMT's change of focus to the defence of China against Japanese expansionism, the Red Army was able to expand its area of control, eventually encompassing a population of 3 million.<ref name="Carter1976 p78"/> Mao proceeded with his land reform program. In November 1931 he announced the start of a "land verification project" which was expanded in June 1933. He also orchestrated education programs and implemented measures to increase female political participation.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=166–168}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=55}}</ref> Chiang viewed the Communists as a greater threat than the Japanese and returned to Jiangxi, where he initiated the fifth encirclement campaign, which involved the construction of a concrete and barbed wire "wall of fire" around the state, which was accompanied by aerial bombardment, to which Zhou's tactics proved ineffective. Trapped inside, morale among the Red Army dropped as food and medicine became scarce. The leadership decided to evacuate.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=175–177}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=80–81}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=56–57}}</ref>

=== Long March: 1934–1935 ===
[[File:Map of the Long March 1934-1935-en.svg|thumb|250px|An overview map of the Long March]]
[[File:Mao Zhou Zhu.jpg|thumb|right|Triumvirate of Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, and Zhu De during the Long March.]]
On 14 October 1934, the Red Army broke through the KMT line on the Jiangxi Soviet's south-west corner at Xinfeng with {{formatnum:85000}} soldiers and {{formatnum:15000}} party cadres and embarked on the "Long March". In order to make the escape, many of the wounded and the ill, as well as women and children, were left behind, defended by a group of guerrilla fighters whom the KMT massacred.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=180}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=81–82}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=57}}</ref> The {{formatnum:100000}} who escaped headed to southern Hunan, first crossing the Xiang River after heavy fighting,<ref>{{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=57}}; {{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=180–181}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=83}}</ref> and then the Wu River, in Guizhou where they took Zunyi in January 1935. Temporarily resting in the city, they held a conference; here, Mao was elected to a position of leadership, becoming Chairman of the Politburo, and ''de facto'' leader of both Party and Red Army, in part because his candidacy was supported by Soviet Premier {{wipe|Joseph Stalin}}. Insisting that they operate as a guerrilla force, he laid out a destination: the Shenshi Soviet in Shaanxi, Northern China, from where the Communists could focus on fighting the Japanese. Mao believed that in focusing on the anti-imperialist struggle, the Communists would earn the trust of the Chinese people, who in turn would renounce the KMT.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=181}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=84–86}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=58}}</ref>

From Zunyi, Mao led his troops to Loushan Pass, where they faced armed opposition but successfully crossed the river. Chiang flew into the area to lead his armies against Mao, but the Communists outmanoeuvred him and crossed the Jinsha River.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=183}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=86–87}}</ref> Faced with the more difficult task of crossing the Tatu River, they managed it by fighting a battle over the Luding Bridge in May, taking Luding.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=184–186}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=88–90}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=59–60}}</ref> In Moukung, Western Sichuan, they encountered the {{formatnum:50000}}-strong CCP Fourth Front Army of Zhang Guotao (who had marched from the mountain ranges around Ma'anshan{{sfn|Carter|1976|pp=90–91}}), and together proceeded to Maoerhkai and then Gansu. Zhang and Mao disagreed over what to do; the latter wished to proceed to Shaanxi, while Zhang wanted to retreat west to [[Place:Tibet|Tibet]] or Sikkim, far from the KMT threat. It was agreed that they would go their separate ways, with Zhu De joining Zhang.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=186}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=91–92}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=60}}</ref> Mao's forces proceeded north, through hundreds of kilometres of grasslands, an area of quagmire where they were attacked by Manchu tribesman and where many soldiers succumbed to famine and disease.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=187–188}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=92–93}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=61}}</ref> Finally reaching Shaanxi, they fought off both the KMT and an Islamic cavalry militia before crossing the Min Mountains and Mount Liupan and reaching the Shenshi Soviet; only 7,000–8,000 had survived.<ref>{{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=61}}; {{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=188}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=93}}</ref> The Long March cemented Mao's status as the dominant figure in the party. In November 1935, he was named chairman of the Military Commission. From this point onward, Mao was the Communist Party's undisputed leader, even though he would not become party chairman until 1943.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barnouin |first1=Barbara |last2=Yu |first2=Changgen |title=Zhou Enlai: A Political Life |location=Hong Kong |publisher=Chinese University of Hong Kong |date=2006 |isbn=9629962802 |access-date=12 March 2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NztlWQeXf2IC&q=zhou+enlai |page=62 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

=== Alliance with the Kuomintang: 1935–1940 ===

[[File:1938 Mao Zedong Zhang Guotao in Yan'an.jpg|thumb|left|Zhang Guotao (left) and Mao in Yan'an, 1937]]

Mao's troops arrived at the Yan'an Soviet during October 1935 and settled in Bao'an, until spring 1936. While there, they developed links with local communities, redistributed and farmed the land, offered medical treatment, and began literacy programs.<ref>{{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=61}}; {{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=193}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=94–96}}</ref> Mao now commanded {{formatnum:15000}} soldiers, boosted by the arrival of He Long's men from Hunan and the armies of Zhu De and Zhang Guotao returned from Tibet.{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=193}} In February 1936, they established the North West Anti-Japanese Red Army University in Yan'an, through which they trained increasing numbers of new recruits.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=206–207}} In January 1937, they began the "anti-Japanese expedition", that sent groups of guerrilla fighters into Japanese-controlled territory to undertake sporadic attacks.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=20}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=101}}</ref> In May 1937, a Communist Conference was held in Yan'an to discuss the situation.{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=202}} Western reporters also arrived in the "Border Region" (as the Soviet had been renamed); most notable were Edgar Snow, who used his experiences as a basis for ''Red Star Over China'', and Agnes Smedley, whose accounts brought international attention to Mao's cause.{{sfn|Schram|1966|pp=209–210}}

[[File:1945 Mao and Chiang.jpg|thumb|In an effort to defeat the Japanese, Mao (left) agreed to collaborate with Chiang (right).]]
[[File:Mao1938a.jpg|thumb|Mao in 1938, writing ''On Protracted War'']]

On the Long March, Mao's wife He Zizhen had been injured by a shrapnel wound to the head. She travelled to Moscow for medical treatment; Mao proceeded to divorce her and marry an actress, [[Biography:Jiang Qing|Jiang Qing]].<ref name="Schram p208">{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=208}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=95}}</ref> He Zizhen was reportedly "dispatched to a mental asylum in Moscow to make room" for Qing.<ref>{{cite news |last=Terrill |first=Ross |date=8 March 1998 |title=What Mao Traded for Sex |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-08-op-26719-story.html |url-status=live |work={{wipe|Los Angeles Times}} |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200524045009/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-08-op-26719-story.html |archive-date=24 May 2020 |access-date=7 October 2021}}</ref> Mao moved into a cave-house and spent much of his time reading, tending his garden and theorising.<ref>{{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=95–96}}</ref> He came to believe that the Red Army alone was unable to defeat the Japanese, and that a Communist-led "government of national defence" should be formed with the KMT and other "bourgeois nationalist" elements to achieve this goal.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=194}}</ref> Although despising Chiang Kai-shek as a "traitor to the nation",<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=196}}</ref> on 5 May, he telegrammed the Military Council of the Nanjing National Government proposing a military alliance, a course of action advocated by Stalin.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=197}}</ref> Although Chiang intended to ignore Mao's message and continue the civil war, he was arrested by one of his own generals, Zhang Xueliang, in Xi'an, leading to the Xi'an Incident; Zhang forced Chiang to discuss the issue with the Communists, resulting in the formation of a United Front with concessions on both sides on 25 December 1937.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=198–200}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=98–99}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|pp=64–65}}</ref>

The Japanese had taken both Shanghai and Nanjing—resulting in the Nanjing Massacre, an atrocity Mao never spoke of all his life—and was pushing the Kuomintang government inland to [[Place:Chongqing|Chongqing]].<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=211}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=100–101}}</ref> The Japanese's brutality led to increasing numbers of Chinese joining the fight, and the Red Army grew from {{formatnum:50000}} to {{formatnum:500000}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=205}}</ref><ref name="Carter1976 p105">{{harvnb|Carter|1976|p=105}}</ref> In August 1938, the Red Army formed the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army, which were nominally under the command of Chiang's National Revolutionary Army.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=204}}; {{harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=66}}</ref> In August 1940, the Red Army initiated the Hundred Regiments Offensive, in which {{formatnum:400000}} troops attacked the Japanese simultaneously in five provinces. It was a military success that resulted in the death of {{formatnum:20000}} Japanese, the disruption of railways and the loss of a coal mine.<ref name="Carter1976 p105"/><ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|p=217}}</ref> From his base in Yan'an, Mao authored several texts for his troops, including ''Philosophy of Revolution'', which offered an introduction to the Marxist theory of knowledge; ''Protracted Warfare'', which dealt with guerrilla and mobile military tactics; and ''On New Democracy'', which laid forward ideas for China's future.<ref>{{harvnb|Schram|1966|pp=211–216}}; {{harvnb|Carter|1976|pp=101–110}}</ref>

[[File:Kang Seng Mao Zedong in Yan'an.jpg|thumb|Mao with Kang Sheng in Yan'an, 1945]]

=== Resuming civil war: 1940–1949 ===
In 1944, the U.S. sent a special diplomatic envoy, called the Dixie Mission, to the Chinese Communist Party. The American soldiers who were sent to the mission were favourably impressed. The party seemed less corrupt, more unified, and more vigorous in its resistance to Japan than the Kuomintang. The soldiers confirmed to their superiors that the party was both strong and popular over a broad area.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Moise |first=Edwin E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c2787J5UfAQC |title=Modern China, a History |date=2008 |publisher=Pearson/Longman |isbn=978-0582772779 |pages=105 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> In the end of the mission, the contacts which the U.S. developed with the Chinese Communist Party led to very little.<ref name=":3" /> After the end of World War II, the U.S. continued their diplomatic and military assistance to Chiang Kai-shek and his KMT government forces against the People's Liberation Army (PLA) led by Mao Zedong during the civil war and abandoned the idea of a coalition government which would include the CCP.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Eastman |first1=Lloyd E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Wrw4RrFpUkC&pg=PA353 |title=The Nationalist Era in China, 1927–1949 |last2=Ch'en |first2=Jerome |last3=Pepper |first3=Suzanne |last4=Slyke |first4=Lyman P. Van |date=30 August 1991 |publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}} |isbn=978-0521385916 |pages=353 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Likewise, the [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]] gave support to Mao by occupying north-eastern China, and secretly giving it to the Chinese communists in March 1946.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=揚子晚報網 |script-title=zh:"张莘夫事件"与苏军撤出东北 |title="Zhāngshēnfū shìjiàn"yǔ sū jūn chè chū dōngběi |trans-title="Zhang Xinfu Incident" and Soviet Army's Withdrawal from Northeast China |url=http://epaper.yangtse.com/yzwb/2009-04/20/content_12663469.htm |author=作者：劉向上 |date=20 April 2009 |access-date=20 April 2009 |language=Chinese |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101182923/http://epaper.yangtse.com/yzwb/2009-04/20/content_12663469.htm |archive-date=1 November 2013}}</ref>

[[File:PLAHuaihai.jpg|thumb|left|PLA troops, supported by captured M5 Stuart light tanks, attacking the Nationalist lines in 1948]]

In 1948, under direct orders from Mao, the People's Liberation Army starved out the Kuomintang forces occupying the city of Changchun. At least {{formatnum:160000}} civilians are believed to have perished during the siege, which lasted from June until October. PLA lieutenant colonel Zhang Zhenglu, who documented the siege in his book ''White Snow, Red Blood'', compared it to Hiroshima: "The casualties were about the same. Hiroshima took nine seconds; Changchun took five months."<ref>{{cite news |title=China Is Wordless on Traumas of Communists' Rise |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/world/asia/02anniversary.html |work={{wipe|The New York Times}} |access-date=2 October 2009 |first=Andrew |last=Jacobs |date=2 October 2009}}</ref> On 21 January 1949, Kuomintang forces suffered great losses in decisive battles against Mao's forces.<ref name="Palestini2011">{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Palestini |title=Going Back to the Future: A Leadership Journey for Educators |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9n_DUv1_NkAC&pg=PA170 |year=2011 |publisher=R&L Education |isbn=978-1607095866 |page=170 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> In the early morning of 10 December 1949, PLA troops laid siege to [[Place:Chongqing|Chongqing]] and Chengdu on mainland China, and Chiang Kai-shek fled from the mainland to Taiwan.<ref name="Palestini2011" /><ref name="Perkins2013">{{cite book |first=Dorothy |last=Perkins |title=Encyclopedia of China: History and Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMQeAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 |year=2013 |publisher=[[Company:Routledge|Routledge]] |isbn=978-1135935627 |page=79 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

== Leadership of China ==

=== Establishment of the People's Republic of China ===
[[File:Mao Proclaiming New China.JPG|thumb|left|Mao declares the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949]]

Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China from the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tian'anmen) on 1 October 1949, and later that week declared "The Chinese people have stood up" ({{zh|labels=no|c=中国人民从此站起来了}}).<ref>{{cite book |quote=The phrase is often mistakenly said to have been delivered during the speech from the Gate of Heavenly Peace, but was first used on September 21, at the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, then repeated on several occasions |editor-last=Cheek |editor-first=T. |title=Mao Zedong and China's Revolutions: A Brief History with Documents |location=New York |publisher=[[Company:Palgrave Macmillan|Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2002 |page=125 |isbn=978-0312256265}}</ref> Mao went to Moscow for long talks in the winter of 1949–50. Mao initiated the talks which focused on the political and economic revolution in China, foreign policy, railways, naval bases, and Soviet economic and technical aid. The resulting treaty reflected Stalin's dominance and his willingness to help Mao.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Odd Arne |last=Westad |title=Fighting for Friendship: Mao, Stalin, and the Sino-Soviet Treaty of 1950. |journal=Cold War International History Project Bulletin |volume=8 |number=9 |date=1996 |pages=224–236}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Robert C. |last=North |title=The Sino-Soviet Agreements of 1950 |journal=Far Eastern Survey |volume=19 |number=13 |date=1950 |pages=125–130 |doi=10.2307/3024085 |jstor=3024085}}</ref>

Mao's views as a Marxist were strongly influenced by Lenin, particularly with regard to the [[Social:Vanguardism|vanguardism]].<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last1=Cai |first1=Xiang |url= |title=Revolution and its narratives: China's socialist literary and cultural imaginaries (1949-1966) |last2=蔡翔 |date=2016 |publisher=Duke University Press |others=Rebecca E. Karl, Xueping Zhong, 钟雪萍 |isbn=978-0-8223-7461-9 |location=Durham |pages=100 |oclc=932368688}}</ref> Mao believed that only the correct leadership of the Communist Party could advance China into socialism.<ref name=":10" /> Conversely, Mao also believed that mass movements and mass criticism were necessary in order to check the bureaucracy.<ref name=":10" />

[[File:Mao and Jiang Qing 1946.jpg|thumb|Mao with his fourth wife, Jiang Qing, called "Madame Mao", 1946]]

=== Korean War ===
Mao pushed the Party to organise campaigns to reform society and extend control. These campaigns were given urgency in October 1950, when Mao made the decision to send the People's Volunteer Army, a special unit of the People's Liberation Army, into the Korean War and fight as well as to reinforce the armed forces of North Korea, the Korean People's Army, which had been in full retreat. The United States placed a trade embargo on the People's Republic as a result of its involvement in the Korean War, lasting until Richard Nixon's improvements of relations. At least 180 thousand Chinese troops died during the war.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.china.org.cn/china/2010-06/28/content_20365659.htm |title=180,000 Chinese soldiers killed in Korean War |website=china.org.cn |access-date=28 November 2019}}</ref>

Mao directed operations to the minutest detail. As the Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), he was also the Supreme Commander in Chief of the PLA and the People's Republic and Chairman of the Party. Chinese troops in Korea were under the overall command of then newly installed Premier Zhou Enlai, with General Peng Dehuai as field commander and political commissar.<ref name="Burkitt">{{Cite book |last1=Burkitt |first1=Laurie |last2=Scobell |first2=Andrew |last3=Wortzel |first3=Larry M. |title=The lessons of history: The Chinese people's Liberation Army at 75 |publisher=[[Organization:Strategic Studies Institute|Strategic Studies Institute]] |pages=340–341 |year=2003 |isbn=978-1584871262 |url=http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB52.pdf |access-date=14 July 2009 |archive-date=5 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205072610/http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB52.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Social reform ===
During the [[Social:Chinese Land Reform|land reform campaigns]], large numbers of landlords and rich peasants were beaten to death at mass meetings organised by the Communist Party as land was taken from them and given to poorer peasants, which significantly reduced [[Social:Economic inequality|economic inequality]].{{sfn|Short|2001|pp=436–437}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Scheidel |first=Walter |title=The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0691165028 |url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10921.html |page=226 |quote="In Zhangzhuangcun, in the more thoroughly reformed north of the country, most "landlords" and "rich peasants" had lost all their land and often their lives or had fled. All formerly landless workers had received land, which eliminated this category altogether. As a result, "middling peasants," who now accounted for 90 percent of the village population, owned 90.8 percent of the land, as close to perfect equality as one could possibly hope for."}}</ref> The Campaign to Suppress Counter-revolutionaries{{sfn|Kuisong|2008}} targeted bureaucratic bourgeoisie, such as compradors, merchants and Kuomintang officials who were seen by the party as economic parasites or political enemies.<ref>{{cite book |first=Steven W. |last=Mosher |title=China Misperceived: American Illusions and Chinese Reality |publisher=Basic Books |date=1992 |isbn=0465098134 |pages=72–73}}</ref> In 1976, the U.S. State Department estimated as many as a million were killed in the land reform, and {{formatnum:800000}} killed in the counter-revolutionary campaign.<ref>{{cite book |first=Stephen Rosskamm |last=Shalom |title=Deaths in China Due to Communism |publisher=Center for Asian Studies [[Organization:Arizona State University|Arizona State University]] |date=1984 |isbn=0939252112 |page=24}}</ref>

Mao himself claimed that a total of {{formatnum:700000}} people were killed in attacks on "counter-revolutionaries" during the years 1950–1952.<ref>{{Harvnb|Spence|1999}}{{Page needed|date=January 2013}}. Mao got this number from a report submitted by Xu Zirong, Deputy Public Security Minister, which stated {{formatnum:712000}} counter-revolutionaries were executed, {{formatnum:1290000}} were imprisoned, and another {{formatnum:1200000}} were "subjected to control.": see {{Harvnb|Kuisong|2008}}.</ref> Because there was a policy to select "at least one landlord, and usually several, in virtually every village for public execution",<ref name="Cambridge history of China">{{cite book |last1=Twitchett |first1=Denis |first2=John K. |last2=Fairbank |first3=Roderick |last3=MacFarquhar |title=The Cambridge history of China |publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}} |isbn=978-0521243360 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ioppEjkCkeEC&q=at+least+one+landlord,+and+usually+several,+in+virtually+every+village+for+public+execution&pg=PA87 |access-date=23 August 2008 |year=1987 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> the number of deaths range between 2 million<ref name="Cambridge history of China"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Meisner |first=Maurice |title=Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic |edition=Third |publisher=Free Press |date=1999 |isbn=0684856352 |page=72 |quote=... the estimate of many relatively impartial observers that there were {{formatnum:2000000}} people executed during the first three years of the People's Republic is probably as accurate a guess as one can make on the basis of scanty information.}}</ref>{{sfn|Kuisong|2008}} and 5 million.<ref>{{cite book |first=Steven W. |last=Mosher |title=China Misperceived: American Illusions and Chinese Reality |publisher=Basic Books |date=1992 |isbn=0465098134 |page=74 |quote=... a figure that Fairbank has cited as the upper range of 'sober' estimates.}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Feigon|2002|p=96}}: "By 1952 they had extended land reform throughout the countryside, but in the process somewhere between two and five million landlords had been killed."</ref> In addition, at least 1.5 million people,{{sfn|Short|2001|p=436}} perhaps as many as 4 to 6 million,{{sfn|Valentino|2004|pp=121–122}} were sent to "reform through labour" camps where many perished.{{sfn|Valentino|2004|pp=121–122}} Mao played a personal role in organising the mass repressions and established a system of execution quotas,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.4.2005/CRF-2005-4_Quota.pdf |title=Mao's "Killing Quotas." Human Rights in China (HRIC). September&nbsp;26, 2005, at Shandong University |last=Changyu |first=Li |access-date=21 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090729194758/http://www.hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.4.2005/CRF-2005-4_Quota.pdf |archive-date=29 July 2009}}</ref> which were often exceeded.{{sfn|Kuisong|2008}} He defended these killings as necessary for the securing of power.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/chinesehistory/pgp/jeremy50sessay.htm |title=Terrible Honeymoon: Struggling with the Problem of Terror in Early 1950s China |last=Brown |first=Jeremy |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090627092313/http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/chinesehistory/pgp/jeremy50sessay.htm |archive-date=27 June 2009}}</ref>

[[File:Mao, Bulganin, Stalin, Ulbricht Tsedenbal.jpeg|thumb|left|Mao at {{wipe|Joseph Stalin}}'s 70th birthday celebration in Moscow, December 1949]]

The Mao government is credited with eradicating both consumption and production of [[Biology:Opium|opium]] during the 1950s using unrestrained repression and social reform.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Bottelier |first=Pieter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMhUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA131 |title=Economic Policy Making In China (1949–2016): The Role of Economists |publisher=[[Company:Routledge|Routledge]] |year=2018 |isbn=978-1351393812 |pages=131 |language=en |quote=We should remember, however, that Mao also did wonderful things for China; apart from reuniting the country, he restored a sense of natural pride, greatly improved women's rights, basic healthcare and primary education, ended opium abuse, simplified Chinese characters, developed pinyin and promoted its use for teaching purposes. |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="McCoy opium" /> Ten million addicts were forced into compulsory treatment, dealers were executed, and opium-producing regions were planted with new crops. Remaining opium production shifted south of the Chinese border into the [[Place:Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)|Golden Triangle]] region.<ref name="McCoy opium">{{cite web |url=http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/opi010.htm |title=Opium History, 1858 to 1940 |first=Alfred W. |last=McCoy |access-date=4 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070404134938/http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/opi010.htm |archive-date=4 April 2007}}</ref>

=== Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns ===
Starting in 1951, Mao initiated two successive movements in an effort to rid urban areas of corruption by targeting wealthy capitalists and political opponents, known as the Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns. Whereas the three-anti campaign was a focused purge of government, industrial and party officials, the five-anti campaign set its sights slightly broader, targeting capitalist elements in general.<ref>{{cite book |first1=John |last1=Fairbank |first2=Merle |last2=Goldman |title=China: A New History |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |date=2002 |page=349}}</ref> Workers denounced their bosses, spouses turned on their spouses, and children informed on their parents; the victims were often humiliated at struggle sessions, where a targeted person would be verbally and physically abused until they confessed to crimes. Mao insisted that minor offenders be criticised and reformed or sent to labour camps, "while the worst among them should be shot". These campaigns took several hundred thousand additional lives, the vast majority via suicide.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=437}}

[[File:Mao dalai lama-1955.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Mao and Zhou Enlai meeting with the Dalai Lama (right) and Panchen Lama (left) to celebrate the Tibetan New Year, Beijing, 1955]]

In Shanghai, suicide by jumping from tall buildings became so commonplace that residents avoided walking on the pavement near skyscrapers for fear that suicides might land on them.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808241-5,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080318093047/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808241-5,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 March 2008 |title=High Tide of Terror |date=5 March 1956 |magazine={{wipe|Time (magazine)}} |access-date=11 May 2009}}</ref> Some biographers have pointed out that driving those perceived as enemies to suicide was a common tactic during the Mao-era. In his biography of Mao, Philip Short notes that Mao gave explicit instructions in the Yan'an Rectification Movement that "no cadre is to be killed" but in practice allowed security chief Kang Sheng to drive opponents to suicide and that "this pattern was repeated throughout his leadership of the People's Republic".{{sfn|Short|2001|p=631}}

[[File:Mao Zedong sitting.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Photo of Mao sitting, published in "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung", ca. 1955]]

=== Five-year plans of China ===
Following the consolidation of power, Mao launched the first five-year plan (1953–1958), which emphasised rapid industrial development. Within industry, iron and steel, electric power, coal, heavy engineering, building materials, and basic chemicals were prioritised with the aim of constructing large and highly capital-intensive plants. Many of these plants were built with Soviet assistance and heavy industry grew rapidly.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1998 |title=China – Economic policies |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/China/Economic-policies |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> Agriculture, industry and trade was organised on a collective basis ([[Social:Worker cooperative|socialist cooperatives]]).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6zJaAAAAYAAJ |title=Doing Business in the People's Republic of China |date=1994 |publisher=Price, Waterhouse |pages=3 |language=en |quote=At the same time, agriculture was organized on a collective basis (socialist cooperatives), as were industry and trade. |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> This period marked the beginning of China's rapid industrialisation and it resulted in an enormous success.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1998 |title=China – The transition to socialism, 1953–57 |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/China/The-transition-to-socialism-1953-57 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref>

Despite being initially sympathetic towards the reformist government of Imre Nagy, Mao feared the "reactionary restoration" in Hungary as the Hungarian crisis continued and became more hardline. Mao opposed the withdrawal of Soviet troops by asking Liu Shaoqi to inform the Soviet representatives to use military intervention against "Western imperialist-backed" protestors and Nagy's government. However, it was unclear if Mao's stance played a crucial role, if any role, in Khrushchev's decision to invade Hungary. It was also unclear if China was forced to conform to the Soviet position due to economic concerns and China's poor power projections compared to the USSR. Despite his disagreements with Moscow's hegemony in the Socialist Camp, Mao viewed the integrity of the international communist movement as more important than the national autonomy of the countries in the Soviet sphere of influence. The Hungarian Revolution also influenced Mao's Hundred Flowers Campaign. Mao decided to soften his stance on Chinese intelligentsia and allow them to express their social dissatisfaction and criticisms of the errors of the government. Mao wanted to use this movement to prevent a similar uprising in China. However, as people in China began to criticize the CCP's policies and Mao's leadership following the Hundred Flowers Campaign, Mao cracked down the movement he initiated and compared it to the "counter-revolutionary" Hungarian Revolution.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.globalpoliticsreview.com/publications/2464-9929_v01_i01_p18.pdf |journal=Global Politics Review |volume=1 |number=1 |date=October 2015 |pages=18–34 |title=The Hungarian Connection: the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and its Impact on Mao Zedong's Domestic Policies in the late 1950s |first=David Tibor |last=Teszar}}</ref>

Programs pursued during this time include the Hundred Flowers Campaign, in which Mao indicated his supposed willingness to consider different opinions about how China should be governed. Given the freedom to express themselves, liberal and intellectual Chinese began opposing the Communist Party and questioning its leadership. This was initially tolerated and encouraged. After a few months, Mao's government reversed its policy and persecuted those who had criticised the party, totalling perhaps {{formatnum:500000}},<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vidal |first=Christine |year=2016 |title=The 1957–1958 Anti-Rightist Campaign in China: History and Memory (1978–2014) |url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01306892/document |journal=Hal-SHS}}</ref> as well as those who were merely alleged to have been critical, in what is called the Anti-Rightist Movement. The movement led to the persecution of at least 550,000 people, mostly intellectuals and dissidents.<ref name="1Mac">{{Cite book |last=MacFarquhar |first=Roderick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yrkpx6iKq48C&dq=550000+anti-rightist+china&pg=PA82 |title=The Politics of China: The Eras of Mao and Deng |date=13 January 1997 |publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}} |isbn=978-0-521-58863-8 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Li Zhisui, Mao's physician, suggested that Mao had initially seen the policy as a way of weakening opposition to him within the party and that he was surprised by the extent of criticism and the fact that it came to be directed at his own leadership.<ref>{{Harvnb|Li|1994|pp=198, 200, 468–469}}</ref>

=== Military projects ===
Under Mao's "Two Bombs, One Satellite" program, China developed the atomic and hydrogen bombs in record time and launched a satellite only a few years after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik.<ref name=":022">{{Cite book |last=Jin |first=Keyu |title=The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism |date=2023 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-1-9848-7828-1 |location=New York |author-link=Keyu Jin}}</ref>{{Rp|page=218}}

[[Chemistry:Project 523|Project 523]] ({{zh |s = 523项目}})<ref name=hsu2006>{{cite journal |last1 = Hsu |first1 = Elisabeth |title = Reflections on the 'discovery' of the antimalarial qinghao |journal = British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology |year = 2006 |volume = 61 |issue = 6 |pages = 666–670 |doi = 10.1111/j.1365-2125.2006.02673.x |pmid = 16722826 |pmc = 1885105}}</ref> is a [[Social:Code name|code name]] for a 1967 secret military project of the People's Republic of China to find [[Chemistry:Antimalarial medication|antimalarial medication]]s.<ref name="meera">{{cite web |last1 = Senthilingam |first1 = Meera |title = Chemistry in its element: compounds: Artemisinin |url = http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/podcast/CIIEcompounds/transcripts/artemisinin.asp |work = Chemistry World |publisher = [[Organization:Royal Society of Chemistry|Royal Society of Chemistry]] |access-date = 27 April 2015}}</ref> Named after the date the project launched, 23 May, it addressed [[Medicine:Malaria|malaria]], an important threat in the Vietnam War. At the behest of [[Biography:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]], Prime Minister of North Vietnam, Zhou Enlai convinced Mao Zedong to start the mass project "to keep [the] allies' troops combat-ready", as the meeting minutes put it. More than 500 Chinese scientists were recruited. The project was divided into three streams.<ref name="Hao2011">{{cite web | first = Cindy | last = Hao |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/lasker-award-rekindles-debate-over-artemisinins-discovery |title=Lasker Award Rekindles Debate Over Artemisinin's Discovery |website=Science |access-date=2020-07-23|date=2011-09-29 }}</ref> The one for investigating [[Medicine:Traditional Chinese medicine|traditional Chinese medicine]] discovered and led to the development of a class of new antimalarial drugs called [[Chemistry:Artemisinin|artemisinin]]s.<ref name="Hao2011" /><ref name="tu2011">{{cite journal |last1 = Tu |first1 = Youyou |title = The discovery of artemisinin (qinghaosu) and gifts from Chinese medicine |journal = Nature Medicine |year = 2011 |volume = 17 |issue = 10 |pages = 1217–1220 |doi = 10.1038/nm.2471 |pmid = 21989013|s2cid = 10021463 }}</ref> Launched during and lasting throughout the Cultural Revolution, Project 523 was officially terminated in 1981.

=== Great Leap Forward ===
[[File:Nikita Khrushchev, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh and Soong Ching-ling.jpg|thumb|Mao with Nikita Khrushchev, Ho Chi Minh, and Soong Ching-ling during a state dinner in Beijing, 1959]]

In January 1958, Mao launched the second five-year plan, known as the Great Leap Forward, a plan intended to turn China from an agrarian nation to an industrialised one<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-silence-that-preceded-chinas-great-leap-into-famine-51898077/ |title=The Silence that Preceded China's Great Leap into Famine |last=King |first=Gilbert |website=Smithsonian |access-date=28 November 2019}}</ref> and as an alternative model for economic growth to the Soviet model focusing on heavy industry that was advocated by others in the party. Under this economic program, the relatively small agricultural collectives that had been formed to date were rapidly merged into far larger people's communes, and many of the peasants were ordered to work on massive infrastructure projects and on the production of iron and steel. Some private food production was banned, and livestock and farm implements were brought under collective ownership.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Slatyer |first=Will |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tprrCQAAQBAJ |title=The Life/Death Rhythms of Capitalist Regimes - Debt Before Dishonour: Timetable of World Dominance 1400-2100 |date=20 February 2015 |publisher=Partridge Publishing Singapore |isbn=978-1-4828-2961-7 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]|page=509}}</ref>

Under the Great Leap Forward, Mao and other party leaders ordered the implementation of a variety of unproven and unscientific new agricultural techniques by the new communes. The combined effect of the diversion of labour to steel production and infrastructure projects, and cyclical natural disasters led to an approximately 15% drop in grain production in 1959 followed by a further 10% decline in 1960 and no recovery in 1961.<ref name="Spence1999 p553">{{Harvnb|Spence|1999}}{{Page needed|date=January 2013}}<!-- Book has only 188 pages, so page 553 does not look right --></ref>

In an effort to win favour with their superiors and avoid being purged, each layer in the party exaggerated the amount of grain produced under them. Based upon the falsely reported success, party cadres were ordered to requisition a disproportionately high amount of that fictitious harvest for state use, primarily for use in the cities and urban areas but also for export. The result, compounded in some areas by drought and in others by floods, was that farmers were left with little food for themselves and many millions starved to death in the Great Chinese Famine. The people of urban areas in China were given food stamps each month, but the people of rural areas were expected to grow their own crops and give some of the crops back to the government. The death count in rural parts of China surpassed the deaths in the urban centers. Additionally, the Chinese government continued to export food that could have been allocated to the country's starving citizens.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Yushi |first1=Mao |title=Lessons from China's Great Famine |journal=The Cato Journal |date=22 September 2014 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=483–491 |id={{Gale|A387348115}} |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/7453e8c6f7d53a0684e517742c966e39/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=37750}}</ref> The famine was a direct cause of the death of some 30 million Chinese peasants between 1959 and 1962.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smil |first1=V. |title=China's great famine: 40 years later |journal=BMJ |date=18 December 1999 |volume=319 |issue=7225 |pages=1619–1621 |doi=10.1136/bmj.319.7225.1619 |pmid=10600969 |pmc=1127087}}</ref> Furthermore, many children who became malnourished during years of hardship died after the Great Leap Forward came to an end in 1962.<ref name="Spence1999 p553"/>

In late autumn 1958, Mao condemned the practices that were being used during Great Leap Forward such as forcing peasants to do exhausting labour without enough food or rest which resulted in epidemics and starvation. He also acknowledged that anti-rightist campaigns were a major cause of "production at the expense of livelihood." He refused to abandon the Great Leap Forward to solve these difficulties, but he did demand that they be confronted. After the July 1959 clash at Lushan Conference with Peng Dehuai, Mao launched a new anti-rightist campaign along with the radical policies that he previously abandoned. It wasn't until the spring of 1960, that Mao would again express concern about abnormal deaths and other abuses, but he did not move to stop them. Bernstein concludes that the Chairman "wilfully ignored the lessons of the first radical phase for the sake of achieving extreme ideological and developmental goals".<ref name="wilfulness">{{cite journal |last1=Thomas P.|first1=Bernstein |title=Mao Zedong and the Famine of 1959–1960: A Study in Wilfulness |journal=The China Quarterly |date=June 2006 |volume=186 |issue=186 |pages=421–445 |doi=10.1017/S0305741006000221 |jstor=20192620 |s2cid=153728069}}</ref>

Jasper Becker notes that Mao was dismissive of reports he received of food shortages in the countryside and refused to change course, believing that peasants were lying and that rightists and kulaks were hoarding grain. He refused to open state granaries,<ref name="Becker81">{{Harvnb|Becker|1998|p=81}}</ref> and instead launched a series of "anti-grain concealment" drives that resulted in numerous purges and suicides.{{sfn|Becker|1998|p=86}} Other violent campaigns followed in which party leaders went from village to village in search of hidden food reserves, and not only grain, as Mao issued quotas for pigs, chickens, ducks and eggs. Many peasants accused of hiding food were tortured and beaten to death.{{sfn|Becker|1998|p=93}}

The extent of Mao's knowledge of the severity of the situation has been disputed. Mao's personal physician, Li Zhisui, said that Mao may have been unaware of the extent of the famine, partly due to a reluctance of local officials to criticise his policies, and the willingness of his staff to exaggerate or outright fake reports.{{sfn|Li|1994|pp=283–284, 295}} Li writes that upon learning of the extent of the starvation, Mao vowed to stop eating meat, an action followed by his staff.{{sfn|Li|1994|p=340}}

[[File:Mao Zedong shakes hands with People's commune workers.jpg|thumb|Mao shaking hands with a people's commune farmer, 1959]]
Mao stepped down as President of China on 27 April 1959; however, he retained other top positions such as Chairman of the Communist Party and of the Central Military Commission.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last1=Li |first1=Xiaobing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fm5BAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 |title=Evolution of Power: China's Struggle, Survival, and Success |last2=Tian |first2=Xiansheng |year=2013 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0739184981 |pages=41 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The Presidency was transferred to Liu Shaoqi.<ref name=":5" /> He was eventually forced to abandon the policy in 1962, and he lost political power to Liu Shaoqi and [[Biography:Deng Xiaoping|Deng Xiaoping]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Three Chinese Leaders: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping |url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_leaders.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211053051/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_leaders.htm |archive-date=11 December 2013 |access-date=22 April 2020 |website=[[Organization:Columbia University|Columbia University]]}}</ref>

The Great Leap Forward was a tragedy for the vast majority of the Chinese. Although the steel quotas were officially reached, almost all of the supposed steel made in the countryside was iron, as it had been made from assorted scrap metal in home-made furnaces with no reliable source of fuel such as coal. This meant that proper [[Engineering:Smelting|smelting]] conditions could not be achieved. According to Zhang Rongmei, a geometry teacher in rural Shanghai during the Great Leap Forward: "We took all the furniture, pots, and pans we had in our house, and all our neighbours did likewise. We put everything in a big fire and melted down all the metal".{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} The worst of the famine was steered towards enemies of the state.{{sfn|Valentino|2004|p=128}} Jasper Becker explains: "The most vulnerable section of China's population, around five percent, were those whom Mao called 'enemies of the people'. Anyone who had in previous campaigns of repression been labeled a 'black element' was given the lowest priority in the allocation of food. Landlords, rich peasants, former members of the nationalist regime, religious leaders, rightists, counter-revolutionaries and the families of such individuals died in the greatest numbers."{{sfn|Becker|1998|p=103}}

According to official Chinese statistics for Second Five-Year Plan (1958–1962):"[[Finance:Industrial production|industrial output value]] value had doubled; the [[Finance:Gross value added|gross value]] of agricultural products increased by 35 percent; [[Engineering:Steelmaking|steel production]] in 1962 was between 10.6 million tons or 12 million tons; investment in capital construction rose to 40 percent from 35 percent in the First Five-Year Plan period; the investment in capital construction was doubled; and the average income of workers and farmers increased by up to 30 percent."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AE8zAQAAIAAJ |title=People's Republic of China Yearbook |date=2009 |publisher=Xinhua Publishing House |volume=29 |pages=340 |language=en |quote=Industrial output value had doubled; the gross value of agricultural products increased by 35 percent; steel production in 1962 was between 10.6 million tons or 12 million tons; investment in capital construction rose to 40 percent from 35 percent in the First Five-Year Plan period; the investment in capital construction was doubled; and the average income of workers and farmers increased by up to 30 percent. |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

At a large Communist Party conference in Beijing in January 1962, dubbed the "Seven Thousand Cadres Conference", State Chairman Liu Shaoqi denounced the Great Leap Forward, attributing the project to widespread famine in China.<ref name="Chang">{{Harvnb|Chang|Halliday|2005|pp=568, 579}}</ref> The overwhelming majority of delegates expressed agreement, but Defense Minister Lin Biao staunchly defended Mao.<ref name="Chang"/> A brief period of liberalisation followed while Mao and Lin plotted a comeback.<ref name="Chang"/> Liu Shaoqi and [[Biography:Deng Xiaoping|Deng Xiaoping]] rescued the economy by disbanding the people's communes, introducing elements of private control of peasant smallholdings and importing grain from Canada and Australia to mitigate the worst effects of famine.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lsHLDAAAQBAJ&q=Liu+Shaoqi+and+Deng+Xiaoping+rescued+the+economy+by+disbanding+the+people's+communes,+introducing+elements+of+private+control+of+peasant+smallholdings+and+importing+grain+from+Canada+and+Australia+to+mitigate+the+worst+effects+of+famine.&pg=PT373 |title=50 Great Military Leaders of All Time |last=Tibbetts |first=Jann |year=2016 |publisher=Vij Books India Pvt Ltd |isbn=978-9385505669 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

[[File:Kissinger Mao.jpg|thumb|Mao with Henry Kissinger and Zhou Enlai, Beijing, 1972]]

At the Lushan Conference in July/August 1959, several ministers expressed concern that the Great Leap Forward had not proved as successful as planned. The most direct of these was Minister of Defence and Korean War veteran General Peng Dehuai. Following Peng's criticism of the Great Leap Forward, Mao orchestrated a purge of Peng and his supporters, stifling criticism of the Great Leap policies. Senior officials who reported the truth of the famine to Mao were branded as "right opportunists."{{sfn|Becker|1998|pp=92–93}} A campaign against right-wing opportunism was launched and resulted in party members and ordinary peasants being sent to prison labour camps where many would subsequently die in the famine. Years later the CCP would conclude that as many as six million people were wrongly punished in the campaign.{{sfn|Valentino|2004|p=127}}
[[File:Mao Zedong with Emperor Haile Selassie I.webp|thumb|Ethiopian Emperor [[Biography:Haile Selassie|Haile Selassie I]] with Mao in 1971 after the death of Lin Biao ]]
The number of deaths by starvation during the Great Leap Forward is deeply controversial. Until the mid-1980s, when official census figures were finally published by the Chinese Government, little was known about the scale of the disaster in the Chinese countryside, as the handful of Western observers allowed access during this time had been restricted to model villages where they were deceived into believing that the Great Leap Forward had been a great success. There was also an assumption that the flow of individual reports of starvation that had been reaching the West, primarily through Hong Kong and Taiwan, must have been localised or exaggerated as China was continuing to claim record harvests and was a net exporter of grain through the period. Because Mao wanted to pay back early to the Soviets debts totalling 1.973 billion [[Finance:Renminbi|yuan]] from 1960 to 1962,<ref name="Yang Jisheng"/> exports increased by 50%, and fellow Communist regimes in North Korea, North Vietnam and Albania were provided grain free of charge.<ref name="Becker81"/>

Censuses were carried out in China in 1953, 1964 and 1982. The first attempt to analyse this data to estimate the number of famine deaths was carried out by American demographer Dr. Judith Banister and published in 1984. Given the lengthy gaps between the censuses and doubts over the reliability of the data, an accurate figure is difficult to ascertain. Nevertheless, Banister concluded that the official data implied that around 15 million excess deaths incurred in China during 1958–61, and that based on her modelling of Chinese demographics during the period and taking account of assumed under-reporting during the famine years, the figure was around 30 million. Hu Yaobang, a high-ranking official of the CCP, states that 20 million people died according to official government statistics.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=761}} Yang Jisheng, a former Xinhua News Agency reporter who had privileged access and connections available to no other scholars, estimates a death toll of 36 million.<ref name="Yang Jisheng">{{cite news |first=Mark |last=O'Neill |url=http://en.chinaelections.org/newsinfo.asp?newsid=18328 |title=A hunger for the truth: A new book, banned on the mainland, is becoming the definitive account of the Great Famine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210190821/http://en.chinaelections.org/newsinfo.asp?newsid=18328 |archive-date=10 February 2012 |work=South China Morning Post |date=6 July 2008}}</ref> Frank Dikötter estimates that there were at least 45 million premature deaths attributable to the Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1962.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/maos-great-leap-forward-killed-45-million-in-four-years-2081630.html |title=Mao's Great Leap Forward 'killed 45 million in four years' |last=Akbar |first=Arifa |date=17 September 2010 |access-date=20 September 2010 |location=London |work=The Independent}}; {{Harvnb|Dikötter|2010|p=333}}</ref> Various other sources have put the figure at between 20 and 46 million.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bramall |first=Chris |date=December 2011 |title=Agency and Famine in China's Sichuan Province, 1958–1962 |journal=The China Quarterly |volume=208 |pages=990–1008 |doi=10.1017/s030574101100110x |s2cid=56200410 |issn=0305-7410|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/13836/1/Bramall_CQ_Dec_2011.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wemheuer |first1=Felix |last2=Dikötter |first2=Frank |date=July 2011 |title=Sites of Horror: Mao's Great Famine [with Response] Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–1962. Frank Dikötter |journal=The China Journal |volume=66 |pages=155–164 |doi=10.1086/tcj.66.41262812 |s2cid=141874259 |issn=1324-9347}}</ref><ref name="maostats">{{cite web |url=http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm#Mao |title=Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm |publisher=Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century |access-date=23 August 2008}}</ref>

=== Split from Soviet Union ===
[[File:President Gerald Ford and Daughter Susan Watch as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger Shakes Hands with Mao Tse-Tung.jpg|thumb|U.S. President Gerald Ford watches as Henry Kissinger shakes hands with Mao during their visit to China, 2 December 1975]]

On the international front, the period was dominated by the further isolation of China. The Sino-Soviet split resulted in Nikita Khrushchev's withdrawal of all Soviet technical experts and aid from the country. The split concerned the leadership of world communism. The USSR had a network of Communist parties it supported; China now created its own rival network to battle it out for local control of the left in numerous countries.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=20029719 |title=Sino-Soviet Competition in Africa |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=640–654 |last1=Scalapino |first1=Robert A. |year=1964 |doi=10.2307/20029719}}</ref> Lorenz M. Lüthi writes: "The Sino-Soviet split was one of the key events of the Cold War, equal in importance to the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Second Vietnam War, and Sino-American rapprochement. The split helped to determine the framework of the Second Cold War in general, and influenced the course of the Second Vietnam War in particular."<ref>{{cite book |first=Lorenz M. |last=Lüthi |title=The Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War in the Communist World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dl4TRDxqexMC |year=2010 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=1 |isbn=978-1400837625 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

The split resulted from Khrushchev's more moderate Soviet leadership after the death of Stalin in March 1953. Only Albania openly sided with China, thereby forming an alliance between the two countries which would last until after Mao's death in 1976. Warned that the Soviets had nuclear weapons, Mao minimised the threat. Becker says that "Mao believed that the bomb was a 'paper tiger', declaring to Khrushchev that it would not matter if China lost 300 million people in a nuclear war: the other half of the population would survive to ensure victory".<ref>{{cite book |first=Jasper |last=Becker |title=The Chinese |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oyGtw4cXJjMC&pg=PA271 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]] |page=271 |isbn=978-0199727223 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Struggle against Soviet revisionism and U.S. imperialism was an important aspect of Mao's attempt to direct the revolution in the right direction.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Garver |first=John W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0_OuCgAAQBAJ |title=China's Quest: The History of the Foreign Relations of the People's Republic of China |date=2016 |publisher=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0190261054 |pages=132 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

In the late 1950s, Mao wrote reading notes responding to the Soviet Book ''Political Economy: A Textbook'' and essays (''A Critique of Soviet Economics'') responding to Stalin's ''Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR.<ref name=":322">{{Cite book |last=Hammond |first=Ken |title=China's Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future |publisher=1804 Books |year=2023 |isbn=9781736850084 |location=New York, NY |pages=}}</ref>''{{Rp|page=51}} These texts reflect Mao's views that the USSR was becoming alienated from the masses and distorting socialist development.<ref name=":322" />{{Rp|page=51}}

According to historian Mingjiang Li, Mao deliberately escalated Sino-Soviet diplomatic tensions as part of his attempt to reassert his domestic political power and limit that of his rivals by showcasing his commitment to revolution and his hardline stance against what he deemed Soviet revisionism.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Mingjiang |date=27 October 2010 |title=Ideological dilemma: Mao's China and the Sino-Soviet split, 1962–63 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682745.2010.498822 |journal=Cold War History |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=387–419 |doi=10.1080/14682745.2010.498822 |s2cid=153617754 |access-date=12 February 2023}}</ref>

=== Third Front ===
After the failure of the Great Leap Forward, China's leadership slowed the pace of industrialization.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Meyskens |first=Covell F. |url= |title=Mao's Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China |date=2020 |publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}} |isbn=978-1-108-78478-8 |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |doi=10.1017/9781108784788 |oclc=1145096137 |s2cid=218936313}}</ref>{{Rp|page=3}} It invested more on in China's coastal regions and focused on the production of consumer goods.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=3}} Preliminary drafts of the Third Five Year Plan contained no provision for developing large scale industry in China's interior.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=29}} After an April 1964 General Staff report concluded that the concentration of China's industry in its major coastal cities made it vulnerable to attack by foreign powers, Mao argued for the development of basic industry and national defense industry in protected locations in China's interior.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=4, 54}} Although other key leaders did not initially support the idea, the August 2, 1964 [[Engineering:Gulf of Tonkin incident|Gulf of Tonkin incident]] increased fears of a potential invasion by the United States and crystallized support for Mao's industrialization proposal, which came to be known as the Third Front.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=7}} Following the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Mao's own concerns of invasion by the United States increased.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Hou |first=Li |title=Building for oil: Daqing and the Formation of the Chinese Socialist State |date=2021 |publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |isbn=978-0-674-26022-1 |edition= |series=Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=}}</ref>{{Rp|page=100}} He wrote to central cadres, "A war is going to break out. I need to reconsider my actions" and pushed even harder for the creation of the Third Front.<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|page=100}}

The secretive Third Front construction involved massive projects including extensive railroad infrastructure like the Chengdu–Kunming line,<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=153–164}} aerospace industry including satellite launch facilities,<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=218–219}} and steel production industry including Panzhihua Iron and Steel.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=9}}

Development of the Third Front slowed in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution, but accelerated again after the Sino-Soviet border conflict at Zhenbao Island, which increased the perceived risk of Soviet Invasion.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=12, 150}} Third Front construction again decreased after United States President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China and the resulting rapprochement between the United States and China.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=225–229}} When Reform and Opening up began after Mao's death, China began to gradually wind down Third Front projects.<ref name=":92">{{Cite book |last1=Marquis |first1=Christopher |url= |title=Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise |last2=Qiao |first2=Kunyuan |date=2022 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-26883-6 |location=New Haven |doi=10.2307/j.ctv3006z6k |jstor=j.ctv3006z6k |oclc=1348572572 |s2cid=253067190}}</ref>{{Rp|page=180}} The Third Front distributed physical and human capital around the country, ultimately decreased regional disparities and created favorable conditions for later market development.<ref name=":92" />{{Rp|pages=177–182}}

=== Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution ===
[[File:1966-11 1966年毛泽东林彪与红卫兵.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A public appearance of Chairman Mao and Lin Biao among Red Guards, in Beijing, during the Cultural Revolution (November 1966)]]
During the early 1960s, Mao became concerned with the nature of post-1959 China. He saw that the revolution and Great Leap Forward had replaced the old ruling elite with a new one. He was concerned that those in power were becoming estranged from the people they were to serve. Mao believed that a revolution of culture would unseat and unsettle the "ruling class" and keep China in a state of "continuous revolution" that, theoretically, would serve the interests of the majority, rather than a tiny and privileged elite.{{sfn|Feigon|2002|p=140}} State Chairman Liu Shaoqi and General Secretary [[Biography:Deng Xiaoping|Deng Xiaoping]] favoured the idea that Mao be removed from actual power as China's head of state and government but maintain his ceremonial and symbolic role as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, with the party upholding all of his positive contributions to the revolution. They attempted to marginalise Mao by taking control of economic policy and asserting themselves politically as well. Many claim that Mao responded to Liu and Deng's movements by launching the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966. Some scholars, such as Mobo Gao, claim the case for this is overstated.<ref>For a full treatment of this idea, see {{Harvnb|Gao|2008}}</ref> Others, such as Frank Dikötter, hold that Mao launched the Cultural Revolution to wreak revenge on those who had dared to challenge him over the Great Leap Forward.<ref>Jonathan Mirsky. [http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/mirsky_09_10.html ''Livelihood Issues.''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100906144248/http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/mirsky_09_10.html |date=6 September 2010 }} Literary Review</ref>

The Cultural Revolution led to the destruction of much of China's traditional cultural heritage and the imprisonment of a huge number of Chinese citizens, as well as the creation of general economic and social chaos in the country. Millions of lives were ruined during this period, as the Cultural Revolution pierced into every part of Chinese life, depicted by such Chinese films as ''To Live'', ''The Blue Kite'' and ''Farewell My Concubine''. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions, perished in the violence of the Cultural Revolution.<ref name="maostats"/> This included prominent figures such as Liu Shaoqi.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/05/cultural-revolution-china/482964/ |title=The Cultural Revolution's Legacy in China |last=Vasilogambros |first=Matt |date=16 May 2016 |work=The Atlantic |access-date=28 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/1179 |title=Debating the Cultural Revolution in China |website=Reviews in History |access-date=28 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pye |first=Lucian W. |year=1986 |title=Reassessing the Cultural Revolution |journal=The China Quarterly |volume=108 |issue=108 |pages=597–612 |doi=10.1017/S0305741000037085 |issn=0305-7410 |jstor=653530 |s2cid=153730706}}</ref>

When Mao was informed of such losses, particularly that people had been driven to suicide, he is alleged to have commented: "People who try to commit suicide—don't attempt to save them! ... China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people."{{sfn|MacFarquhar|Schoenhals|2006|p=110}} The authorities allowed the Red Guards to abuse and kill opponents of the regime. Said Xie Fuzhi, national police chief: "Don't say it is wrong of them to beat up bad persons: if in anger they beat someone to death, then so be it."{{sfn|MacFarquhar|Schoenhals|2006|p=125}} In August and September 1966, there were a reported 1,772 people murdered by the Red Guards in Beijing alone.{{sfn|MacFarquhar|Schoenhals|2006|p=124}}

It was during this period that Mao chose Lin Biao, who seemed to echo all of Mao's ideas, to become his successor. Lin was later officially named as Mao's successor. By 1971, a divide between the two men had become apparent. Official history in China states that Lin was planning a military coup or an assassination attempt on Mao. Lin Biao died on 13 September 1971, in a plane crash over the air space of Mongolia, presumably as he fled China, probably anticipating his arrest. The CCP declared that Lin was planning to depose Mao and posthumously expelled Lin from the party. At this time, Mao lost trust in many of the top CCP figures. The highest-ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence defector, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa claimed he had a conversation with Nicolae Ceaușescu, who told him about a plot to kill Mao with the help of Lin Biao organised by the KGB.<ref name="Pacepa0">{{cite web |url=http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzY4NWU2ZjY3YWYxMDllNWQ5MjQ3ZGJmMzg3MmQyNjQ= |title=The Kremlin's Killing Ways |author=Ion Mihai Pacepa |work=National Review |date=28 November 2006 |access-date=23 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808171854/http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzY4NWU2ZjY3YWYxMDllNWQ5MjQ3ZGJmMzg3MmQyNjQ%3D |archive-date=8 August 2007}}</ref>

In 1969, Mao declared the Cultural Revolution to be over, although various historians in and outside of China mark the end of the Cultural Revolution—as a whole or in part—in 1976, following Mao's death and the arrest of the Gang of Four.<ref>Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution lasting until 1976:

* {{cite web |title=Marxists.org Glossary: Cultural Revolution |url=https://www.marxists.org/glossary/events/c/u.htm |access-date=6 October 2015 |website=Marxists Internet Archive |publisher=Encyclopedia of Marxism}}
* {{cite web |title=The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, 1966–1976 |url=http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/cultrev.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190424130644/http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/cultrev.htm |archive-date=24 April 2019 |access-date=6 October 2015 |website=sjsu.edu |publisher=San José State University Department of Economics}}
* {{cite web |last1=Spence |first1=Jonathan |year=2001 |title=Introduction to the Cultural Revolution |url=http://iis-db.stanford.edu/docs/115/CRintro.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131124840/http://iis-db.stanford.edu/docs/115/CRintro.pdf |archive-date=31 January 2016 |access-date=6 October 2015 |website=iis-db.stanford.edu}} – Adapted from ''The Search for Modern China''</ref> The Central Committee in 1981 officially declared the Cultural Revolution a "severe setback" for the PRC.<ref>"Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China", (Adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on 27 June 1981) ''Resolution on CPC History (1949–81).'' (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1981). p. 32.</ref> It is often looked at in all scholarly circles as a greatly disruptive period for China.{{sfn|Chirot|1996|p=198}} Despite the pro-poor rhetoric of Mao's regime, his economic policies led to substantial poverty.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ravallion |first=Martin |date=25 January 2021 |title=Poverty in China since 1950: A Counterfactual Perspective |doi=10.3386/w28370 |s2cid=234005582 |url=https://www.nber.org/papers/w28370 |website=National Bureau of Economic Research |series=Working Paper Series |language=en |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Estimates of the death toll during the Cultural Revolution, including civilians and Red Guards, vary greatly. An estimate of around 400,000 deaths is a widely accepted minimum figure, according to Maurice Meisner.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YpV7vbvclfgC&pg=PA354 |title=Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic |edition=3rd |first=Maurice |last=Meisner |page=354 |publisher=Free Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0684856353 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> MacFarquhar and Schoenhals assert that in rural China alone some 36&nbsp;million people were persecuted, of whom between 750,000 and 1.5&nbsp;million were killed, with roughly the same number permanently injured.{{sfn|MacFarquhar|Schoenhals|2006|p=262}}

Historian Daniel Leese writes that in the 1950s, Mao's personality was hardening: "The impression of Mao's personality that emerges from the literature is disturbing. It reveals a certain temporal development from a down-to-earth leader, who was amicable when uncontested and occasionally reflected on the limits of his power, to an increasingly ruthless and self-indulgent dictator. Mao's preparedness to accept criticism decreased continuously."<ref>Daniel Leese, "Mao the Man and Mao the Icon" in {{cite book |editor-first=Timothy |editor-last=Cheek |title=A Critical Introduction to Mao |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ru90WzwzlfYC&pg=PA233 |year=2010 |publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}} |page=233 |isbn=978-1139789042 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

== State visits ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Country
! Date
! Host
|-
|{{flag|Soviet Union}}
| 16 December 1949
|{{wipe|Joseph Stalin}}
|-
|{{flag|Soviet Union}}
| 2–19 November 1957
|Nikita Khrushchev
|}

During his leadership, Mao traveled outside China on only two occasions, both of which were state visits to the Soviet Union. His first visit abroad was in December 1949 to celebrate the 70th birthday of Soviet leader {{wipe|Joseph Stalin}} in Moscow, which was also attended by East German Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Walter Ulbricht and Mongolian communist General Secretary Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal.<ref>''Лев Котюков.'' [http://www.ykt.ru/ilken/n0803/s13.htm Забытый поэт.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928062213/http://www.ykt.ru/ilken/n0803/s13.htm |date=28 September 2007 }}</ref> The second visit to Moscow in November 1957 was a two-week state visit of which the highlights included Mao's attendance at the 40th anniversary (Ruby Jubilee) celebrations of the October Revolution (he attended the annual military parade of the Moscow Garrison on Red Square as well as a banquet in the Moscow Kremlin) and the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, where he met with other communist leaders such as North Korea's [[Biography:Kim Il Sung|Kim Il Sung]]<ref name="ParkSnyder2012">{{cite book |first1=Kyung-Ae |last1=Park |first2=Scott |last2=Snyder |title=North Korea in Transition: Politics, Economy, and Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mwoD97Y8XPMC&pg=PA214 |year=2012 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-1442218130 |page=214}}</ref> and Albania's [[Biography:Enver Hoxha|Enver Hoxha]]. When Mao stepped down as head of state on 27 April 1959, further diplomatic state visits and travels abroad to the Soviet Union and other countries were undertaken by either President Liu Shaoqi, Premier Zhou Enlai or Deputy Premier [[Biography:Deng Xiaoping|Deng Xiaoping]] rather than Mao personally.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

== Death and aftermath ==
[[File:Mubarak_and_Mao_Zedong.jpg|thumb|192x192px|With [[Place:Egypt|Egypt]]ian Vice President Hosni Mubarak during the latter's visit to Beijing in 1976]]
Mao's health declined in his last years, probably aggravated by his chain-smoking.<ref>Heavy smoker:
*{{cite book |first=Rebecca E. |last=Karl |title=Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World: A Concise History |year=2010 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0822393023 |page=79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uqOhYRUITWwC&pg=PA79 |access-date=28 July 2015}}
*{{cite news |first=Heather |last=Timmons |title=The End of China's 'Ashtray Diplomacy' |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/12/the-end-of-chinas-ashtray-diplomacy/282703/ |access-date=28 July 2015 |work=The Atlantic |date=30 December 2013}}
*{{cite news |first=Johan |last=Nylander |title=Stubbing out Mao's smoky legacy |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/stubbing-out-mao-smoky-legacy-2014255326672545.html |access-date=28 July 2015 |publisher=Al Jazeera |date=9 February 2014}}
*{{cite news |first=Jamie |last=Florcruz |title=China clouded in cigarette smoke |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/07/florcruz.china.smokers/ |access-date=28 July 2015 |work=CNN |date=7 January 2011}}</ref> It became a state secret that he suffered from multiple lung and heart ailments during his later years.<ref name="KissengerTrans">{{cite web |title=The Kissenger Transcripts: Notes and Excerpts |url=http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nsa/publications/DOC_readers/kissinger/notes.htm |website=nsarchive.gwu.edu |access-date=28 July 2015}}</ref> There are unconfirmed reports that he possibly had [[Medicine:Parkinson's disease|Parkinson's disease]]<ref name="Parkinsons">Parkinson's disease:
*{{cite web |title=Mao Zedong |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/prof_maozedong.html |access-date=28 July 2015 |publisher=PBS}}
*{{cite web |title=Mao Tse-tung Biography |url=http://www.biography.com/people/mao-tse-tung-9398142 |access-date=28 July 2015 |website=biography.com}}</ref><ref name="NYT1" /> in addition to [[Medicine:Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis|amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]], also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.<ref name="LouGehring">Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis:
*{{cite book |first=Zhisui |last=Li |title=Private Life Of Chairman Mao: The Memoirs of Mao's Personal Physician |year=2010 |publisher={{wipe|Random House}} |isbn=978-1407059228 |page=581 |edition=illustrated, reprint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sAOHE8xK4OEC&pg=PA581 |access-date=28 July 2015}}
*{{cite book |first=Nicholas |last=Griffin |title=Ping-Pong Diplomacy: Ivor Montagu and the Astonishing Story Behind the Game That Changed the World |year=2014 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0857207371 |page=163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sXStAAAAQBAJ&pg=PP163 |access-date=28 July 2015}}
*{{cite book |first=Eugene |last=Sadler-Smith |title=The Intuitive Mind: Profiting from the Power of Your Sixth Sense |year= 2010 |publisher={{wipe|John Wiley & Sons}} |isbn=978-0470685389 |page=223 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zf94TfWkbSAC&pg=PT223 |access-date=28 July 2015}}
*{{cite book |first=William C. |last=Triplett, II |title=Rogue State: How a Nuclear North Korea Threatens America |year=2004 |publisher=Regnery Publishing |isbn=978-0895260680 |page=[https://archive.org/details/roguestate00will/page/224 224] |edition=illustrated |url=https://archive.org/details/roguestate00will |url-access=registration |access-date=28 July 2015}}</ref> His final public appearance—and the last known photograph of him alive—had been on 27 May 1976, when he met the visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.{{sfn|Chang|Halliday|2005}} He suffered two major heart attacks, one in March and another in July, then a third on 5 September, rendering him an invalid. He died nearly four days later, at 00:10 on 9 September 1976, at the age of 82. The Communist Party delayed the announcement of his death until 16:00, when a national radio broadcast announced the news and appealed for party unity.<ref name="NYT1">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0909.html#article |title=Mao Tse-Tung Dies In Peking At 82; Leader Of Red China Revolution; Choice Of Successor Is Uncertain |newspaper={{wipe|The New York Times}} |access-date=25 October 2014}}</ref>

Mao's embalmed body, draped in the CCP flag, lay in state at the Great Hall of the People for one week.<ref name=Mummy1>{{cite book |first=Christine |last=Quigley |title=Modern Mummies: The Preservation of the Human Body in the Twentieth Century |year=1998 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0786428519 |pages=40–42 |edition=illustrated, reprint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VP2JxzGGlNwC&pg=PA40 |access-date=28 July 2015 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> One million Chinese filed past to pay their final respects, many crying openly or displaying sadness, while foreigners watched on television.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1976/09/18/Chinese-bid-Mao-sad-farewell/3331505529812/ |title=Chinese bid Mao sad farewell |website=UPI |language=en |access-date=29 March 2020}}</ref><!-- Video 7: "funeral-of-mao-1978"--><ref>{{cite web |first=S. L. |last=James |title=China: Communist History Through Film |url=https://archive.org/details/china-communist-history |publisher=[[Internet Archive]] |access-date=28 July 2015}}</ref> Mao's official portrait hung on the wall with a banner reading: "Carry on the cause left by Chairman Mao and carry on the cause of proletarian revolution to the end".<ref name=Mummy1/> On 17 September the body was taken in a minibus to the 305 Hospital, where his internal organs were preserved in [[Physics:Formaldehyde|formaldehyde]].<ref name=Mummy1/>

On 18 September, guns, sirens, whistles and horns across China were simultaneously blown and a mandatory three-minute silence was observed.<ref>{{cite news |title=1976: Chairman Mao Zedong dies |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/9/newsid_3020000/3020374.stm |access-date=28 July 2015 |work=BBC News |date=9 September 1976}}</ref> Tiananmen Square was packed with millions of people and a military band played "The Internationale". Hua Guofeng concluded the service with a 20-minute-long eulogy atop Tiananmen Gate.<ref>{{cite news |title=Chinese Bid Farewell to Nation's Leader |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1842&dat=19760915&id=lBwsAAAAIBAJ&pg=2059,3249975&hl=en |access-date=8 October 2015 |work=Florence Times + Tri-Cities Daily |agency=United Press International |date=18 September 1976}}</ref> Despite Mao's request to be cremated, his body was later permanently put on display in the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, in order for the Chinese nation to pay its respects.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lu |first=Xing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qby8DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT50 |title=The Rhetoric of Mao Zedong: Transforming China and Its People |year=2017 |publisher=[[Organization:University of South Carolina Press|University of South Carolina Press]] |isbn=978-1611177534 |page=50 |language=en |quote=In 1956 Mao signed a proposal for cremation along with 151 other high-ranking officials. According to hearsay, Mao wrote in his will that he wanted to be cremated after his death. Ironically his successors decided to keep his dead body on display for the nation to pay its respects. |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

On June 27, 1981, the communist party's Central Committee adopted the ''Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China,''which assessed the legacy of the Mao era and the party's priorities going forward.<ref name=":62">{{Cite book |last=Karl |first=Rebecca E. |title=Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World: a Concise History |date=2010 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-4780-4 |series=Asia-Pacific series |location=Durham, NC |doi=10.2307/j.ctv11hpp6w |jstor=j.ctv11hpp6w}}</ref>{{Rp|page=166}} The ''Resolution'' describes setbacks during the period 1957 to 1964 (although it generally affirms this period) and major mistakes beginning in 1965, attributing Mao's errors to individualist tendencies which arose when he departed from the collective view of the leadership.<ref name=":62" />{{Rp|page=167}} Regarding Mao's legacy, the Resolution concludes Mao's contributions to the Chinese Revolution far outweigh his mistakes.<ref name=":14">{{Cite book |last=Meisner |first=Maurice J. |title=Mao's China and After: a History of the People's Republic |title-link=Mao's China and After |date=1999 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-684-85635-3 |edition=3rd |location=New York, NY |author-link=Maurice Meisner}}</ref>{{Rp|page=445}}

== Legacy ==
[[File:Mao Zedong youth art sculpture 4.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of young Mao in Changsha, the capital of Hunan]]
Mao remains a controversial figure and there is little agreement over his legacy both in China and abroad. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential individuals in the twentieth century.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2046285_2045996_2045849,00.html |title=Top 25 Political Icons |last1=Webley |first1=Kayla |date=4 February 2011 |magazine={{wipe|Time (magazine)}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/samplep02 |title=Mao Zedong |work=The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060321185302/http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/samplep02 |archive-date=21 March 2006 |access-date=23 August 2008}}</ref> He is also known as a political intellect, theorist, military strategist, poet, and visionary.<ref>{{Harvnb|Short|2001|p=630}} "Mao had an extraordinary mix of talents: he was visionary, statesman, political and military strategist of cunning intellect, a philosopher and poet."</ref> He was credited and praised for driving [[Social:Imperialism|imperialism]] out of China,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.eteacherchinese.com/history-of-china/chinese-leader-mao-zedong-part-i/ |title=Chinese Leader Mao Zedong / Part I |access-date=2 April 2015 |archive-date=12 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712232214/http://blog.eteacherchinese.com/history-of-china/chinese-leader-mao-zedong-part-i/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> having unified China and for ending the previous decades of civil war. He is also credited with having improved the status of women in China and for improving literacy and education.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pantsov |first1=Alexander V. |url= |title=Mao: The Real Story |last2=Levine |first2=Steven I. |date=2013 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1451654486 |location= |page=574}}</ref><ref name="Galtung" /><ref name="PopulationStudies2015" /> In December 2013, a poll from the state-run ''Global Times'' indicated that roughly 85% of the 1,045 respondents surveyed felt that Mao's achievements outweighed his mistakes.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mao's achievements 'outweigh' mistakes: poll |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/12/mao-achievements-outweigh-mistakes-poll-2013122553410272409.html |work=Al Jazeera |date=23 December 2013}}</ref> It is said in China that Mao was 70 percent right and 30 percent wrong.<ref name=":11" />{{Rp|page=55}}<ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Meisner |first=Maurice J. |title=Mao's China and After: a History of the People's Republic |title-link=Mao's China and After |date=1999 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-684-85635-3 |edition=3rd |location=New York, NY |author-link=Maurice Meisner}}</ref>{{Rp|page=445}}

His policies resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people in China during his 27-year reign, according to some sources, more than any other 20th-century leader; estimates of the number of people who died under his regime range from 40 million to as many as 80 million,<ref name="Fenby"/><ref name=":1">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/07/17/how-many-died-new-evidence-suggests-far-higher-numbers-for-the-victims-of-mao-zedongs-era/01044df5-03dd-49f4-a453-a033c5287bce/ |title=How Many Died? New Evidence Suggest Far Higher Numbers for the Victims of Mao Zedong's Era |last1=Strauss |first1=Valerie |date=17 July 1994 |newspaper={{wipe|The Washington Post}} |access-date=28 November 2019 |last2=Southerl |first2=Daniel |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> done through starvation, persecution, prison labour in ''laogai'', and mass executions.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=631}}<ref name="Fenby"/> Mao rarely gave direct instruction for peoples' physical elimination.{{efn|Mao's only direct involvement of hunting down political opponents was limited to the period from 1930–1931, during the Chinese Civil War in the Jiangxi base area.}}{{sfn|Short|2001|p=631–632}} According to biographer Philip Short, the overwhelming majority of those killed by Mao's policies were unintended casualties of famine, while the other three or four million, in Mao's view, were necessary victims in the struggle to transform China.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=632}} Mao's China is described as an autocratic and totalitarian regime responsible for mass repression, as well as the destruction of religious and cultural artifacts and sites (particularly during the Cultural Revolution).<ref name=":7">{{cite magazine |title=The Cultural Revolution and the History of Totalitarianism |url=https://time.com/4329308/cultural-revolution-history-totalitarianism/ |magazine={{wipe|Time (magazine)}} |access-date=14 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Ian |date=5 February 2018 |title=Who Killed More: Hitler, Stalin, or Mao? |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/02/05/who-killed-more-hitler-stalin-or-mao/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205193203/https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/02/05/who-killed-more-hitler-stalin-or-mao/ |archive-date=5 February 2018 |access-date=18 July 2020 |website=The New York Review of Books |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{cite book |last=Fenby |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/modernchinafallr00fenb/page/351/mode/2up |title=Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present |publisher=[[Company:Penguin Group|Penguin Group]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0061661167 |pages=351 |author-link=Jonathan Fenby}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Schram |first=Stuart |author-link=Stuart R. Schram |date=March 2007 |title=Mao: The Unknown Story |journal=The China Quarterly |issue=189 |pages=205 |doi=10.1017/s030574100600107x |s2cid=154814055}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Evangelista |first=Matthew A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9IAfLDzySd4C&q=80+million |title=Peace Studies: Critical Concepts in Political Science |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2005 |isbn=978-0415339230 |pages=96 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

China's population grew from around 550 million to over 900 million under his rule while the government did not strictly enforce its family planning policy, leading his successors such as [[Biography:Deng Xiaoping|Deng Xiaoping]] to take a strict one-child policy to cope with [[Unsolved:Human overpopulation|human overpopulation]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Attane |first=Isabelle |year=2002 |title=China's Family Planning Policy: An Overview of Its Past and Future |journal=Studies in Family Planning |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=103–113 |doi=10.1111/j.1728-4465.2002.00103.x |issn=0039-3665 |jstor=2696336 |pmid=11974414}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wu |first=J. |year=1994 |title=Population and family planning in China |journal=Verhandelingen – Koninklijke Academie voor Geneeskunde van Belgie |volume=56 |issue=5 |pages=383–400; discussion 401–402 |issn=0302-6469 |pmid=7892742}}</ref> Mao's revolutionary tactics continue to be used by insurgents, and his political ideology continues to be embraced by many Communist organisations around the world.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/16/onward-march-maoism-julia-lovell |title=Maoism marches on: the revolutionary idea that still shapes the world |last=Lovell |first=Julia |date=16 March 2019 |work={{wipe|The Guardian}} |access-date=20 January 2020 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
[[File:Shanghai, guardería 1978 03.jpg|thumb|In 1978, the classroom of a kindergarten in Shanghai putting up portraits of then- Chairman Hua Guofeng and former Chairman Mao Zedong]]
In mainland China, Mao is revered by many members and supporters of the Chinese Communist Party and respected by a great number of the general population. Mobo Gao, in his 2008 book ''The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution'', credits him for raising the average life expectancy from 35 in 1949 to 63 by 1975, bringing "unity and stability to a country that had been plagued by civil wars and foreign invasions", and laying the foundation for China to "become the equal of the great global powers".{{sfn|Gao|2008|p=81}} Gao also lauds him for carrying out massive land reform, promoting the status of women, improving popular literacy, and positively "transform(ing) Chinese society beyond recognition."{{sfn|Gao|2008|p=81}} Mao is credited for boosting literacy (only 20% of the population could read in 1949, compared to 65.5% thirty years later), doubling life expectancy, a near doubling of the population, and developing China's industry and infrastructure, paving the way for its position as a world power.<ref name="China 2010, pp. 327">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vr81YoYK0c4C&pg=PA327 |title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of China |last=Ebrey |first=Patricia Buckley |date=2010 |publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}}|isbn=978-0521124331 |page=327 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="Galtung">{{cite book |last1=Galtung |first1=Marte Kjær |last2=Stenslie |first2=Stig |date=2014 |title=49 Myths about China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqqDBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=189 |isbn=978-1442236226 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="PopulationStudies2015">{{cite journal |last1=Babiarz |first1=Kimberly Singer |last2=Eggleston |first2=Karen |display-authors=0. |date=2015 |title=An exploration of China's mortality decline under Mao: A provincial analysis, 1950–80 |journal=Population Studies |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages= 39–56 |doi=10.1080/00324728.2014.972432 |pmid=25495509 |quote=China's growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history. |pmc=4331212}}</ref>

Mao also has Chinese critics. Opposition to him can lead to censorship or professional repercussions in mainland China,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a94281fa.html |title=China 'fires' editors over criticism of Mao, detains leftist activist |website=Refworld |access-date=18 May 2019}}</ref> and is often done in private settings such as the Internet.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/world/asia/06iht-letter06.html |title=Mao's Legacy Still Divides China |last=Tatlow |first=Didi Kirsten |date=5 May 2011 |work={{wipe|The New York Times}} |access-date=18 May 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> When a video of Bi Fujian, a television host, insulting Mao at a private dinner in 2015 went viral, Bi garnered the support of Weibo users, with 80% of them saying in a poll that Bi should not apologize amidst backlash from state affiliates.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.firstpost.com/world/everyone-victim-mao-no-one-dares-say-says-tv-host-china-draws-ire-2191357.html |title=Everyone is a victim of Mao, but no one dares to say it, says TV host in China, draws ire |website=Firstpost |date=10 April 2015 |access-date=18 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Chinese TV Anchor To Be Punished For Mao Jibe |url=https://news.sky.com/story/chinese-tv-anchor-to-be-punished-for-mao-jibe-10349877 |access-date=18 May 2019 |publisher=Sky News}}</ref> In the West, Mao has a bad reputation. He is known for the deaths during the Great Leap Forward and for persecutions during the Cultural Revolution. Chinese citizens are aware of Mao's mistakes, but nonetheless, many see Mao as a national hero. He is seen as someone who successfully liberated the country from Japanese occupation and from Western imperialist exploitation dating back to the Opium Wars.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last1=Ding |first1=Iza |last2=Javed |first2=Jeffrey |date=26 May 2019 |title=Why Maoism still resonates in China today |newspaper={{wipe|The Washington Post}} |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/29/why-maoism-still-resonates-china-today/}}</ref> Between 2015 and 2018, 70 interviewees in China were asked about the Maoist era. Their responses mixed nostalgia with trauma. Life used to be simpler and had clear meaning; people trusted and helped one another, and inequality was minimal. They also acknowledged the negative experiences, however, and said their "material life" was poor.<ref name=":2" />
[[File:Mao Zedong Square 20210319.jpg|thumb|Mao Zedong Square at Saoshan]]
On 25 December 2008, China opened the Mao Zedong Square to visitors in his home town of central Hunan Province to mark the 115th anniversary of his birth.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-12/25/content_7341714.htm |title=Chairman Mao square opened on his 115th birth anniversary |work=China Daily |date=25 December 2008 |access-date=2 January 2013}}; {{cite news |title=Mao Zedong still draws crowds on 113th birth anniversary |url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200612/27/eng20061227_336033.html |date=27 December 2006 |access-date=2 January 2013 |work=People's Daily}}</ref>

=== Legacy ===
There continue to be disagreements on Mao's legacy. Former party official Su Shachi has opined that "he was a great historical criminal, but he was also a great force for good."<ref name="Biography 2005">Biography (TV series) [https://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3081083673/ Mao Tse Tung: China's Peasant Emperor] A&E Network 2005, {{ASIN|B000AABKXG}} {{time needed|date=January 2013}}</ref> In a similar vein, journalist Liu Binyan has described Mao as "both monster and a genius."<ref name="Biography 2005"/> Li Rui, Mao's personal secretary and Communist Party comrade, opined that "Mao's way of thinking and governing was terrifying. He put no value on human life. The deaths of others meant nothing to him."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Watts |first=Jonathan |date=1 June 2005 |title=China must confront dark past, says Mao confidant |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/02/china.jonathanwatts |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917215335/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/02/china.jonathanwatts |archive-date=17 September 2018 |access-date=13 August 2021 |website={{wipe|The Guardian}} |language=en}}</ref>

Chen Yun, a leading Chinese Communist Party official under Mao and [[Biography:Deng Xiaoping|Deng Xiaoping]] remarked "Had Mao died in 1956, his achievements would have been immortal. Had he died in 1966, he would still have been a great man but flawed. But he died in 1976. Alas, what can one say?"<ref>{{cite news |title=Big bad wolf |url=http://www.economist.com/node/7854042 |access-date=28 July 2015 |newspaper=[[Finance:The Economist|The Economist]] |date=31 August 2006}}</ref> [[Biography:Deng Xiaoping|Deng Xiaoping]] said "I should remind you that Chairman Mao dedicated most of his life to China, that he saved the party and the revolution in their most critical moments, that, in short, his contribution was so great that, without him, the Chinese people would have had a much harder time finding the right path out of the darkness. We also shouldn't forget that it was Chairman Mao who combined the teachings of Marx and Lenin with the realities of Chinese history—that it was he who applied those principles, creatively, not only to politics but to philosophy, art, literature, and military strategy."<ref>{{cite news |title=Deng: Cleaning up Mao's mistakes |url=http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=472059 |newspaper={{wipe|The Washington Post}} |date=1980 |access-date=20 November 2021 |archive-date=29 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829143815/http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=472059 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In their 2013 biography, ''Mao: The Real Story'', Alexander V. Pantsov and Steven I. Levine asserted that Mao was both "a successful creator and ultimately an evil destroyer" but also argued that he was a complicated figure who should not be lionised as a saint or reduced to a demon, as he "indeed tried his best to bring about prosperity and gain international respect for his country."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pantsov |first1=Alexander V. |last2=Levine |first2=Steven I. |date=2013 |title=Mao: The Real Story |publisher=Simon & Schuster |pages=5–6 |isbn=978-1451654486}}</ref> They also remarked on Mao's legacy: "A talented Chinese politician, an historian, a poet and philosopher, an all-powerful dictator and energetic organizer, a skillful diplomat and utopian socialist, the head of the most populous state, resting on his laurels, but at the same time an indefatigable revolutionary who sincerely attempted to refashion the way of life and consciousness of millions of people, a hero of national revolution and a bloody social reformer—this is how Mao goes down in history. The scale of his life was too grand to be reduced to a single meaning."

Mao's English interpreter Sidney Rittenberg wrote in his memoir ''The Man Who Stayed Behind'' that whilst Mao "was a great leader in history", he was also "a great criminal because, not that he wanted to, not that he intended to, but in fact, his wild fantasies led to the deaths of tens of millions of people."<ref name="Reut09"/>  Dikötter argues that CCP leaders "glorified violence and were inured to massive loss of life. And all of them shared an ideology in which the end justified the means. In 1962, having lost millions of people in his province, Li Jingquan compared the Great Leap Forward to the Long March in which only one in ten had made it to the end: 'We are not weak, we are stronger, we have kept the backbone.{{' "}}{{sfn|Dikötter|2010|p=299}} Regarding the large-scale irrigation projects, Dikötter stresses that, in spite of Mao being in a good position to see the human cost, they continued unabated for several years, and ultimately claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of exhausted villagers.{{sfn|Dikötter|2010|p=33}}

Some historians argue that Mao was "one of the great tyrants of the twentieth century", and a dictator comparable to Adolf Hitler and {{wipe|Joseph Stalin}},<ref name = "tyrant">{{Harvnb|MacFarquhar|Schoenhals|2006|p=471}}: "''Together with Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, Mao appears destined to go down in history as one of the great tyrants of the twentieth century''"</ref><ref name = "compare">{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Lynch |title=Mao |series=Routledge Historical Biographies |publisher=[[Company:Routledge|Routledge]] |date=2004 |page=230}}</ref> with a death toll surpassing both.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=631}}<ref name="Fenby">{{cite book |author-link=Jonathan Fenby |last=Fenby |first=J. |title=Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present |publisher=Ecco Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0061661167 |page=[https://archive.org/details/modernchinafallr00fenb/page/351 351] |quote=Mao's responsibility for the extinction of anywhere from 40 to 70 million lives brands him as a mass killer greater than Hitler or Stalin, his indifference to the suffering and the loss of humans breathtaking |url=https://archive.org/details/modernchinafallr00fenb/page/351}}</ref> Mao was frequently likened to the First Emperor of a unified China, Qin Shi Huang, and personally enjoyed the comparison.{{sfn|MacFarquhar|Schoenhals|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mCKPmUzKeZUC&pg=PA428 428]}} During a speech to party cadre in 1958, Mao said he had far outdone Qin Shi Huang in his policy against intellectuals: "What did he amount to? He only buried alive 460 scholars, while we buried 46,000. In our suppression of the counter-revolutionaries, did we not kill some counter-revolutionary intellectuals? I once debated with the democratic people: You accuse us of acting like Ch'in-shih-huang, but you are wrong; we surpass him 100 times."<ref>''Mao Zedong sixiang wan sui!'' (1969), p. 195. Referenced in {{cite book |title=Governing China: From Revolution to Reform |edition=Second |first=Kenneth |last=Lieberthal |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |date=2003 |isbn=0393924920 |page=71}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Mao |last=Zedong |title=Speeches At The Second Session Of The Eighth Party Congress |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-8/mswv8_10.htm |access-date=28 June 2016 |website=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref> As a result of such tactics, critics have compared it to [[Place:Nazi Germany|Nazi Germany]].<ref name="compare"/>{{efn|"The People's Republic of China under Mao exhibited the oppressive tendencies that were discernible in all the major absolutist regimes of the twentieth century. There are obvious parallels between Mao's China, [[Place:Nazi Germany|Nazi Germany]] and Soviet Russia. Each of these regimes witnessed deliberately ordered mass 'cleansing' and extermination."<ref name="compare"/>}} Philip Short reject comparisons by saying that whereas the deaths caused by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were largely systematic and deliberate, the overwhelming majority of the deaths under Mao were unintended consequences of famine.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=632}} Short stated that landlord class were not exterminated as a people due to Mao's belief in redemption through thought reform,{{sfn|Short|2001|p=632}} and compared Mao with 19th-century Chinese reformers who challenged China's traditional beliefs in the era of China's clashes with Western colonial powers. Short writes that "Mao's tragedy and his grandeur were that he remained to the end in thrall to his own revolutionary dreams. ... He freed China from the straitjacket of its Confucian past, but the bright Red future he promised turned out to be a sterile purgatory.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=632}}

[[File:President Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong.jpg|thumb|Mao greets U.S. President Richard Nixon during his visit to China in 1972.]]

The United States placed a trade embargo on the People's Republic as a result of its involvement in the Korean War, lasting until Richard Nixon decided that developing relations with the PRC would be useful in dealing with the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Xin-zhu J. |date=2006 |title=China and the US Trade Embargo, 1950–1972 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44288827 |journal=American Journal of Chinese Studies |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=169–186 |jstor=44288827 |issn=2166-0042}}</ref> The television series ''Biography'' stated: "[Mao] turned China from a feudal backwater into one of the most powerful countries in the World. ... The Chinese system he overthrew was backward and corrupt; few would argue the fact that he dragged China into the 20th century. But at a cost in human lives that is staggering."<ref name="Biography 2005"/> In the book ''China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know'' published in 2010, Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom of the [[Organization:University of California, Irvine|University of California, Irvine]] compares China's relationship to Mao to Americans' remembrance of Andrew Jackson; both countries regard the leaders in a positive light, despite their respective roles in devastating policies. Jackson forcibly moved Native Americans through the Trail of Tears, resulting in thousands of deaths, while Mao was at the helm during the violent years of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward.<ref name="Schiavenza 2010">{{cite web |title=Some China Book Notes |url=http://mattschiavenza.com/2010/10/08/some-china-book-notes/ |website=Matt Schiavenza.com |access-date=8 February 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209022723/http://mattschiavenza.com/2010/10/08/some-china-book-notes/ |archive-date=9 February 2015}}</ref>{{efn|"Though admittedly far from perfect, the comparison is based on the fact that Jackson is remembered both as someone who played a significant role in the development of a political organisation (the Democratic Party) that still has many partisans, and as someone responsible for brutal policies toward Native Americans that are now referred to as genocidal.

Both men are thought of as having done terrible things yet this does not necessarily prevent them from being used as positive symbols. And Jackson still appears on $20 bills, even though Americans tend to view as heinous the institution of slavery (of which he was a passionate defender) and the early 19th-century military campaigns against Native Americans (in which he took part).

At times Jackson, for all his flaws, is invoked as representing an egalitarian strain within the American democratic tradition, a [[Social:Self-made man|self-made man]] of the people who rose to power via straight talk and was not allied with moneyed interests. Mao stands for something roughly similar."<ref name="Schiavenza 2010"/>}}

[[File:MaoStatueinLijang.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Statue of Mao in Lijiang]]

John King Fairbank remarked, "The simple facts of Mao's career seem incredible: in a vast land of 400 million people, at age 28, with a dozen others, to found a party and in the next fifty years to win power, organize, and remold the people and reshape the land—history records no greater achievement. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, all the kings of Europe, Napoleon, Bismarck, [[Biography:Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]]—no predecessor can equal Mao Tse-tung's scope of accomplishment, for no other country was ever so ancient and so big as China."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fairbank |first=John King |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eGbZgYbDVugC&pg=PA276 |title=The United States and China |edition=4th Revised and Enlarged |date=1983 |publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674036642 }}</ref> In ''China: A New History'', Fairbank and Goldman assessed Mao's legacy: "Future historians may conclude that Mao's role was to try to destroy the age-old bifurcation of China between a small educated ruling stratum and the vast mass of common people. We do not yet know how far he succeeded. The economy was developing, but it was left to his successors to create a new political structure."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fairbank |first1=John King |last2=Goldman |first2=Merle |title=China: a new history |date=2006 |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge (Mass.) |isbn=0-674-01828-1 |edition=2nd enlarged}}</ref>

[[Biography:Stuart R. Schram|Stuart R. Schram]], said in ''The Thought of Mao Tse-Tung'' (1989), "Eternal rebel, refusing to be bound by the laws of God or man, nature or Marxism, he led his people for three decades in pursuit of a vision initially noble, which turned increasingly into a mirage, and then into a nightmare. Was he a [[Unsolved:Faust|Faust]] or [[Religion:Prometheus|Prometheus]], attempting the impossible for the sake of humanity, or a despot of unbridled ambition, drunk with his own power and his own cleverness?"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schram |first1=Stuart R. |title=The thought of Mao Tse-Tung |date=1989 |publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}} |location=Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] |isbn=978-0521310628}}</ref> Schram wrestled with the problem of making any overall assessment of Mao. Schram said "I agree with the current Chinese view that Mao's merits outweighed his faults, but it is not easy to put a figure on the positive and negative aspects. How does one weigh, for example, the good fortune of hundreds of millions of peasants in getting land against the execution, in the course of land reform and the 'Campaign against Counter-Revolutionaries,' or in other contexts, of millions, some of whom certainly deserved to die, but others of whom undoubtedly did not? How does one balance the achievements in economic development during the first Five-Year Plan, or during the whole twenty-seven years of Mao's leadership after 1949, against the starvation which came in the wake of the misguided enthusiasm of the Great Leap Forward, or the bloody shambles of the Cultural Revolution?" Schram added, "In the last analysis, however, I am more interested in the potential future impact of his thought than in sending Mao as an individual to Heaven or to Hell."<ref name="MacFarquhar">{{cite journal |title=Stuart Reynolds Schram, 1924–2012 |last=MacFarquhar |first=Roderick |journal=China Quarterly |date=December 2012 |volume=212 |issue=212 |pages=1099–1122 |doi=10.1017/S0305741012001518 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Maurice Meisner, ''Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic'' (3rd ed., 1999) assessed Mao's legacy: "It is the blots on the Maoist record, especially the Great Leap and the Cultural Revolution, that are now most deeply imprinted on our political and historical consciousness. That these adventures were failures colossal in scope, and that they took an enormous human toll, cannot and should not be forgotten. But future historians, without ignoring the failures and the crimes, will surely record the Maoist era in the history of the People's Republic (however else they may judge it) as one of the great modernizing epochs in world history, and one that brought great social and human benefits to the Chinese people."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meisner |first1=Maurice J. |title=Mao's China and after: a history of the People's Republic |date=1999 |publisher=Free Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=0684856352 |edition=3.}}</ref>

Delia Davin, in ''Mao: A Very Short Introduction'' (2013), remarked "The consequences of Mao's actions were inevitably in proportion to the prodigious power he exercised, and the enormous population he ruled over. As a unifier and modernizer his achievements were immense, but his errors caused appalling suffering on a scale that is difficult to grasp. His [[Philosophy:Utopia|utopia]]n dreams, his periodic refusal to engage with reality, his ruthlessness, and his determination to win imposed terrible suffering on the Chinese people and cost millions of them their lives. He was ready to accept huge costs because he believed that suffering and death were inevitable in the pursuit of his cause. Mao's revolution improved life for those who survived it, bringing the economic development, education, and modernization on which subsequent progress was built. It also reunified China and made the country a force to be reckoned with in the world. He left an indelible mark on history."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davin |first1=Delia |title=Mao: a very short introduction |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0199588664}}</ref>

=== Third World ===
The ideology of Maoism has influenced many Communists, mainly in the [[Social:Third World|Third World]], including revolutionary movements such as Cambodia's Khmer Rouge,<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert Jackson |last=Alexander |title=International Maoism in the developing world |publisher=Praeger |date=1999 |page=200}}; {{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Karl D. |title=Cambodia, 1975–1978: Rendezvous with Death |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0691025414 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h27D3EYGwzgC&q=Radical+Left-wing+Chinese+Communist+Underpinnings+of+Cambodian+Communism&pg=PA219 |page=219 |date=1992 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Peru's Shining Path, and the Nepalese revolutionary movement. Under the influence of Mao's agrarian socialism and Cultural Revolution, [[Biography:Pol Pot|Pol Pot]] and the Khmer Rouge conceived of his disastrous Year Zero policies which purged the nation of its teachers, artists and intellectuals and emptied its cities, resulting in the Cambodian genocide.<ref>Biography (TV series): Pol Pot; A&E Network, 2003.</ref> The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, also claims Marxism–Leninism-Maoism as its ideology, as do other Communist Parties around the world which are part of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. China itself has moved sharply away from Maoism since Mao's death, and most people outside of China who describe themselves as Maoist regard the Deng Xiaoping reforms to be a betrayal of Maoism, in line with Mao's view of "capitalist roaders" within the Communist Party.<ref>{{cite book |first=Tim |last=Clissold |title=Chinese Rules: Mao's Dog, Deng's Cat, and Five Timeless Lessons from the Front Lines in China |location=NY |publisher=Harper |date=2014 |isbn=978-0062316578}}</ref> As the Chinese government instituted market economic reforms starting in the late 1970s and as later Chinese leaders took power, less recognition was given to the status of Mao. This accompanied a decline in state recognition of Mao in later years in contrast to previous years when the state organised numerous events and seminars commemorating Mao's 100th birthday. Nevertheless, the Chinese government has never officially repudiated the tactics of Mao. Deng Xiaoping, who was opposed to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, stated that "when we write about his mistakes we should not exaggerate, for otherwise we shall be discrediting Chairman Mao Zedong and this would mean discrediting our party and state."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dirlik |first=Arif |date=4 June 2012 |title=Mao Zedong in Contemporary Chinese Official Discourse and History |url=https://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/5852 |journal=China Perspectives |language=en |volume=2012 |issue=2 |pages=17–27 |doi=10.4000/chinaperspectives.5852 |issn=2070-3449 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Military strategy ===
Mao's military writings continue to have a large amount of influence both among those who seek to create an insurgency and those who seek to crush one, especially in manners of guerrilla warfare, at which Mao is popularly regarded as a genius.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ghandhi |first=R.K.S. |date=1965 |title=Mao Tse-tung: His Military Writings and Philosophy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44635448 |journal=Naval War College Review |volume=17 |issue=7 |pages=1–27 |jstor=44635448 |issn=0028-1484 |via=[[Organization:JSTOR|JSTOR]]}}</ref> The Nepali Maoists were highly influenced by Mao's views on protracted war, [[Social:New Democracy|new democracy]], support of masses, permanency of revolution and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Upreti |first=Bhuwan Chandra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwGa885LPQAC&pg=PA56 |title=Maoists in Nepal: From Insurgency to Political Mainstream |date=2008 |publisher=Gyan Publishing House |isbn=978-8178356877 |pages=56 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Mao's major contribution to the military science is his theory of People's War, with not only guerrilla warfare but more importantly, Mobile Warfare methodologies. Mao had successfully applied Mobile Warfare in the Korean War, and was able to encircle, push back and then halt the UN forces in Korea, despite the clear superiority of UN firepower.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Zhang, Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950-1953, 1995 {{!}} US-China Institute |url=https://china.usc.edu/zhang-maos-military-romanticism-china-and-korean-war-1950-1953-1995 |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=china.usc.edu |language=en}}</ref> In 1957, Mao also gave the impression that he might even welcome a nuclear war.<ref>Fox Butterfield, "[https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1226.html Mao Tse-Tung: Father of Chinese Revolution]". ''The New York Times''. 10 September 1976</ref>{{efn|The often-cited evidence quote as proof is as follows: "Let us imagine how many people would die if war breaks out. There are 2.7 billion people in the world, and a third could be lost. If it is a little higher, it could be half. ... I say that if the worst came to the worst and one-half dies, there will still be one-half left, but imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist. After a few years there would be 2.7 billion people again."{{sfn|Dikötter|2010|p=13}}<ref>{{cite Q|Q97657492}}<!-- The forgotten communist quarrel in Le Monde Diplomatique -->, quoted this comment, saying it was from 1957.</ref> Historians dispute the sincerity of Mao's words. Robert Service says that Mao "was deadly serious",<ref>Robert Service. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Frgm5QodnFoC&dq=editions%3AFrgm5QodnFoC&pg=PA321 ''Comrades!: A History of World Communism.''] Harvard University Press, 2007. p. 321. {{ISBN|067402530X}}</ref> while Frank Dikötter claims that Mao "was bluffing ... the sabre-rattling was to show that he, not Khrushchev, was the more determined revolutionary."{{sfn|Dikötter|2010|p=13}}}}

=== Literature ===
Mao's poems and writings are frequently cited by both Chinese and non-Chinese. The official Chinese translation of President [[Biography:Barack Obama|Barack Obama]]'s inauguration speech used a famous line from one of Mao's poems.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://chinapressusa.com/newscenter/2009-01/22/content_186098.htm |work=People's Daily |script-title=zh:奧巴馬就職演說 引毛澤東詩詞 |language=zh |title=Àobāmǎ jiùzhí yǎnshuō yǐn máozédōng shīcí |trans-title=Obama Inaugural Speech Quotes Mao Zedong's Poetry |date=22 January 2009 |access-date=28 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827144936/http://chinapressusa.com/newscenter/2009-01/22/content_186098.htm |archive-date=27 August 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In the mid-1990s, Mao's picture began to appear on all new [[Finance:Renminbi|renminbi]] currency from the People's Republic of China. This was officially instituted as an anti-counterfeiting measure as Mao's face is widely recognised in contrast to the generic figures that appear in older currency. On 13 March 2006, the ''People's Daily'' reported that a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference proposed to include the portraits of Sun Yat-sen and Deng Xiaoping in the renminbi.<ref>{{Cite news |date=13 March 2006 |title=Portraits of Sun Yat-sen, Deng Xiaoping proposed adding to RMB notes |work=People's Daily |url=http://en.people.cn/200603/13/eng20060313_250192.html |access-date=23 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308043656/http://en.people.cn/200603/13/eng20060313_250192.html |archive-date=8 March 2016}}</ref>

=== Public image ===
Mao gave contradicting statements on the subject of personality cults. In 1955, as a response to the Khrushchev Report that criticised {{wipe|Joseph Stalin}}, Mao stated that personality cults are "poisonous ideological survivals of the old society", and reaffirmed China's commitment to [[Social:Collective leadership|collective leadership]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Mao Zedong: A Political and Intellectual Portrait |first=Maurice |last=Meisner |publisher=Polity |year=2007 |page=133}}</ref> At the 1958 party congress in Chengdu, Mao expressed support for the personality cults of people whom he labelled as genuinely worthy figures, not those that expressed "blind worship".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/cultural-revolution/cult.html |title=Cult of Mao |publisher=library.thinkquest.org |access-date=23 August 2008 |quote=This remark of Mao seems to have elements of truth but it is false. He confuses the worship of truth with a personality cult, despite there being an essential difference between them. But this remark played a role in helping to promote the personality cult that gradually arose in the CCP. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080601001246/http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/cultural-revolution/cult.html |archive-date=1 June 2008}}</ref>

In 1962, Mao proposed the Socialist Education Movement (SEM) in an attempt to educate the peasants to resist the "temptations" of feudalism and the sprouts of capitalism that he saw re-emerging in the countryside from Liu's economic reforms.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://chineseposters.net/resources/landsberger-paint-it-red.php |title=Stefan Landsberger, Paint it Red. Fifty years of Chinese Propaganda Posters |website=chineseposters.net |access-date=7 November 2017}}</ref> Large quantities of politicised art were produced and circulated—with Mao at the centre. Numerous posters, badges, and musical compositions referenced Mao in the phrase "Chairman Mao is the red sun in our hearts" ({{zh|labels=no |t=毛主席是我們心中的紅太陽 |p=Máo Zhǔxí Shì Wǒmen Xīnzhōng De Hóng Tàiyáng}})<ref name="WangMaoBadgesChapter5">[https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/2%20-%20Part%202%20-%20Mao%20badges%20with%20low%20res%20image%20of%20poster.pdf Chapter 5: "Mao Badges – Visual Imagery and Inscriptions"] in: Helen Wang: ''Chairman Mao badges: symbols and Slogans of the Cultural Revolution'' (British Museum Research Publication 169). The Trustees of the British Museum, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0861591695}}.</ref> and a "Savior of the people" ({{zh|labels=no |c=人民的大救星 |p=Rénmín De Dà Jiùxīng}}).<ref name="WangMaoBadgesChapter5"/>

In October 1966, Mao's ''Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung'', known as the ''Little Red Book'', was published. Party members were encouraged to carry a copy with them, and possession was almost mandatory as a criterion for membership. According to ''Mao: The Unknown Story'' by Jun Yang, the mass publication and sale of this text contributed to making Mao the only millionaire created in 1950s China (332). Over the years, Mao's image became displayed almost everywhere, present in homes, offices and shops. His quotations were typographically emphasised by putting them in boldface or red type in even the most obscure writings. Music from the period emphasised Mao's stature, as did children's rhymes. The phrase "Long Live Chairman Mao for [[Ten thousand years|ten thousand years]]" was commonly heard during the era.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lu |first=Xing |title=Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: the impact on Chinese thought, Culture, and Communication |year=2004 |publisher=[[Organization:University of South Carolina Press|University of South Carolina Press]] |isbn=978-1570035432 |page=65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GO5HrrJC_aMC&q=Long+Live+Chairman+Mao+for+ten+thousand+years&pg=PA65 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

[[File:Mao mausoleum queue.jpg|thumb|center|<div style="text-align: center">Visitors wait in line to enter the Mao Zedong Mausoleum.</div>|alt=|300x300px]]

Mao also has a presence in China and around the world in popular culture, where his face adorns everything from T-shirts to coffee cups. Mao's granddaughter, Kong Dongmei, defended the phenomenon, stating that "it shows his influence, that he exists in people's consciousness and has influenced several generations of Chinese people's way of life. Just like Che Guevara's image, his has become a symbol of revolutionary culture."<ref name="Reut09">[http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-42756920090928?sp=true Granddaughter Keeps Mao's Memory Alive in Bookshop] by Maxim Duncan, {{wipe|Reuters}}, 28 September 2009</ref> Since 1950, over 40 million people have visited Mao's birthplace in Shaoshan, Hunan.<ref name="ShaoShan">{{cite web |url=http://www.shaoshan.gov.cn/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=14617 |script-title=zh:韶山升起永远不落的红太阳 |language=zh |title=Sháoshān shēng qǐ yǒngyuǎn bù luò de hóng tàiyáng |trans-title=The red sun that never sets rises in Shaoshan |publisher=Shaoshan.gov.cn |access-date=25 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107235535/http://www.shaoshan.gov.cn/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=14617 |archive-date=7 November 2014}}</ref>

A 2016 survey by YouGov survey found that 42% of American millennials have never heard of Mao.<ref>{{cite news |title=Poll: Millennials desperately need to bone up on the history of communism |url=https://www.marketwatch.com/story/poll-millennials-desperately-need-to-bone-up-on-the-history-of-communism-2016-10-17 |work=MarketWatch |date=21 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Poll Finds Young Americans More Open to Socialist Ideas |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/young-americans-seen-less-opposed-to-socialist-ideas/3562681.html |work=VOA News |date=23 October 2016}}</ref> According to the CIS poll, in 2019 only 21% of Australian millennials were familiar with Mao Zedong.<ref>{{cite news |first=Tom |last=Switzer |title=Opinion: Why Millennials are embracing socialism |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/anxiety-plus-ignorance-why-millennials-are-embracing-socialism-20190222-p50zj5.html |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=23 February 2019}}</ref> In 2020s China, members of Generation Z are embracing Mao's revolutionary ideas, including violence against the capitalist class, amid rising social inequality, long working hours, and decreasing economic opportunities.<ref>{{cite news |last=Yuan |first=Li |date=8 July 2021 |title='Who Are Our Enemies?' China's Bitter Youths Embrace Mao. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/business/china-mao.html |work={{wipe|The New York Times}} |location= |access-date=8 July 2021}}</ref> As of the early 2020s, surveys conducted on [[Company:Zhihu|Zhihu]] frequently rank Mao as one of the greatest and most influential figures in Chinese history.<ref name=":11" />{{Rp|page=58}}

== Genealogy ==

=== Ancestors ===
Mao's ancestors were:
* {{lang|zh-Latn|Máo Yíchāng}} ({{lang|zh-hant|毛貽昌}}, born Xiangtan 1870, died Shaoshan 1920), father, courtesy name {{lang|zh-Latn|Máo Shùnshēng}} ({{lang|zh-hant|毛順生}}) or also known as Mao Jen-sheng
* {{lang|zh-Latn|Wén Qīmèi}} ({{lang|zh|文七妹}}, born Xiangxiang 1867, died 1919), mother. She was illiterate and a devout Buddhist. She was a descendant of Wen Tianxiang.
* {{lang|zh-Latn|Máo Ēnpǔ}} ({{lang|zh|毛恩普}}, born 1846, died 1904), paternal grandfather
* {{lang|zh-Latn|Liú}} ({{lang|zh-hant|劉/刘}}, given name not recorded, born 1847, died 1884),{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=13}} paternal grandmother
* {{lang|zh-Latn|Máo Zǔrén}} ({{lang|zh|毛祖人}}), paternal great-grandfather

=== Wives ===
[[File:Mao Jiang Qing and daughter Li Na.jpg|thumb|Mao with Jiang Qing and daughter Li Na in the 1940s]]

Mao had four wives who gave birth to a total of 10 children, among them:
# Luo Yixiu (1889–1910) of Shaoshan: married 1907 to 1910
# Yang Kaihui (1901–1930) of Changsha: married 1921 to 1927, executed by the KMT in 1930; mother to Mao Anying, Mao Anqing, and Mao Anlong
# He Zizhen (1910–1984) of Jiangxi: married May 1928 to 1937; mother to 6 children
# [[Biography:Jiang Qing|Jiang Qing]] (1914–1991), married 1939 until Mao's death; mother to Li Na

=== Siblings ===
Mao had several siblings:
* Mao Zemin (1896–1943), younger brother, executed by a warlord
* Mao Zetan (1905–1935), younger brother, executed by the KMT
* Mao Zejian (1905–1929), adopted sister, executed by the KMT

Mao's parents altogether had five sons and two daughters. Two of the sons and both daughters died young, leaving the three brothers Mao Zedong, Mao Zemin, and Mao Zetan. Like all three of Mao Zedong's wives, Mao Zemin and Mao Zetan were communists. Like Yang Kaihui, both Mao Zemin and Mao Zetan were killed in warfare during Mao Zedong's lifetime. Note that the character ''zé'' ({{lang|zh-hant|澤}}) appears in all of the siblings' given names; this is a common [[Place:Chinese name#Given names|Chinese naming convention]].

From the next generation, Mao Zemin's son Mao Yuanxin was raised by Mao Zedong's family, and he became Mao Zedong's liaison with the Politburo in 1975. In Li Zhisui's ''The Private Life of Chairman Mao'', Mao Yuanxin played a role in the final power-struggles.{{sfn|Li|1994|p=659}}

=== Children ===
Mao had a total of ten children,{{sfn|Spence|1999|p=97}} including:
* Mao Anying (1922–1950): son to Yang, married to {{lang|zh-Latn|Liú Sīqí}} ({{lang|zh-hant|劉思齊}}), [[Social:Killed in action|killed in action]] during the Korean War
* Mao Anqing (1923–2007): son to Yang, married to Shao Hua, son Mao Xinyu, grandson Mao Dongdong
* Mao Anlong (1927–1931): son to Yang, died during the Chinese Civil War
* Mao Anhong: son to He, left to Mao's younger brother Zetan and then to one of Zetan's guards when he went off to war, was never heard of again
* Li Min (b. 1936): daughter to He, married to {{lang|zh-Latn|Kǒng Lìnghuá}} ({{lang|zh-hant|孔令華}}), son {{lang|zh-Latn|Kǒng Jìníng}} ({{lang|zh-hant|孔繼寧}}), daughter Kong Dongmei ({{lang|zh|孔冬梅}})
* Li Na (b. 1940): daughter to Jiang (whose birth surname was Lǐ, a name also used by Mao while evading the KMT), married to {{lang|zh-Latn|Wáng Jǐngqīng}} ({{lang|zh|王景清}}), son {{lang|zh-Latn|Wáng Xiàozhī}} ({{lang|zh-hant|王效芝}})

Mao's first and second daughters were left to local villagers because it was too dangerous to raise them while fighting the Kuomintang and later the Japanese. Their youngest daughter (born in early 1938 in Moscow after Mao separated) and one other child (born 1933) died in infancy. Two English researchers who retraced the entire Long March route in 2002–2003<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-11/23/content_283948.htm|title= Stepping into history|work=China Daily|date=23 November 2003|access-date=23 August 2008}}</ref> located a woman whom they believe might well be one of the missing children abandoned by Mao to peasants in 1935. Ed Jocelyn and Andrew McEwen hope a member of the Mao family will respond to requests for a DNA test.<ref>''The Long March'', by Ed Jocelyn and Andrew McEwen. Constable 2006</ref>

Through his ten children, Mao became grandfather to twelve grandchildren, many of whom he never knew. He has many great-grandchildren alive today. One of his granddaughters is businesswoman Kong Dongmei, one of the richest people in China.<ref>Kong Dongmei on China's rich list:
* {{cite news|title=Kong Dongmei, Granddaughter Of Mao Zedong, Appears On China Rich List|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/09/kong-dongmei-china-rich-list-mao_n_3244297.html|access-date=29 July 2015|agency=Agence France-Presse|work=HuffPost|date=9 July 2015}}
* {{cite news|author1=Malcolm Moore|title=Mao's granddaughter accused over China rich list|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10046550/Maos-granddaughter-accused-over-China-rich-list.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10046550/Maos-granddaughter-accused-over-China-rich-list.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=29 July 2015|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=9 May 2013|location=Beijing}} </ref> His grandson Mao Xinyu is a general in the Chinese army.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mao's grandson, promoted to major general, faces ridicule|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/04/world/la-fg-china-mao-20100804|access-date=29 July 2015|work={{wipe|Los Angeles Times}}|date=4 August 2010}}</ref> Both he and Kong have written books about their grandfather.<ref>{{Cite web|date=22 December 2003|title=Family Cherish the Chairman|url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/83075.htm |website=China Internet Information Center}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
[[File:Mao Zedong and Zhang Yufeng in 1964.jpg|thumb|Mao and Zhang Yufeng in 1964]]

Mao's private life was kept very secret at the time of his rule. After Mao's death, Li Zhisui, his personal physician, published ''The Private Life of Chairman Mao'', a memoir which mentions some aspects of Mao's private life, such as chain-smoking cigarettes, addiction to powerful sleeping pills and large number of sexual partners.<ref>Li, 1994.</ref> Some scholars and others who knew Mao personally have disputed the accuracy of these accounts and characterisations.<ref>DeBorga and Dong 1996. p. 4.</ref>

Having grown up in Hunan, Mao spoke [[Social:Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] with a marked Hunanese accent.{{sfn|Hollingworth|1985|pp=29–30}} Ross Terrill wrote Mao was a "son of the soil ... rural and unsophisticated" in origins,{{sfn|Terrill|1980|p=19}} while Clare Hollingworth said that Mao was proud of his "peasant ways and manners", having a strong Hunanese accent and providing "earthy" comments on sexual matters.{{sfn|Hollingworth|1985|pp=29–30}} Lee Feigon said that Mao's "earthiness" meant that he remained connected to "everyday Chinese life."{{sfn|Feigon|2002|p=26}}

Sinologist [[Biography:Stuart R. Schram|Stuart R. Schram]] emphasised Mao's ruthlessness but also noted that he showed no sign of taking pleasure in torture or killing in the revolutionary cause.{{sfn|Schram|1966|p=153}} Lee Feigon considered Mao "draconian and authoritarian" when threatened but opined that he was not the "kind of villain that his mentor Stalin was".{{sfn|Feigon|2002|p=53}} Alexander Pantsov and Steven I. Levine wrote that Mao was a "man of complex moods", who "tried his best to bring about prosperity and gain international respect" for China, being "neither a saint nor a demon."{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=5–6}} They noted that in early life, he strove to be "a strong, wilful, and purposeful hero, not bound by any moral chains", and that he "passionately desired fame and power".{{sfn|Pantsov|Levine|2012|pp=42, 66}}

Mao learned to speak some English, particularly through Zhang Hanzhi, his English teacher, interpreter and diplomat who later married Qiao Guanhua, Foreign Minister of China and the head of China's UN delegation.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://mobile.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/world/asia/29zhang.html |title=Zhang Hanzhi, Mao's English Tutor, Dies at 72 |first=David |last=Barboza |newspaper={{wipe|The New York Times}} |date=29 January 2008}}</ref> His spoken English was limited to a few single words, phrases, and some short sentences. He first chose to systematically learn English in the 1950s, which was very unusual as the main foreign language first taught in Chinese schools at that time was Russian.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.people.com.cn/n/2015/0709/c372327-27277288-3.html |script-title=zh:揭秘毛泽东为什么学英语："这是斗争的需要" |website=People's Daily |title=Jiēmì máozédōng wèishéme xué yīngyǔ:"Zhè shì dòuzhēng de xūyào" |trans-title=: Demystifying why Mao Zedong learned English: "This is the need of struggle" |date=9 July 2015 |language=zh-cn |access-date=12 January 2018 |archive-date=13 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113093107/http://history.people.com.cn/n/2015/0709/c372327-27277288-3.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Writings and calligraphy ==
[[File:Baidi Mao.jpg|thumb|upright|Mao's calligraphy: a bronze plaque of a poem by Li Bai. (Chinese: 白帝城毛澤東手書李白詩銅匾 )]]
{{quote box
| quote = <poem>{{lang|zh-Hant|鷹擊長空，
魚翔淺底，
萬類霜天競自由。
悵寥廓，
問蒼茫大地，
誰主沉浮
|size = 110%}}</poem>

<poem>Eagles cleave the air,
Fish glide in the limpid deep;
Under freezing skies a million creatures contend in freedom.
Brooding over this immensity,
I ask, on this boundless land
Who rules over man's destiny?</poem>
| source = —Excerpt from Mao's poem "Changsha", September 1927{{sfn|Carter|1976|p=64}}
| align = right
| width = 25em
| bgcolor = #ACE1AF
}}
Mao was a prolific writer of political and philosophical literature.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://chineseposters.net/themes/mao-thought.php |title=Mao Zedong Thought – Part 1 |access-date=30 April 2011 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> The main repository of his pre-1949 writings is the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, published in four volumes by the People's Publishing House since 1951. A fifth volume, which brought the timeline up to 1957, was briefly issued during the leadership of Hua Guofeng, but subsequently withdrawn from circulation for its perceived ideological errors. There has never been an official "Complete Works of Mao Zedong" collecting all his known publications.<ref>Wilkinson, Endymion (2018). ''Chinese History: A New Manual'' (5th paperback ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center. {{ISBN|978-0998888309}}.</ref> Mao is the attributed author of ''Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung'', known in the West as the "Little Red Book" and in Cultural Revolution China as the "Red Treasure Book" ({{lang|zh-hant|紅寶書}}). First published in January 1964, this is a collection of short extracts from his many speeches and articles (most found in the Selected Works), edited by Lin Biao, and ordered topically. ''The Little Red Book'' contains some of Mao's most widely known quotes.{{efn|Among them are:
{{blockquote|"War is the highest form of struggle for resolving contradictions, when they have developed to a certain stage, between classes, nations, states, or political groups, and it has existed ever since the emergence of private property and of classes."|source="Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War" (December 1936), ''Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung'', '''I''', p. 180.}}
{{blockquote|"Every communist must grasp the truth, 'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.{{'"}}|source=1938, ''Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung'', '''II''', pp. 224–225.}}
{{blockquote|"Taken as a whole, the Chinese revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party embraces two stages, i.e., the democratic and the socialist revolutions, which are two essentially different revolutionary processes, and the second process can be carried through only after the first has been completed. The democratic revolution is the necessary preparation for the socialist revolution, and the socialist revolution is the inevitable sequel to the democratic revolution. The ultimate aim for which all communists strive is to bring about a socialist and communist society."|source="The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party" (December 1939), ''Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung'', '''II'', pp. 330–331.}}
{{blockquote|"All reactionaries are [[Biology:Paper tiger|paper tiger]]s. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are really powerful."|source=Mao Zedong (July 1956), "U.S. Imperialism Is a Paper Tiger".}}}}

Mao wrote prolifically on political strategy, commentary, and philosophy both before and after he assumed power.{{efn|The most influential of these include:
* ''Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《湖南农民运动考察报告》}}); March 1927
* ''On Guerrilla Warfare'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《游擊戰》}}); 1937
* ''On Practice'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《實踐論》}}); 1937
* ''On Contradiction'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《矛盾論》}}); 1937
* ''On Protracted War'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《論持久戰》}}); 1938
* ''In Memory of Norman Bethune'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《紀念白求恩》}}); 1939
* ''On [[Social:New Democracy|New Democracy]]'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《新民主主義論》}}); 1940
* ''Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《在延安文藝座談會上的講話》}}); 1942
* ''Serve the People'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《為人民服務》}}); 1944
* ''The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains'' ({{lang|zh|《愚公移山》}}); 1945
* ''On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions Among the People'' ({{lang|zh-hant|《正確處理人民內部矛盾問題》}}); 1957}} Mao was also a skilled Chinese calligrapher with a highly personal style. In China, Mao was considered a master calligrapher during his lifetime.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asiawind.com/art/callig/modern.htm#Contemporary%20Chinese%20Calligraphy |title=100 years |website=Asia Wind |access-date=23 August 2008}}</ref> His calligraphy can be seen today throughout mainland China.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yen |first=Yuehping |title=Calligraphy and Power in Contemporary Chinese Society |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?visbn=0415317533 |page=2}}</ref> His work gave rise to a new form of Chinese calligraphy called "Mao-style" or ''Maoti'', which has gained increasing popularity since his death. There exist various competitions specialising in Mao-style calligraphy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://art.people.com.cn/GB/41132/41137/4802132.html |work=People |script-title=zh:首屆毛體書法邀請賽精品紛呈 |title=Shǒujiè máo tǐ shūfǎ yāoqǐngsài jīngpǐn fēnchéng |trans-title=The First Mao Ti Calligraphy Invitational Contest |date=11 September 2006 |language=zh |access-date=1 April 2007 |archive-date=26 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061126185030/http://art.people.com.cn/GB/41132/41137/4802132.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Literary works ===
As did most Chinese intellectuals of his generation, Mao's education began with [[Philosophy:Chinese classics|Chinese classical literature]]. Mao told Edgar Snow in 1936 that he had started the study of the Confucian [[Philosophy:Analects|Analects]] and the [[Philosophy:Four Books and Five Classics|Four Books]] at a village school when he was eight, but that the books he most enjoyed reading were ''Water Margin'', ''Journey to the West'', the ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' and ''Dream of the Red Chamber''.<ref name="Barnstone">Barnstone, Willis (1972; rpr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=1SCD3xwYwJ0C&pg=PP1 The Poems of Mao Zedong]''. pp. 3–4. {{ISBN|0520935004}}.</ref> Mao published poems in classical forms starting in his youth and his abilities as a poet contributed to his image in China after he came to power in 1949. His style was influenced by the great Tang dynasty poets Li Bai and Li He.<ref>Ng, Yong-sang (1963). "The Poetry of Mao Tse-tung". ''The China Quarterly'' '''13''': 60–73. {{doi|10.1017/S0305741000009711}}.</ref>

Some of his best known poems are "Changsha" (1925), "The Double Ninth" (October 1929), "Loushan Pass" (1935), "The Long March" (1935), "Snow" (February 1936), "The PLA Captures Nanjing" (1949), "Reply to Li Shuyi" (11 May 1957), and "Ode to the Plum Blossom" (December 1961).

==Portrayal in film and television==
Mao has been portrayed in film and television numerous times. Some notable actors include: Han Shi, the first actor ever to have portrayed Mao, in a 1978 drama ''Dielianhua'' and later again in a 1980 film ''Cross the Dadu River'';<ref>{{cite web|title=Being Mao Zedong|url=http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2011-07/04/content_22917108.htm|work=Global Times|access-date=15 March 2013|date=4 July 2011}}</ref> Gu Yue, who had portrayed Mao 84 times on screen throughout his 27-year career and had won the Best Actor title at the Hundred Flowers Awards in 1990 and 1993;<ref>{{cite web|title=Famous actor playing Mao Zedong dies|url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200507/05/eng20050705_194191.html|work=People's Daily|access-date=15 March 2013|date=5 July 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Actor famous for playing Mao Zedong dies of miocardial infarction|url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200507/05/eng20050705_194076.html|work=People's Daily|access-date=15 March 2013|date=5 July 2005}}</ref> Liu Ye, who played a young Mao in ''The Founding of a Party'' (2011);<ref>{{cite web|last=Liu|first=Wei|title=The reel Mao|url=http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2011-06/03/content_12636667.htm|work=China Daily European Weekly|access-date=15 March 2013|date=3 June 2011}}</ref> Tang Guoqiang, who has frequently portrayed Mao in more recent times, in the films ''The Long March'' (1996) and ''The Founding of a Republic'' (2009), and the television series ''Huang Yanpei'' (2010), among others.<ref>{{cite web|last=Xiong|first=Qu|title=Actors expect prosperity of Chinese culture|url=http://english.cntv.cn/program/cultureexpress/20111126/104783.shtml|publisher=CCTV News|access-date=15 March 2013|date=26 November 2011|archive-date=14 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214133729/http://english.cntv.cn/program/cultureexpress/20111126/104783.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> Mao is a principal character in American composer John Adams' opera ''Nixon in China'' (1987). The Beatles' song "Revolution" refers to Mao in the verse "but if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao you ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow...";<ref name="AldridgeBeatles1969">{{cite book |first1=Alan |last1=Aldridge |author2=Beatles |title=The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DKG-FXj_HNYC&pg=PA104 |year=1969 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0395594261 |page=104}}</ref> [[Biography:John Lennon|John Lennon]] expressed regret over including these lines in the song in 1972.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Spignesi |first1=Stephen J. |last2=Lewis |first2=Michael |title=Here, There, and Everywhere: The 100 Best Beatles Songs |year=2004 |location=New York |publisher=Black Dog |isbn=978-1579123697 |page=40}}</ref>

== See also ==
* Chinese tunic suit
<categorytree mode=all depth="0">Mao Zedong</categorytree>

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Becker |first=Jasper |title=Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iC4g0gXBmIkC |year=1998 |publisher=Holt Paperbacks |isbn=978-0805056686}}
* {{cite book |last=Carter |first=Peter |title=Mao |year=1976 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |isbn=978-0192731401}}
* {{cite book |last1=Chang |first1=Jung |last2=Halliday |first2=Jon |title=Mao: The Unknown Story |year=2005 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |location=London |isbn=978-0224071260}}
* {{cite book |last=Chirot |first=Daniel |title=Modern tyrants: the power and prevalence of evil in our age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e-kVgozyE8gC |year=1996 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0691027777}}
* {{cite book |last=Clisson |first=Tim |title=Chinese Rules: Mao's Dog, Deng's Cat, and Five Timeless Lessons from the Front Lines in China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yWqBAwAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher=NY: Harper |isbn=978-0062316578}}
* {{cite book |last=Dikötter |first=Frank |title=Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–62 |year=2010 |publisher=Walker & Company |location= London |isbn=978-0802777683}}
* {{cite book |last=Feigon |first=Lee |title=Mao: A Reinterpretation |year=2002 |isbn=978-1566634588 |publisher=Ivan R. Dee |location=Chicago}}
* {{cite book |last=Gao |first=Mobo |title=The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution |year=2008 |publisher=[[Company:Pluto Press|Pluto Press]] |location=London |isbn=978-0745327808}}
* {{cite book |last=Hollingworth |first=Clare |title=Mao and the Men Against Him |year=1985 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |location=London |isbn=978-0224017602}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Kuisong |first1=Yang |date=March 2008 |title=Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries |journal=The China Quarterly |volume=193 |issue=193 |pages=102–121 |doi=10.1017/S0305741008000064 |s2cid=154927374}}
* {{cite book |last=Li |first=Zhisui |title=The Private Life of Chairman Mao: The Memoirs of Mao's Personal Physician |url=https://archive.org/details/privatelifeofcha00lizh_0 |url-access=registration |year=1994 |publisher={{wipe|Random House}} |location=London |isbn=978-0679764434}}
* {{cite book |last1=MacFarquhar |first1=Roderick |last2=Schoenhals |first2=Michael |title=Mao's Last Revolution |year=2006 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=978-0674027480}}
* {{cite book |last1=Pantsov |first1=Alexander V. |last2=Levine |first2=Steven I. |title=Mao: The Real Story |year=2012 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York and London |isbn=978-1451654479}}
* {{cite book |last=Schram |first=Stuart |title=Mao Tse-Tung |year=1966 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=London |isbn=978-0140208405 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/maotsetung0000schr}}
* {{cite book |last=Short |first=Philip |title=Mao: A Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4y6mACbLWGsC |year= 2001 |publisher=Owl Books |isbn=978-0805066388}}
* {{cite book |last=Spence |first=Jonathan |title=Mao Zedong |series=Penguin Lives |year=1999 |publisher=Viking Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0670886692 |oclc=41641238 |url=https://archive.org/details/maozedong00spen}}
** {{cite news |last=Burns |first=John F. |date=6 February 2000 |title=Methods of the Great Leader |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/06/reviews/000206.06burnst.html |newspaper={{wipe|The New York Times}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Terrill |first=Ross |title=Mao: A Biography |year=1980 |publisher=Simon & Schuster}}, which is superseded by {{cite book |last=Terrill |first=Ross |author-link=Ross Terrill |title=Mao: A Biography |location=Stanford, CA |publisher=Stanford University Press |date=1999 |isbn=0804729212}}
* {{cite book |last=Valentino |first=Benjamin A. |title=Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LQfeXVU_EvgC |year=2004 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0801439650}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last1=Andrew |first1=Anita M. |last2=Rapp |first2=John A. |title=Autocracy and China's Rebel Founding Emperors: Comparing Chairman Mao and Ming Taizu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YQOhVb5Fbt4C&pg=PA110 |year=2000 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0847695805 |pages=110–}}
* {{cite book |last=Davin |first=Delia |title=Mao: A Very Short Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GfShg2lD8Y4C |year=2013 |publisher=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0191654039}}
* {{cite book |last1=Keith |first1=Schoppa R. |title=Twentieth Century in China: A History in Documents |date=2004 |publisher=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0199732005}}
* {{cite book |last=Schaik |first=Sam |title=Tibet: A History |year=2011 |publisher=Yale University Press Publications |location=New Haven |isbn=978-0300154047}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Library resources box}}

=== General ===
* [https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/227/foundations-of-chinese-foreign-policy "Foundations of Chinese Foreign Policy] online documents in English from the Wilson Center in Washington
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20000510085445/http://www.asiasource.org/society/mao.cfm Asia Source biography]
* [http://www.chinesemao.com/ ChineseMao.com: Extensive resources about Mao Zedong] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906033211/http://www.chinesemao.com/ |date=6 September 2013 }}
* [http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/inside.china/profiles/mao.tsetung/ CNN profile]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041209035950/http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/classics/mao/index.html Collected Works of Mao at the Maoist Internationalist Movement]
* [https://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo47030 Collected Works of Mao Tse-tung (1917–1949)] Joint Publications Research Service
* [http://art-bin.com/art/omaotoc.html Mao quotations]
* [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/index.htm Mao Zedong Reference Archive at marxists.org]
* [http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/samplep02 Oxford Companion to World Politics: Mao Zedong]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130909234651/http://english.cpc.people.com.cn/66095/4468893.html Bio of Mao at the official Communist Party of China web site]

=== Commentary ===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100305093011/http://www.chairmanmaozedong.org/ Discusses the life, military influence and writings of Chairman Mao ZeDong.]
* [https://monthlyreview.org/commentary/what-maoism-has-contributed What Maoism Has Contributed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812060630/https://monthlyreview.org/commentary/what-maoism-has-contributed/ |date=12 August 2021 }} by Samir Amin (21 September 2006)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/02/china.jonathanwatts China must confront dark past, says Mao confidant]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jan/18/comment.china Mao was cruel – but also laid the ground for today's China]
* [https://monthlyreview.org/2004/09/01/on-the-role-of-mao-zedong On the Role of Mao Zedong] by William Hinton. Monthly Review Foundation 2004 Volume 56, Issue 04 (September)
* [http://artchina.free.fr/items/creasite.php?params=Mao%20Zedong_CATEGORY_0 Propaganda paintings showing Mao as the great leader of China]
* [http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,483023,00.html Remembering Mao's Victims]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/opinion/16iht-eddikotter16.html Mao's Great Leap to Famine]
* [http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2010/dec/20/finding-facts-about-maos-victims/ Finding the Facts About Mao's Victims]
* [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-margolis/remembering-chinas-great_b_303107.html Remembering China's Great Helmsman]
* [http://monthlyreview.org/commentary/did-mao-really-kill-millions-in-the-great-leap-forward Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191011135700/https://monthlyreview.org/commentary/did-mao-really-kill-millions-in-the-great-leap-forward/ |date=11 October 2019 }}
* [https://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3081083673/ Mao Tse Tung: China's Peasant Emperor]
{{Mao Zedong}}{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Zhang Guotao}}
{{s-ttl|title=Head of the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party|years=1924–1925}}
{{s-aft|after=Chen Duxiu}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Wang Jingwei}}
{{s-ttl|title=Head of the Kuomintang Propaganda Department|years=1925–1926}}
{{s-aft|after=Ku Meng-yu}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Lu Yi}}
{{s-ttl|title=Head of the CPC Central Military Commission General Political Department|years=1931}}
{{s-aft|after=Zhou Yili}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Zhu De}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission|years=1936–1949}}
{{s-aft|after=Himself|as=Chairman of the PRC People's Revolutionary Military Council}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Deng Fa}}
{{s-ttl|title=President of the CPC Central Party School|years=1943–1947}}
{{s-aft|after=Liu Shaoqi}}
|-
{{s-bef|rows=2|before=Zhang Wentian|as=General Secretary}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China |years=1943–1945}}
{{s-non|reason=Post merged with the Chairman of the Central Committee}}
|-
{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China |years=1945–1976}}
{{s-aft|after=Hua Guofeng|rows=2}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Himself|as=Chairman of the PRC People's Revolutionary Military Council}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission|years=1954–1976}}
|-
{{s-off}}
|-
|colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"|'''Chinese Soviet Republic'''
|-
{{s-new|rows=2}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic|years=1931–1937}}
{{s-non|reason=Chinese Soviet Republic disbanded}}
|-
{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Chinese Soviet Republic|years=1931–1934}}
{{s-aft|after=Zhang Wentian}}
|-
|colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"|'''People's Republic of China'''
|-
{{s-new|rows=3}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference|years=1949–1954}}
{{s-aft|after=Zhou Enlai}}
|-
{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China |years=1949–1954}}
{{s-aft|after=Himself|as=Chairman of the People's Republic of China}}
|-
{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the People's Revolutionary Military Council of the Central People's Government|years=1949–1954}}
{{s-aft|after=Himself|as=Chairman of the National Defence Commission in the capacity as President of the PRC}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Himself|as=Chairman of the Central People's Government}}
{{s-ttl|title=President of the People's Republic of China |years=1954–1959}}
{{s-aft|after=Liu Shaoqi}}
|-
{{s-end}}

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