MAO ZEDONG

Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976) was a Chinese Marxist theorist, soldier, poet, and statesman who led China's communist revolution after decades of foreign occupation and civil war in the 20th century. Following the Communist Party of China’s military victory over the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, Mao announced the establishment of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 in Beijing.

Mao Zedong was a very practical person before 1949. He did many thorough investigations about China and he developed his theories based on his studies. He was so successful in his early years that people worshipped him and everyone loved him.

Things changed after 1949. Mao was a great thinker, but he had no respect to any existing laws. Basically he was the law and he could not allow anybody else to chanllenge him. He challenged and destroyed the traditional Chinese culture, good and bad. He gave woman the same right as man, but destroyed the traditional value of woman. This also made him very unrealistic, as he said in a poem, "Ten thousand years is too long, seize the day." The Great Leap Forward (1958) is a direct result of such thinking.

Mao pursued the ideal of strong and prosperous China, endeavoring to build a modern, industrialized nation. However, the failings of Mao's most significant socio-political programs — including the Anti-Rightist Campaign, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution — are considered by many people to have led to the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese people.

Until his death, Mao maintained control of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China through both political acumen and a cult of personality, the latter resulting in such sobriquets as Grand Helmsman and Saviour of China.