Dictator of the Month: November, 2001Dictator of the Month: November, 2001
| Mao
Zedong
Take me to the picture gallery Fact Sheet Name: Mao Zedong
|
Biography
Biography: Born on 26
December 1893 in the village of Shaoshan in Hunan Province, in China's
south to a family of prosperous peasant farmers. He had two younger
brothers and one sister. Mao
begins attending the village school in Shaoshan when he is eight. When he
is 14 Mao enters an arranged marriage with a local woman, although he
never lives with her and refuses to recognise the marriage. At age 16,
against his father's wishes, he enrols in a nearby higher primary school.
It is during this period that his political consciousness begins to
develop. 1911 - Mao enters
a junior high school at Changsha, the provincial capital. He is briefly
active in the republican revolution, joining a local army unit. 1912 - The
Guomindang (Kuomintang or KMT - the National People's Party, or
Nationalist Party) is formed in August. The party wins the majority of
seats in elections held in February 1913 for the new, two-house
parliament, but is forced to install the now dictatorial Yuan Shikai as
president. To achieve international recognition, the new regime agrees to
grant autonomy to Outer Mongolia and Tibet,
which has now come under British influence. In
November, Yuan Shikai makes a grab for absolute power, dissolving the
Guomindang, removing its members from parliament and rewriting the
constitution to make him president for life. By the time Yuan dies in 1916
China has become a theatre of conflict among "warlords"
(provincial military leaders). Japan, recognising an opportunity to expand
on territory annexed during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, seizes
the Shandong Province (across the Yellow Sea from Korea). 1913 - Mao enrols
in the provincial normal school in Changsha, where he receives his last
five years of formal education, graduating in 1918. While a student, Mao
and his friends found a night school for workers. 1919 - On 4 May
about 3,000 student gather in Tiananmen Square in Beijing to demonstrate
against the Yuan Shikai government's acceptance of a clause in the 'Treaty
of Versailles' settlement of the First World War that transfers Germany's
rights in the Shandong Province to Japan. The
protests develop into the so-called 'May Fourth Movement'. Chinese
nationalism is revitalised as intellectuals call for the modernisation and
democratisation of society. Mao
is working as a library assistant at Beijing University when the movement
begins. The period will mark his emergence as a Marxist-Leninist, although
counter to Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy he will come to believe that the
greatest potential for revolution in China lies with the peasantry rather
than the urban proletariat. He returns to Changsha to promote the movement
there but is forced to flee following a crackdown by a local warlord. Also
inspired by the movement, the Guomindang is reestablished in October and,
with the aid of local warlords, quickly takes control of the south of
China. 1920 - Mao
returns to Changsha as head of a primary school and attempts to organise
education for the masses. When his efforts are suppressed he turns to
politics, forming a small communist group in Changsha. 1921 - The
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) holds its First National Congress in
Shanghai in July. The party has only 57 members, 13 of who attend the
congress. Mao participates in the meeting, acting as the recording
secretary, and is appointed as the party's general secretary for Hunan
Province, where on his return he begins to organise labour unions and
strikes. Meanwhile,
Mao marries Yang Kaihui, the daughter of one of his teachers at the
provincial normal school in Changsha and an active communist. The couple's
two sons will be educated in Moscow. 1922 - When its
alliance with the warlords collapses, the Guomindang turns to the newly
established Soviet Union for help. The Soviets pledge to support both the
Guomindang and the emerging CCP with their struggle for national
unification. The dual support results in a Guomindang-CCP alliance,
although the Guomindang vastly outnumbers the CCP, which now has only 123
members. Mao, who enthusiastically supports the alliance, works in the
combined executive committees of the CCP and the Guomindang from his new
base in Shanghai. 1923 - Chiang
Kai-shek, a rising member of the Guomindang, is sent to Moscow for
military and political training. Mao meanwhile becomes a full-time worker
for the CCP, organising peasant and industrial unions. At the CCP's Third
National Congress held at Guangzhou in June 1923 Mao is elected to the
party Central Committee. By October 1925 he has become the acting head of
the Guomindang's propaganda department. 1925 - Chiang,
who has assumed the leadership of the Guomindang following the death of
the movement's founder, launches a campaign against the northern warlords
that captures half of China within nine months. However, the alliance with
the CCP is beginning to crumble. 1927 - The split
comes in July when Chiang turns violently on the CCP, executing many of
its leaders and up to 3,500 party sympathisers. The Soviets shift their
allegiance to the communists, who initiate a series of unsuccessful
insurrection attempts, the 'Autumn Harvest Uprisings', including one led
by Mao in Hunan Province. Unperturbed,
Mao begins to act on his belief that a successful revolution in China will
have to spring from the peasantry, establishing peasant
"soviets" (communist-run local governments) in the mountainous
region along the border between Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. He also
organises peasant and worker guerrilla forces that, by the end of the
year, number about 10,000 troops, forming the nucleus of the Red Army.
Mao's activities attract the attention the local Guomindang militia. He is
captured and taken to be shot but manages to escape, only narrowly
avoiding death. Meanwhile
the CCP, which now has over 10,000 members on its party rolls, elects its
first Political Bureau (Politburo) at its Fifth National Party Congress
held in Wuhan in April and May. 1928 - Chiang and
the Guomindang now control all of China. Nanjing is made their capital,
and will remain so for the next decade. The CCP now numbers 40,000. Japan
meanwhile sends troops are sent to China to obstruct attempts by the
Guomindang to unify the country. In June officers in the Guandong Army,
the Japanese Army unit stationed in Manchuria, begin an unauthorised
campaign to secure Japanese interests and precipitate a war with China.
Both the Japanese high command and the Chinese refuse to mobilise. 1930 - Mao's
sister and his second wife, Yang Kaihui, are executed by the nationalist
governor of Hunan Province. Later the same year he marries again, to He
Zichen, a schoolteacher and communist with whom he had been living since
1928. The couple will have five children. Also late in the year Mao puts
down a revolt by soldiers in the small town of Futian in the Jiangxi
province. It is reported that 2,000-3,000 officers and men are executed on
Mao's orders. 1931 - In
September, conspirators in Japan's Guandong Army stage the 'Manchurian
Incident', blowing up a section of railway track in the south of Manchuria
then blaming Chinese saboteurs. With the Japanese Government powerless to
intervene, the Guandong Army mobilises, taking nearby Mukden (now Shenyang)
then, in January 1932, attacking Shanghai, south of their territory in
Shandong Province. A truce is reached in March 1932. The Japanese then
establish the puppet state of Manchukuo, centred on Manchuria and headed
by the last Chinese emperor, Puyi. Rather
than concentrating its efforts against the Japanese, the Guomindang
embarks on a series of "encirclement campaigns" against the
communists. Mao responds with guerrilla tactics, instructing his forces to
use a four-phased strategy: "The enemy advances; we retreat. The
enemy camps; we harass. The enemy tires; we attack. The enemy retreats; we
pursue." Meanwhile,
Mao's communists proclaim the Chinese Soviet Republic in Ruijin, Jiangxi
Province. Mao is elected chairman of the republic. Land reforms introduced
to the republic prove popular with the peasants and help to spread the
communist's influence, although Mao is ruthless in enforcing party
discipline. However, Mao's initial reign as chairman is shortlived. After
the CCP Central Committee relocates from Shanghai to Ruijin during the
year Mao is stripped of his posts. The decision will have disastrous
consequences for the communists, who abandon Mao's "hit and run"
military tactics for head-on confrontation with the Guomindang, even
though they are outnumbered seven to one. 1934 - When the
Guomindang's fifth attempt at encircling the communist bases threatens to
succeed, the Red Army and CCP are forced into retreat. The 'Long March'
begins in Jiangxi Province on 15 October when the communists break through
the Guomindang lines and begin a circuitous and initially unplanned trek
of about 7,000 km through 11 provinces, 18 mountain ranges, and 24 rivers
to Shaanxi Province to the northwest. Throughout
the march Guomindang forces and hostile warlords harry the communists.
Among those who die is one of Mao's younger brothers. Of the original
100,000 who set off only about 8,000 will reach the final destination when
the march ends 12 months later in October 1935, although the communist's
numbers are boosted by about 22,000 who have joined the march along the
way. Mao,
whose tactical skills have contributed to the success of the march, has
emerged as a hero and now has unchallenged command of the CCP, having been
given the leadership of the party at a conference held at Zunyi in Guizhou
Province in January 1935. Based in Yan'an, the movement is destined to
rapidly expand, with Mao coming to act as the intellectual as well as
military authority of the party. 1936 - In
December Guomindang troops forcibly detain Chiang Kai-shek for several
days until he agrees to cease hostilities against the communists and
cooperate with them to oppose the Japanese. 1937 - The Second
Sino-Japanese War breaks out on 7 July following a skirmish between
Chinese and Japanese troops outside Beijing. Chinese forces evacuated
Beijing on 28 July. The Japanese overrun Tianjin (100 km southeast of
Beijing) on 30 July then attack Shanghai on 13 August. After a three-month
siege, Shanghai falls and the Guomindang forces withdraw to the northwest
towards their capital Nanjing. The Japanese pursue. The
assault on Nanjing begins on 10 December after the Chinese refuse to
withdraw. When Nanjing finally falls on 13 December, just hours after the
Chinese forces have fled, the Japanese begin a bloodthirsty
massacre that will last for six weeks. At
the urging of the Soviet Union, the CCP joins the Guomindang in a second
united front against the Japanese, although their uneasy alliance begins
to break down late in 1938. Mao sees the alliance as an excellent
opportunity for the development of the party. "Our determined policy
is 70% self-development, 20% compromise, and 10% fight the Japanese,"
he states. Meanwhile,
Mao divorces his second wife. In 1939 he marries the film actress Lan
Ping, later known as Jiang Qing. 1940 - Conflict
between the Guomindang and CCP starts to intensify in the areas of China
not under Japanese control. Mao begins laying plans for the complete
communist takeover China. His teachings become the central tenets of the
CCP doctrine known as 'Mao Zedong Thought'. Party membership rapidly
expands, from 100,000 in 1937 to 1.2 million by 1945. The growing
popularity of the communists also sees the size of the Red Army and the
peasant militias increase dramatically. 1942 - Mao
launches the first "rectification" campaign. To ensure their
ideological purity, new party recruits are ordered to study 'Mao Zedong
Thought'. The campaign will come to be seen as the genesis of the Mao
Zedong personality cult that will sweep China in subsequent years. 1943 - Mao is
formally acknowledged as head of the CCP when he is elected chairman of
the CCP Central Committee and the Politburo. He will remain party leader
until his death. However
during the year he suffers another personal lose when his second younger
brothers is executed by the nationalists. 1945 - 'Mao
Zedong Thought' is formally adopted by the CCP at the Seventh Plenum of
the Sixth National Party Congress held in Yan'an in April. World
War II comes to an end. Over 11 million Chinese have died during the
Second World War. The Second Sino-Japanese War has claimed between 30 and
35 million Chinese. Following
the defeat of the Japanese, hostilities between the Guomindang and CCP
resume. The communists now have an advantage, having occupied vast areas
formerly held by the Japanese and seized large quantities of surrendered
Japanese arms. The communist army also now numbers about one million
troops. Although
still numerically superior, the position of the Guomindang is weakened by
the rampant corruption of its government and the accompanying political
and economic chaos. The Guomindang does however receive aid from the
United States, which also attempts to broker a settlement between the two
warring parties. However
talks between Mao and Chiang Kai-shek prove fruitless and full-scale civil
war breaks our early in 1946. The Guomindang's numerical advantage is
steadily eroded until by mid-1948 the two sides are almost even. Chiang's
generals then begin to surrender en masse. 1949 - Mao's
communists take Beijing without a fight in January and control the entire
country by the end of the year. Chiang and several thousand of his troops
flee to the island of Taiwan and proclaim Taipei as the temporary capital
of China. Before fleeing Chiang has stripped the national treasury of
about US$300 million. On
1 October, at a ceremony held in Beijing, Mao formally proclaims the
People's Republic of China. The CCP now claims a membership of 4.5
million, 90% of who are peasants. Mao is the party chairman and is exalted
as the premier hero of the revolution. The government is headed by his
right-hand-man, Zhou Enlai. The
CCP begins a program of moderated reform and receives widespread popular
support internally and growing international recognition as China's
legitimate government. China's high inflation is curbed, the economy is
restored, and many war-damaged industrial plants and infrastructure
facilities are rebuilt. At
the end of the year Mao takes his first journey abroad - to Moscow in the
Soviet Union. He meets with Soviet leader Joseph
Stalin and negotiates for military support and economic aid. 1950 - In May Mao
agrees to a plan by the leader of North Korea, Kim
Il Sung, to force a reunification with South Korea through a
preemptive invasion. The Korean War begins on 25 June. It will last for
three years and cost about three million lives but ends with no definitive
outcome. International
support for the CCP government begins to falter in October when China
becomes directly involved in the Korean War in response to a North Korean
request for aid. At the same time, Tibet
is invaded, bringing to an end almost 40 years of Tibetan self-rule. Up
to 440,000 Chinese "volunteer" troops will die during the Korean
War, including Mao's eldest son. The war also ushers a sharp and prolonged
deterioration in relations between China and the US. 1951 - The United
Nations (UN) declares China to be an aggressor in Korea and sanctions
a global embargo on the shipment of arms and war material to the China.
The possibility that the People's Republic might replace Chiang Kai-shek's
nationalists at the UN now seems remote. Inside
China the policies of moderation are replaced by a campaign against
"enemies of the state" that will affect millions. Foreigners and
Christian missionaries are branded as spies. Landlords and wealthy
peasants are stripped of their land. Intellectuals, scientists,
professionals, artists and writers are forced into
"self-criticism" and public confessions of their failings in
relation to communist ideals. Incompetent
and politically unreliable public officials are purged. Corrupt
businessmen and industrialists are removed from the system. The
bourgeoisie are held in suspicion. Reports suggest that from one to three
million are executed during the campaign. 1953 - China's
"transition to socialism" officially begins with the
introduction of the first five-year plan. Emphasis is placed on the
development of heavy industry, centralised planning, and the build-up of
defence capability, following the model pioneered by the Soviet Union,
which provides technical assistance and aid. At the same time the pace of
the collectivisation of the agricultural sector is hastened and banking,
industry and trade are nationalised. Between
1953 and 1957 the national income of China grows at an average rate of
8.9% a year. 1954 - The First
National People's Congress, equivalent to the Chinese parliament, adopts a
new constitution and formally elects Mao as chairman (president) of the
People's Republic. The CCP now introduces measures to recruit
intellectuals into the party apparatus. By 1956 intellectuals constitute
nearly 12% of the party's 10.8 million members, while peasant membership
has fallen to 69%. 1956 - As part of
the ongoing effort to encourage intellectuals to participate in the
regime, a new climate of political openness is fostered. Led by Mao, the
movement takes the slogan "Let a hundred flowers bloom, let the
hundred schools of thought contend". However, when the movement
threatens to go out of control, the party pulls back, labelling its most
outspoken critics as "bourgeois rightists" and launching the
'Anti-rightist Campaign'. 1957 - In
November Mao makes his second trip to Moscow. He returns disillusioned
with the Soviet system of development and determined to set China on an
independent course. The trip is also distinguished by Mao's controversial
declaration that there is no need to fear nuclear war. Explaining
his view he says, "If the worse came to the worst and half of mankind
died, the other half would remain, while imperialism would be razed to the
ground, and the whole world would become socialist: in a number of years
there would be 2.7 billion people again and definitely more." 1958 - Mao
launches the 'Great Leap Forward' to accelerate the development of all
sectors of the economy at once. Breaking with the development theories
practiced in the Soviet Union and applied to China during the first five
year plan, the Great Leap Forward seeks to simultaneously develop industry
and agriculture by employing surplus rural labour on either vast
infrastructure projects or for small-scale, farm-based industries - the
so-called "backyard furnaces". The
Great Leap Forward also aims to further entrench communist principles into
the structure and functioning of social systems, a goal that is
characterised by the development of people's communes in the countryside
and selected urban areas. Between April and September, 98% of the farm
population is organised into communes. Everyone,
including CCP members, intellectuals, professionals, technical workers and
the bourgeoisie is required to work in the communes, in factories and
mines, and on public works projects in order to gain firsthand experience
of manual labour and the conditions faced by the proletariat and
peasantry. It
soon becomes apparent that the Great Leap Forward is an ill-considered
failure. Rather than boosting production, the Great Leap Forward brings
shortages of food and raw materials and the demoralisation and exhaustion
of the workforce. The situation is exacerbated by poor harvests caused by
bad weather and by Mao's refusal to hear of failures. In
1959 and 1960 the gross value of agricultural output falls by 14% and 13%
respectively. In 1961 output drops a further 2% to reach the lowest point
since 1952. Widespread famine results, especially in rural areas. It is
estimated that from 1958 to 1961, 14 to 20 million more people die of
starvation than in similar years of poor harvests. The number of reported
births is about 23 million less than under normal circumstances. At
the same time, while industrial output does leap by 55% in 1958,
subsequent years see large falls - 38% in 1961 and a further 16% in 1962. Meanwhile,
China hardens its foreign policies, bombing nationalist-held offshore
islands, announcing that Taiwan will be liberated, and launching a
propaganda assault on the US. Relations with the Soviet Union also begin
to cool. Mao considers the post-Stalin leaders of the Soviet Union to be
"revisionists". By the July 1960, the Soviets have recalled all
of their technicians and advisers from China and reduced or cancelled
economic and technical aid to the country. 1959 - In April
the fallout of the Great Leap Forward sees Mao resign as chairman of the
People's Republic, although he remains chairman of the CCP. Mao tells the
party Central Committee, "The chaos was on a grand scale, and I take
responsibility. I am a complete outsider when it comes to economic
construction, and I understand nothing about industrial planning." "Moderates",
including State President Liu Shaoqi and Party General Secretary Deng
Xiaoping, subsequently take over direction of the republic and begin to
restore the economy. 1962 - Mao
returns from the "second line" of decision-making and begins a
campaign to purify the party of "capitalists" and
"counterrevolutionaries", using his enormous status to hold
sway. His 'Socialist Education Movement' seeks to restore ideological
purity and intensify the class struggle, calling on the population to
"to learn from the People's Liberation Army", which in turn is
asked to promote 'Mao Zedong Thought' as the guiding principle for a
renewal of the revolution. The
school system is reorganised to accommodate the work schedule of communes
and factories. Intellectuals and scholars are "reeducated" to
accept that their participation in manual labour is needed to remove
"bourgeois" influences. The education movement will become
increasingly more militant. 1965 - Mao, who
has by now regained control of the CCP, begins a purge of the party that
will develop into the 'Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution' of 1966-76.
Mao believes that the integrity of the CCP and its gains need to be
defended against the emergence of a new elite of bureaucrats by a process
of continuous revolution. Among those to be stripped of their party posts
is Deng Xiaoping. 1966 - Millions
of school and university students are organised into the 'Red Guards' to
publicly criticise those in the party who are considered by Mao and his
supporters to be "'Left' in form but 'Right' in essence". The
Red Guards receive Mao's backing in August when he publishes his article,
'Bombard the Headquarters', endorsing their revolutionary posters and
slogans, then presides over their first mass demonstration, held in
Tiananmen Square. In
October the Quotations
from Chairman Mao (The Little Red Book) is published. Instilled with
revolutionary fervour and guided by 'The Little Red Book', the Red Guards
create havoc within the party and widespread social chaos. Under the
general leadership of Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, their aim is to root out old
customs, habits, and ways of thought. Schools,
colleges and universities are closed. Virtually all engineers, managers,
scientists, technicians, and other professionals are "criticised,"
demoted or "sent down" to the countryside to "participate
in labour". Many are jailed. Management of factories is placed in the
hands of ill-equipped revolutionary committees. As a result, the country
experiences a 14% decline in industrial production in 1967. China's
traditional respect for learning and the experience of age is turned on
its head. Many cultural artefacts are damaged or destroyed. Cultural
expression is severely curtailed. Religious practices are suppressed. The
CCP and government crumbles under the weight of
"self-criticism", denunciations and forced confessions. Opposing
political factions create their own Red Guards. Thousands die when the
factions enter into open armed conflict. The
PLA becomes the only brake on a full-scale descent into anarchy. 1968 - The
militant phase of the Cultural Revolution comes to an end towards the
middle of the year when Mao reassesses the usefulness of revolutionary
violence. The normalisation is also considered necessary because of a
further deterioration in China's relations with the Soviet Union. Many
of the leaders of the Red Guards are arrested, universities are reopened,
skilled workers are returned to the positions from which they were
previously removed, and foreign companies are allowed to invest in
selected projects. 1969 - The
Cultural Revolution is further curtailed in April at the First Plenum of
the CCP's Ninth National Party Congress, where Mao is confirmed as the
supreme leader and his supporters are appointed to the senior party posts.
The Mao acolyte, Lin Biao, becomes vice chairman of the CCP and is named
as Mao's successor. However,
while the rebuilding of the CCP begins, the ramifications of the militant
phase of the Cultural Revolution continue to be felt, with the party
splitting into two main factions, the "radicals" led by Mao's
wife, Jiang Qing, and the moderates led by Premier Zhou Enlai. The ageing
Mao takes the role as elder statesman and intermediary between the two
forces. The
Red Guards meanwhile are withdrawn from the political equation, with
millions being forced to resettle in remote parts of the country, where
they will remain until the 1980s. In
foreign affairs, relations with the Soviet Union reach rock bottom during
the winter months of 1969 when Chinese and Soviet forces exchange fire
across the border at the Ussuri River in China's northeast. The Soviets
will subsequently station about a quarter of their combined armed forces
along the Chinese frontier. 1971 - The
tension between the radical and moderate factions comes to a head in
September when Lin Biao stages an abortive coup d'état against Mao. His
subsequent death in a plane crash as he attempts to flee the country marks
the beginning of the end for the radicals and the ascension of the
moderates. Meanwhile,
the CCP government receives international recognition when it takes the
China seat at the UN, replacing the government in Taiwan. 1972 - The
influence of the moderates and Mao's suspicion of the Soviets is reflected
in a shift in China's foreign policies. Rapprochement with the US is
confirmed when President Richard M. Nixon visits China in February. In
September diplomatic relations are established with Japan. 1973 - The
moderates' policies of modernisation are formally adopted by the CCP at
the First Plenum of the 10th National Party Congress held in August, a
meeting during which Mao makes his last official appearance. The
year is also marked by the rehabilitation of Deng Xiaoping, who is
reinstated as a vice premier. Deng's position is further solidified in
January 1975 when he is appointed as a vice chairman of the CCP and as a
member of the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee, the apex of
power in China. 1975 - Conflict
between the radicals and moderates reemerges when Mao's wife, Jiang Qing,
and her three principal radical associates (the so-called 'Gang of Four')
launch a media campaign against Deng. 1976 - The final
showdown between the radicals and moderates occurs following the death of
Zhou Enlai in January. On 5 April, at a spontaneous mass demonstration
held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing to memorialise Zhou, Mao's closest
associates are openly criticised. The authorities forcibly suppress the
demonstration, which is considered to be vote of support for Deng. When Mao
responds by blaming Deng for the demonstration and ordering that he be
dismissed from all his public posts, the radicals appear to be on the
ascendancy. However, in June the government announces that the
increasingly ailing Mao will no longer receive foreign visitors. The
radicals' days are now numbered. Mao dies of a heart attack in Beijing on
9 September. This article is published with permission from the author, Bruce Harris The original article can be found at http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/mao.htm
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