MAO ZEDONG

Birth place: XiangTan, Hunan Province, China

Birth Date: 26 December, 1893
Death Date: 9 September, 1976 (Natural causes)
Contribution:  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

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Mao Learns about Marxism
• 1921 – Mao introduced to Marxism working at library of Peking University
• July 23, 1921 – Mao attends 1st session of National Congress of Comm. Party Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">• 1924 – Delegate to 1st National Conference of KMT; organizes Hunan branch
• March 1925 – KMT leader Sun Yat-Sen dies, Chiang Kai-Shek takes over
• April 1927 – 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
• May 1930 – Mao marries He Zizhen
• Oct. 1930 – 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
• June 1932 – Red Guard numbers 45,000, plus 200,000 militia
• October 1934 – Chiang Kai-shek’s forces surround communists
• October 16, 1934-October 19, 1935 – 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)
• July 7, 1937-Sept. 9, 1945 – Second Sino-Japanese War
• Nov. 1938 – 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
• Jan 21, 1949 – KMT suffers huge loss against Red Guard led by Mao
• Oct. 1, 1949 – Foundation of PRC
• 1949-1953 – Mass executions of landlords and other “rightists,” more than 1 million likely killed
• Dec. 10, 1949 – Communists take Chengdu, last KMT stronghold. Chiang Kai-shek flees to Taiwan.
• 1950 – Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship signed by Mao and Stalin

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The First Decade: Triumph and Disaster
• Oct. 7, 1950 – Mao orders invasion of Tibet
• Nov. 25, 1950 – 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
• Sept. 27, 1954 – 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
• Jan. 1958 – Great Leap Forward (Second Five-Year Plan), collectivization, 20-43 million starve to death

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

Mao’s Decline and Death
• 1968 – Soviet troops deploy along border with Xinjiang, fostering revolt among Uighers
• March 1969 – Fighting between China and USSR breaks out along Ussuri River
• August 1969 – Soviets threaten to nuke China
• July 1971 – Henry Kissinger visits Beijing
• Feb. 1972 – 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
• July 28, 1976 – Great Tangshan Earthquake kills 250,000-800,000 people; Mao already in hospital
• Sept. 9, 1976 – Mao dies, Hua Guofeng succeeds him
• 1976 – Jiang Qing and other members of “Gang of Four” arrested

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