Mao Tse-tung
By Camden Bruner
Mao Tse-tung may be the most powerful person who has ever lived. He controlled almost a billion people for more than twenty five years, as well as over 9 million square kilometers of land, which now has a value of more than $980 billion US. He overthrew an army of more than 4 million to get it, and killed many millions more to keep it. This project details the life of this once godlike ruler.
Early Years
Mao Tse-tung was born December 26, 1893 to a semi-prosperous peasant family living in Shaoshan, a village in Xiangtan County, Hunan Province China (Wenxian, 1). Mao was the eldest of eight children. His parents paid for him to attend private school. During the 1911 revolution, which overthrew the feudal monarchy, Mao served half a year in a local Hunan regiment. He did not like military service so he went back to school. In 1913 he went to the Hunan Fourth Province Normal School. There he studied Chinese feudal culture and the culture of Western bourgeois democracy. Philosophers like Confucius, Kang Youwei, Sun Yat-sen, Tolstoy and Kropotlicin influenced him greatly (Wenxiam, 3). Mao moved on to the Beijing University were he enrolled as a student and audited many classes. During his studies he was introduced to communist theories. He also married Yang Kaihui, a fellow student, despite an existing marriage arranged by his father at home. Mao never acknowledged the arranged marriage. He continued to study the peasant majority in China. This is where he began his life as a revolutionary.
Revolution
July 23, 1921, Mao age 27 traveled to Shanghai to attend the first session of the Congress of the Communist Party of China. Within two years Mao was elected as one of the five commissars of the Central Committee of the party (Ch'en, 26). This initial success was short lived though. For the next few years the Communist Party struggled in China. A failed labor union movement and a weak relationship with their nationalist allies left the Communist party poor. For a time Mao was disheartened though his interests were rekindled after the 1925 uprising in Shanghai. With his political ambitions renewed Mao moved to Guangdong to prepare for the Communist National Congress (Ch'en, 51). During that congress and in a Communist Party meeting in early 1927 Mao convinced many with his theory of violent revolution. With many staunch supporters Mao conducted his famous Autumn Harvest Uprising in Hunan. Mao, as commander and chief, led an army called the "Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants." His army was soon defeated and scattered after intense fighting. The exhausted troops fled Hunan for Sanwan where Mao reorganized his troops. This time Mao organized his soldiers into smaller military divisions with a communist party member as a leader. This leader would take commands based on superior mandate (Fitzgerald, 23). With this new system in place the Chinese Communist Party had almost complete control over their army. Later the army moved into the Jinggang Mountains where Mao set up residence for a time.
Mao merged his army with other smaller insurgent groups to form the Workers and Peasants Red Army of China. This relatively small armed force allowed Mao to establish the Soviet Republic of China in 1931 (Wenxiam, 56). Of course Mao was elected chairman of this tiny new republic in the mountains. Immediately Mao's authority was challenged by Jiangxi province military force as well as other power hungry individuals like Li Wenlin. Mao set off a series of systematic suppressions. Later these suppressions were turned into bloody physical eliminations (Meisner, 58). Many forms of brutal torture were used including many cases where the stomach was cut open to remove the heart. Estimates of the dead go as high as 180,000. Mao's authority was secured (Meisner, 58; (Fitzgerald, 34). This bloodshed, however, was only the beginning of Mao's career as a leader and the first of a mounting death toll.
Chiang Kai-shek, the man who had earlier assumed nominal control of China, was determined to eliminate Mao and the communists that supported him. By 1934 Mao and his army were surrounded. The only way for Mao to save his following was to retreat. This was the start of the 'Long March'. This march was basically a retreat from Jiangaxi, in southern China, to Shaanxi, in northwest China. The march was over 9,600 kilometers (5,965 miles) long and took almost a year to complete. During the march Mao conversed
with many peasants along the way. Mao shared his ideas about reform and making China a communist country, thus winning their support. When the march finally ended in October 1935 both the communist Red Army and Chiang Kai-shek's troops turned their focus on the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) (Fitzgerald, 61). Chiang Kai-shek and Mao allied during the war and afterwards met in Chongqing to toast to the Chinese victory over Japan. Their alliance was short lived though.
During World War Two (1939-1945), the United States sent aid to China for the obvious purpose of helping the Chinese defeat Japan. After the war the United States continued to send military aid to Chiang Kai-shek's forces who were now openly against the communist Red Army (led by Mao). The US support was part of its policy to contain and defeat world communism (Lawrance, 52). Likewise the Soviet Union, acting as a concerned neighbor not as a military ally, sent aid to Mao's forces and soon a civil war had broken out for control of China.
The concept of communism became very popular within the very large Chinese working class. By January 21, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek's forces were suffering major losses and by December 10, 1949, they were pinned in the city of Chengdu, the last non-communist strong hold in mainland China (Fitzgerald, 73). By December 10 Mao had taken all of mainland China. The People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949. It was the culmination of about two decades of wars. Mao became the Great Leader Chairman Mao and he moved into a compound next to the Forbidden City. Under ...
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The concept of communism became very popular within the very large Chinese working class. By January 21, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek's forces were suffering major losses and by December 10, 1949, they were pinned in the city of Chengdu, the last non-communist strong hold in mainland China (Fitzgerald, 73). By December 10 Mao had taken all of mainland China. The People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949. It was the culmination of about two decades of wars. Mao became the Great Leader Chairman Mao and he moved into a compound next to the Forbidden City. Under Mao's direction all the media in China was taken over by the communist party and used for propaganda (Meisner, 59).
Mao in Power
Mao's first political actions as Chairman of a new communist China were to begin land reforms and to suppress counter-revolutionaries. The land reforms basically took away the large amounts of land owned by officials in the old government and divided the land between many poor peasants. The suppression of counter-revolutionaries was a way for Mao to eliminate rivals, a way which centered on mass executions, often before large organized crowds. Both the land reforms and the suppressions went almost hand in hand because the officials from the old government were often killed in order to give their land to peasants. The United States State Department in 1976 estimated that about one million people were killed while Mao himself claimed that only 700,000 people were killed between 1949-1953. One million deaths seem to be an absolute minimum for many historians though. Considering that Mao's policy was to take at least one landlord from every city for public execution a reasonable estimate of the total dead would be between 2 million- 5 million. In addition at least 1.5 million people disappeared into 'reform through labor' camps. Mao's role in ordering these executions is undeniable. He defended these killings as necessary for the securing of power (Meisner, 72; Fitzgerald, 81; Lawrence, 106).
Next Mao launched the First Five Year Plan (1953-1958). The plan aimed to end Chinese dependence on agriculture in order to become a world power. With the Soviet Union's support, new industrial plants were built. Mao also launched a phase of rapid agriculture collectivization. Eventually agriculture fell to a point were industry began to produce enough capital so that China no longer needed support from the Soviet Union (Meisner, 94). The huge success of the First Five Year Plan prompted Mao to initiate the Second Five Year Plan also known as the Great Leap Forward (1958).
This plan was intended as an alternative model for economic growth to the Soviet model focusing on heavy industry. Under this program the small agricultural collectives were merged into far larger people's communes. All private food production was banned. Livestock and farm implements were brought under collective ownership. Many peasants were ordered to undertake massive infrastructure projects like digging canals or building dams. Many others were told to produce steel and iron (Fitzgerald, 103).
Over the next three years the production of grain dropped 25% (Lawrence, 102). In an effort to win favor with their superiors many layers of subordinates made up figures about grain production in order not be punished for the shortage. Because off this Mao and other top officials may not have known about the famine until it was too late (Ch'en, 76). The massive shortage of grain caused a famine. This famine was the direct cause of death for tens of millions of Chinese peasants making it the biggest famine in human history (Meisner, 84). The communist party abandoned the Second Five Year plan a year early, in 1962, after these disastrous results were realized. Mao used the Chinese media, which the communist party controlled, to try to put much of the blame on others, though his career was permanently tarnished.
There is a great deal of controversy over the number of deaths by starvation during the Great Leap Forward. While the Great Leap Forward was going on only a handful of foreign observers were allowed to visit China. These visitors were allowed to see only model villages to give the impression that the Great Leap was a major success. It was not until the 1980's that censuses were done to show how many had died. Each census came back with different data ranging from 15-50 million people dead. The common figure given is around 25 million (Fitzgerald, 92; Meisner, 113).
On the international front, the period was dominated by the further isolation of China due to start of the Sino-Soviet split, which resulted in Khrushchev withdrawing all Soviet technical experts and aid from China. The split was triggered by border disputes and arguments over the control and direction of world communism, as well as other disputes pertaining to foreign policy. Most of the problems regarding communist unity resulted from the death of Stalin and his replacement by Khrushchev. Stalin had established himself as the model of "correct" Marxist thought well before Mao controlled the Communist Party of China, and therefore Mao never challenged the suitability of any Stalinist doctrine (at least while Stalin was alive). Upon the death of Stalin, Mao believed (perhaps because of seniority) that the leadership of "correct" Marxist doctrine would fall to him. The resulting tension between Khrushchev (at the head of a politically/militarily superior government), and Mao (believing he had a superior understanding of Marxist ideology) eroded the previous patron-client relationship between the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party (Lawrance, 115).
Partly surrounded by hostile American military bases (including South Korea, Japan, Okinawa, and Taiwan), China was now confronted with a new Soviet threat from the north and west. Both the internal crisis and the external threat called for extraordinary statesmanship from Mao. However, as China entered the new decade the statesmen of the People's Republic were in hostile confrontation with each other.
At a huge Communist Party conference in Beijing in January 1962, called the "Conference of the Seven Thousand," State President Liu Shaoqi denounced the Great Leap Forward as responsible for widespread famine. The overwhelming majority of delegates expressed agreement, but Defense Minister Lin Biao staunchly defended Mao. A brief period of liberalization followed while Mao and Lin plotted a comeback. Meanwhile grain was imported from Canada and Australia to deal with the worst effects of famine (Meisner, 132).
Cultural Revolution
Following these events, other members of the Communist Party, including Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, decided that Mao should be removed from actual power and only remain in a largely ceremonial and symbolic role. They attempted to marginalize Mao and, by 1959, Liu Shaoqi became State President, but Mao remained Chairman of the Communist Party of China. Liu and others began to look at the situation much more realistically, somewhat abandoning the idealism Mao wished for (Fitzgerald, 137).
Facing the prospect of losing his place on the political stage, Mao responded to Liu and Deng's movements by launching the Cultural Revolution in 1966. The Cultural Revolution allowed Mao to circumvent the Communist hierarchy by giving power directly to the Red Guards, groups of young people, often teenagers, who set up their own tribunals. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao closed the schools in China and the young intellectuals living in cities were ordered to the countryside. They were forced to manufacture weapons for the Red Army. The Revolution led to the destruction of much of China's cultural heritage and the imprisonment of a huge number of Chinese citizens, as well as creating general economic and social chaos in the country. Millions of lives were ruined during this period (Hawking, 89).
It was during this period that Mao chose Lin Biao to become his successor. Mao and Lin Biao formed an alliance leading up to the Cultural Revolution in order for the purges to succeed. Mao needed Lin's clout for his plan to work. In return, Lin was made Mao's successor. Somewhat later, it was unclear whether Lin was planning a military coup or an assassination attempt. He died trying to flee China, probably anticipating his arrest, in a suspicious plane crash over Mongolia. It was declared that Lin was planning to depose Mao. At this time, Mao lost trust in many of the top communist party figures. In 1969, Mao declared the Cultural Revolution to be over. By this time Mao had lost control of the youth he had let have weapons. They were out of control and murdering people thinking they were helping the party. Mao did his best to send them home and back to school, mainly to restore order.
In the last years of his life, Mao was faced with declining health due to either Parkinson's disease or motor neuron disease, as well as lung ailments due to smoking and heart trouble. Mao remained passive as various factions within the Communist Party mobilized for the power struggle anticipated after his death. Mao died at the age of 82 on September 9, 1976. His body was placed into the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. His remains are still on display today.
Legacy
Mao may have killed millions of people but he still became almost an idol for many. Possibly billions of copies of his Little Red Book were published. His image and picture are displayed almost everywhere, present in homes, offices and shops. Even his quotes are emphasized in red ink. Many others detest the man and compare him to Stalin and Hitler.
Some Chinese mainlanders and international Maoists continue to regard Mao Zedong as a great revolutionary leader, although they also believe that he made serious mistakes later in his life. Many think Mao was "seventy-percent right and thirty-percent wrong," and his "contributions are primary and his mistakes secondary." Some, including members of the Communist Party of China, hold Mao responsible for pulling China away from its biggest ally, the USSR, in the Sino-Soviet Split, while others admire his break with what Mao considered to be "capitalist-roaders." The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution were also considered to be major disasters in his policy by his critics and even many of his supporters. Mao has also been blamed for not encouraging birth control and for creating a demographic bump, which later Chinese leaders responded to with the one child policy.
Supporters of Mao credit him with advancing the social and economic development of Chinese society. They point out that before 1949, for instance, the illiteracy rate in Mainland China was 80 percent, and life expectancy was a meager 35 years. At his death, illiteracy had declined to less than seven percent, and average life expectancy had increased to more than 70 years (alternative statistics also quote improvements, though not nearly as dramatic). In addition to these increases, the total population of China increased 57% to 700 million, from the constant 400 million mark during the span between the Opium War and the Chinese Civil War (Meisner, 142). Supporters also state that, under Mao's government, China ended its "Century of Humiliation" from Western imperialism and regained its status as a major world power (Lawrence, 89). They also state their belief that Mao also industrialized China to a considerable extent and ensured China's sovereignty during his rule. Many, including some of Mao's supporters, view the Kuomintang, which Mao drove off the mainland, as having been corrupt.
Some observers argue that the Maoist era improved women's rights by abolishing prostitution, a phenomenon that was to return after Deng Xiaoping and post-Maoist CPC leaders increased liberalization of the economy (Fitzgerald, 107). Indeed, Mao once famously remarked that "Women hold up half the heavens" (Meisner, 172). A popular slogan during the Cultural Revolution was, "Break the chains, and unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution!"
Skeptics observe that similar gains in literacy and life expectancy occurred after 1949 on the small neighboring island of Taiwan, which was ruled by Mao's opponents, namely Chiang Kai-Shek and the Kuomintang, even though they themselves perpetrated substantial repression in their own right. The government that continued to rule Taiwan was composed of the same people ruling the Mainland for over 20 years when life expectancy was so low, yet life expectancy there also increased. A counterpoint, however, is that the United States helped Taiwan with aid, along with Japan and other countries, until the early 1960s when Taiwan asked that the aid cease. The mainland was under economic sanctions from the same countries for many years. The mainland also broke with the USSR, which had been aiding it (Ch'en).
Another comparison has been between India and China. India and China had similarities that were quite striking when development planning began 50 years ago, including death rates. But there is little doubt that as far as morbidity, mortality and longevity are concerned, China has a large and decisive lead over India (in education and other social indicators as well). In both cases, the outcomes have to do with the ideological predispositions of the political systems: for China, relatively equitable distribution of medical resources, including rural health services and public distribution of food, all lacking in India. (Jonathan)
Comparisons to culturally similar Hong Kong, however, are not so positive. Under a British legal system, Hong Kong greatly outstripped Chinese economic growth until economic reforms after Mao's death. Neither Hong Kong nor Taiwan suffered from the great famines caused by farm collectivization, nor from the purges and dislocations of the Cultural Revolution. Mao denounced all colonialism, but "colonial China" far surpassed "sovereign China" in prosperity, rule of law and personal freedom (Mauirice, 89).
Mao believed that "socialism was the only way out for China" because the United States and other Western countries would not allow China to develop using theories such as Imperialism, as described by Vladimir Lenin (Maurice, 91). The United States placed a trade embargo on China as a result of its involvement in the Korean War, lasting until Richard Nixon decided that developing relations with China would be useful in also dealing with the Soviet Union.
There is more consensuses on Mao's role as a military strategist and tactician during the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War. Even among those who find Mao's ideology to be either unworkable or abhorrent, many acknowledge that Mao was a brilliant political and military strategist (Maurice, 52). 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. Mao was an avid reader, particularly of Chinese history and it has been argued that his skill at outmaneuvering his political opponents as well as his belief in the overriding importance of unifying and revolutionizing China, regardless of the sacrifices imposed on his people, owed much to his understanding of Chinese imperial history. His political writings were influential in the development of Marxist thought and he also wrote poetry which retains some popularity in China.
The ideology of Maoism has influenced many communists around the world, including Third World revolutionary movements such as Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, The Communist Party of Peru, and the revolutionary movement in Nepal. 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 (Maurice, 103). China itself has moved sharply away from Maoism since Mao's death.
Many in mainland China regard Mao as a revolutionary hero in the first half of his life but hold that he was corrupt after gaining power. Contemporary views about Mao are affected by bans on some works that criticize Mao. The controversial Mao: the Unknown Story, by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, provides a far less flattering picture of Mao than previous historical works do. Chang's book claims that Mao fabricated many claims about his background and youth to enhance his image as a true "people's hero." It likewise contends that details relevant to key events in the Long March (in particular the 1935 Battle of Luding Bridge) were falsified. Open academic discussion of Mao's life is restricted by the official "70% good, 30% bad" verdict (Maurice, 111).
In conclusion I also find it very hard to pass judgment on whether Mao was bad or good for China. One dose have to acknowledge that Mao changed China from a weak chaotic country to an organized industrial machine able to compete with the other world superpowers. One could even go as far as to suggest the possibility that, because of Mao's direction, China is now in a position to surpass the United States as the main world power.
Annotated Bibliography
Chang, G. China in Revolt. Commentary v. 122 no. 5 (December 2006) p. 31-6
This article is a factual commentary on China during their revolution. The article does favor Mao though it still provides great details.
Ch'en, Jerome. Mao. London: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1969
This book is divided into three parts. The different parts each take a perspective of Mao. The first part is told with Mao's own words. The second is a compilation of opinions from Mao's contemporaries. The third is retrospective judgment.
Feigon, Lee. Mao a Reinterpretation. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publishing, 2002
The author is neutral in his book. The book is a great source for facts about Mao's life and actions. It is very factual despite what the title suggests.
Fitzgerald, C. P. Mao Tsetung and China. New York: Holmes and Meier Publishing Inc., 1976
This book is very biased for Mao. "Mao is by far the greatest man in the world today (1967)", is the sentence the author uses to begin his book. The book does give perspective about others' opinions on Mao. It also contains good facts.
Hawkins, John. Mao Tse-Tung and Education. Connecticut: Shoe String Press, 1974
This book has good neutral fact. It is very descriptive of educational policies in China and what influenced them.
Lawrance, Alan. Mao Zedong A Biography. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1991
This book proved to be very helpful with a lot of good facts. For the most part it is unbiased.
Meisner, Maurice. Mao's China and after. New York: The Free Press, 1999
This book is neutral and factual. It is also very modern. It covers a wide range of things in China from Mao to the present.
Spence, Jonathan. "Mao Zedong." Time v. 71 no. 6 (April 1998) p. 27-3
This is a very comprehensible article about major things Mao did during his life and how his actions shaped China. The article has great facts and is neutral.
Terril, R. Mao Now. The Wilson Quarterly v. 30 no. 4(Autumn 2006) p. 22-8
This article is a description of how the things Mao did still affect China today.
Tse-Tung, Mao. Selected Works Volume III. Perkings: Peoples Republic of China Publishing House, 1960
This book is a selection of Mao's speeches and writings. It is very one-sided though it gives a great impression of Mao.
Wenxian, Zhong. Mao Zedong, Biography, Assessment and Reminisces. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1986
This book is divided into three parts. The Biography was very helpful. The other two parts were good background reading but nothing more.
