Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-tung , 1893-1976, founder of the People's Republic of China. Mao was one of the most prominent Communist theoreticians and his ideas on revolutionary struggle and guerrilla warfare have been extremely influential, especially among Third World revolutionaries.

Of Hunanese peasant stock, Mao was trained in Chinese classics and later received a modern education. As a young man he observed oppressive social conditions, becoming one of the original members of the Chinese Communist party. He organized (1920s) Kuomintang -sponsored peasant and industrial unions and directed (1926) the Kuomintang's Peasant Movement Training Institute. After the Kuomintang-Communist split (1927), Mao led the disastrous "Autumn Harvest Uprising" in Hunan, leading to his ouster from the central committee of the party.

From 1928 until 1931 Mao, with Zhu De and others, established rural soviets in the hinterlands, and built the Red Army. In 1931 he was elected chairman of the newly established Soviet Republic of China, based in Jiangxi province. After withstanding five encirclement campaigns launched by Chiang Kai-shek , Mao led (1934-35) the Red Army on the long march (6,000 mi/9,656 km) from Jiangxi north to Yan'an in Shaanxi province, emerging as the most important Communist leader. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) the Communists and the Kuomintang continued their civil war while both were battling the Japanese invaders.

The civil war continued after war with Japan had ended, and in 1949, after the Communists had taken almost all of mainland China, Mao became chairman of the central government council of the newly established People's Republic of China; he was reelected to the post, the most powerful in China, in 1954. In an attempt to break with the Russian model of Communism and to imbue the Chinese people with renewed revolutionary vigor, Mao launched (1958) the Great Leap Forward . The program was a terrible failure, an estimated 20 to 30 million people died in the famine that followed (1958-61), and Mao withdrew temporarily from public view.

The failure of this program also resulted in a break with the Soviet Union, which cut off aid. Mao accused Soviet leaders of betraying Marxism. In 1959 Liu Shaoqi , an opponent of the Great Leap Forward, replaced Mao as chairman of the central government council, but Mao retained his chairmanship of the Communist party politburo.

A campaign to reestablish Mao's ideological line culminated in the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Mass mobilization, begun and led by Mao and his wife, Jiang Qing , was directed against the party leadership. Liu and others were removed from power in 1968. In 1969 Mao reasserted his party leadership by serving as chairman of the Ninth Communist Party Congress, and in 1970 he was named supreme commander of the nation and army. The cultural revolution group continued its campaigns until Mao's death in Sept., 1976. A month later its leaders were purged and Mao's surviving opponents, led by Deng Xiaoping , slowly regained power, pushing aside Mao's successor, Hua Guofeng , and erasing the cult surrounding Mao. Mao's embalmed body is displayed in a mausoleum in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Bibliography: See his Selected Works (4 vol., 1954-56, repr. 1961-65), Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (ed. by S. R. Schram, 1967), and Poems (tr. 1972). See also J. B. Starr, Continuing the Revolution: The Political Thought of Mao (1977); R. Terrill, Mao: A Biography (1980); S. R. Schram, Mao Zedong: A Preliminary Reassessment (1983); Z. Li, The Private Life of Chairman Mao (1994); P. Short, Mao: A Life (2000); J. Spence, Mao Zedong (2000); J. Chang and J. Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story (2005).

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) also Mao Tse-tung Chinese statesman, leader of the Chinese Communist Party (1931–76) and chairman of the People's Republic of China (1949–59). As the architect of China's communist revolution, Mao developed the modern form of revolutionary insurgency. He defeated both the occupying Japanese and the Kuomintang nationalist forces to create the People's Republic in 1949. In 1950 Mao sent Chinese forces to aid North Koreans when U.S. and U.N. troops crossed the 38th parallel. Initially Mao followed the Russian communist model, but later gave the Chinese brand his own stamp and came to see himself in competition with the Soviets. In 1972 he and Zhou Enlai met with Richard M. Nixon in Beijing in an attempt to improve relations with Americans in order to gain advantage over Soviet Communists.

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese statesman, founder and chairman (1949–76) of the People's Republic of China. Mao was a founder member of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. After the nationalist Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek, dissolved the alliance with the communists in 1927, Mao helped established rural soviets. In 1931, he was elected chairman of the Soviet Republic of China, based in Jiangsu. The advance of nationalist forces forced Mao to lead the Red Army on the Long March (1934–35) nw to Shanxi. In 1937, the civil war was suspended as communists and nationalists combined to fight the second Sino-Japanese War. The communists' brand of guerrilla warfare gained hold of much of rural China. Civil war resumed in 1945, and by 1949 the nationalists had been driven out of mainland China. Mao became chairman of the People's Republic and was re-elected in 1954. Zhou Enlai acted as prime minister. In 1958, Mao attempted to distinguish Chinese communism from its Soviet counterpart by launching the Great Leap Forward. The programme ended in mass starvation, and the withdrawal of Soviet aid. Mao's leadership was challenged. The Cultural Revolution was an attempt by Mao and his wife, Jiang Qing, to reassert Maoist ideology. It encoruaged the cult of the personality, dismissed political rivals, and Mao became supreme commander of the nation and army (1970). Mao and Zhou Enlai's death created a vacuum. A struggle developed between the Gang of Four, Hua Guofeng, and Deng Xiaoping. Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (popularly known as “The Little Red Book”, 1967) is a worldwide bestseller.