HISTORIAN LEADERS

• Born: 26 December 1893
• Birthplace: XiangTan, Hunan Province, China
• Died: 9 September 1976 (Natural causes)
• Best Known As: Head of the People's Republic of China, 1949-76
  

Mao Zedong (also Mao Tse-Tung) was the world's most prominent Chinese communist during the 20th century. Mao's Red Army overthrew Chiang Kai-Shek in 1949, and the communists seized power of mainland China. Ruthless and ambitious credit history, Mao turned China into a world military power and created a cult of personality, forcing the distribution of his image and his "Little Red Book" (a collection of political maxims) upon the Chinese people. His campaign to export communism made China a threat to the West and led to confrontations in Southeast Asia and Korea. Under Mao's rule China endured a series of economic disasters and political terrorism, but for more than 25 years Mao was China, as far as the rest of the world was concerned. After his death, leaders like Deng Xiaoping steered the country away from pure communism, and the Cult of Mao began to disappear. These days Mao is ranked among the worst of 20th century dictators. alongside Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler.

Mao Zedong’s Early Life

• Dec. 26, 1893 – Mao born to farmer family at Shaoshan, Xiangtan County, Hunan Province
• 1901-06 – Mao attends local primary school
• 1907-08 – Teenaged Mao is married to a woman from the Luo clan; they live together for several years, but she dies at 21.
• 1910 – Mao sees terrible famine in Hunan Province
• 1911 – Revolution, Mao fights on revolutionary side in Changsha against Qing Dynasty
• 1912 – Mao enters Normal School for teacher training
• 1915 – Mao meets future second wife, Yang Kaihui
• 1918 – Mao graduates from First Provincial Normal School of Hunan
• 1919 – Mao travels to Beijing during May Fourth Movement
• 1920 – Married Yang Kaihui, daughter of Professor Yang Changji; three sons

Mao Learns about Marxism

• 1921 – Mao introduced to Marxism working at library of Peking University
• 1921 July 23 – Mao attends 1st session of National Congress of Comm. Party
• 1924 – Delegate to 1st National Conference of KMT; organizes Hunan branch
• 1925 March  – KMT leader Sun Yat-Sen dies, Chiang Kai-Shek takes over
• 1927 April  – Chiang Kai-Shek attacks communists at Shanghai
• 1927 – Mao returns to Hunan, meets with Communist Party re: peasant uprisings
• 1927 – Mao leads Autumn Harvest Uprising in Changsha, Hunan
• 1930 – KMT sends five waves (more than 1 million soldiers) against rising communist power led by Mao
• 1930 May  – Mao marries He Zizhen
• 1930 Oct.  – Kuomintang (KMT) captures Yang Kaihui and son Anying , Yang executed

Mao Gathers Power and Fame

• 1931-34 – Mao and others establish Soviet Republic of China in mountains of Jiangxi
• “Red terror” – Communists torture and murder thousands of local people
• 1932 June  – Red Guard numbers 45,000, plus 200,000 militia
• 1934 October  – Chiang Kai-shek’s forces surround communists
• 1934 October 16 - 1935 October 19  – The Long March, communist escape 8,000 miles to north and west
• 1937 – Mao publishes “On Contradiction” and “On Practice,” revolutionary tracts
• 1937 – He Zizhen catches Mao in affairs, they split (but don’t divorce) name history
• 1937 July 7 - 1945 Sept. 9  – Second Sino-Japanese War
• 1938 Nov.  – Mao marries Jiang Qing (birth name Li Shumeng), later known as “Madame Mao”
• 1941 – Mao advocates “stern measures” against non-cooperative peasants

Chairman Mao and the Founding of the PRC

• 1942 – Mao launches “Rectification of Conduct” campaign, Zheng Feng, to purge other CPC leaders
• 1943 – Mao becomes Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party
• 1944 – US sends Dixie Mission to Chinese Communists – Americans are favorably impressed
• 1945 – Meets with Chiang Kai-Shek and George Marshall for discussions in Chongqing; no peace deal
• 1946-49 - Final phase of Chinese Civil War
• 1949 Jan 21  – KMT suffers huge loss against Red Guard led by Mao
• 1949 Oct. 1  – Foundation of PRC
• 1949-1953 – Mass executions of landlords and other “rightists,” more than 1 million likely killed
• 1949 Dec. 10  – Communists take Chengdu, last KMT stronghold. Chiang Kai-shek flees to Taiwan.
• 1950 – Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship signed by Mao and Stalin

The First Decade: Triumph and Disaster

• 1950 Oct. 7  – Mao orders invasion of Tibet
• 1950 Nov. 25  – Son Mao Anying killed in Korean War
• 1951 – Three-anti/Five-anti Campaigns against capitalists, hundreds of thousands dead by suicide or execution
• 1952 – Mao bans parties except CCP
• 1953-58 – First Five-Year Plan, Mao undertakes instant industrialization of China
• 1954 Sept. 27  – Mao becomes President of PRC
• 1956-57 – Hundred Flowers Campaign, Mao encourages criticism of government (trick to root out dissidents)
• 1956 – Jiang Qing goes to Moscow for cancer treatment
• 1957-59 – Anti-Rightest Movement, some 500,000+ government critics re-educated through labor or shot
• 1958 Jan.  – Great Leap Forward (Second Five-Year Plan), collectivization, 20-43 million starve to death

Trouble at Home and Abroad

• 1958 July 31 – Aug. 3  – Khrushchev visits Mao in China
• 1958 Dec.  – Mao relinquishes presidency, succeeded by Liu Shaoqi
• 1959 – Sino-Soviet Split
• 1962 Jan.  – CPC “Conference of the 7,000” in Beijing, Pres. Liu Shaoqi denounces Great Leap Forward
• 1962 June-Nov. – Sino-Indian War, USSR supports India, China wins Aksai Chin border region
• 1964 April  – Parts of “On Contradiction” and “On Practice” republished as part of The Little Red Book
• 1964 Oct. 16  – China tests first nuclear weapon at Lop Nur
• 1966 May 16 -1976 – Cultural Revolution, social and political upheaval in reaction against Liu and Deng
• 1967 Jan  – Red Guards besiege Soviet Embassy in Beijing
• 1967 June 14  – China tests first hydrogen bomb (“H-bomb”)

Mao’s Decline and Death

• 1968 – Soviet troops deploy along border with Xinjiang, fostering revolt among Uighers
• 1969 March  – Fighting between China and USSR breaks out along Ussuri River
• 1969 August  – Soviets threaten to nuke China
• 1971 July  – Henry Kissinger visits Beijing
• 1972 Feb.  – President Nixon visits Beijing
• 1974 – Mao loses ability to speak coherently due to ALS or motor neuron disease
• 1975 – Deng Xiapeng, purged in 1968, returns as party secretary
• 1975 – Chiang Kai-shek dies in Taiwan
• 1976 July 28 – Great Tangshan Earthquake kills 250,000-800,000 people; Mao already in hospital
• 1976 Sept. 9  – Mao dies, Hua Guofeng succeeds him
• 1976 – Jiang Qing and other members of “Gang of Four” arrested