he founding father of modern China, Mao Zedong, would transform his country from an impoverished, divided nation into a world power. His reign witnessed significant improvements in healthcare, education, and national unity, with the state he built serving as the foundation for the economic giant that China would become. However, this progress came at a terrible cost.

Mao enforced his policies through fear, violence, and the suppression of individual thought. He mobilized an entire generation of Chinese youth to kill in his name, establishing a state where he was worshipped like a god. Unfortunately, these policies led to the worst famine in recorded history. Estimates suggest that Mao was responsible for the deaths of between 40 and 80 million people.

While hailed as a hero by some, Mao Zedong is considered a tyrant by many. His story stands as one of the most defining narratives of the 20th century.

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Mao's Youth

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Mao was born on December 26, 1893, in the Chinese province of Hunan. He would grow up during a time of violence and political uncertainty known as the Century of Humiliation, which saw the European powers and Japan invade and exploit China, taking territory, forcing trade concessions, and demanding large reparation payments. Disease, famine, and rebellion sprung up throughout the country, leaving the Qing Dynasty, which had ruled China for the last 250 years, on the verge of collapse. Despite this, Mao would experience a comfortable upbringing as the son of a wealthy farmer. He could afford the cost of attending school, with him soon developing a passion for reading and learning. But even from a young age, Mao would have an issue with traditional values and practices, with him moving out of the family home at the age of 14 in protests against an arranged marriage that his father had organized for him. He would insist instead on continuing his education, and despite his father's insistence that he work on the family farm, he would soon get his way. By the age of 18, he had moved to the major city of Changsha to continue his studies. The city was a hotbed of rebellious activity, with Mao witnessing the abuses of the imperial authorities firsthand. He would take an interest in politics, soon attending revolutionary meetings with his fellow students and becoming increasingly radicalized. When rebellion finally broke out against China's monarchy in 1911, Mao would enlist in the revolutionary army, although he would see no actual combat. The revolution would succeed, with the monarchy being abolished. But the new state that was formed, the Republic of China, would be a disappointment to Mao and many others. Violence, corruption, and injustice would continue under the new regime, with warlords soon taking over the country.

Mao would continue to look for a solution to China's problems, moving to Beijing in 1918, where he would be influenced by a number of radical thinkers. He would soon discover communism, reading the works of Karl Marx and learning of the recent success of the Russian Revolution. Convinced that communism was the answer to uniting China and bringing it out of the grip of war and exploitation, he surrounded himself with fellow communists. Mao was soon at the heart of the movement, and when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was established in 1921, he would be one of its founding members. Mao's rise to power had begun, although it would take a further 30 years of violence, struggle, and civil war before he could secure control, at the end of which he was a very different man.
 

The Chinese Civil War

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Was a highly active and enthusiastic member of the Chinese Communist Party, recruiting workers, organizing strikes and demonstrations, as well as creating unions. He took a key role in building the party support base, especially amongst the peasants, China's largest class of people who were often ignored by his peers. But disaster soon struck. The CCP had allied with a far larger revolutionary party, the Guo Ming-dang, a decision they would come to regret. The Guo Ming-dang's leader, Chiang Kai-shek, would soon turn against them, and on April 12, 1927, he would launch the Shanghai Massacre, violently purging communists within the city. This soon led to widespread purges throughout the country, with thousands of communists being rounded up and killed. With the Chinese Communist Party almost destroyed, Chiang Kai-shek was able to secure control over all of China in 1928, forcing Mao and the surviving communists to go into hiding. It marked the beginning of the Chinese Civil War, which would last for the next 20 years. The civil war would have a significant effect on Mao. He began the conflict as an idealistic young man, often opposing the use of violence. But he was soon hardened by fighting constant battles and witnessing numerous atrocities. The Guaming Dang were a ruthless enemy, hunting down communists in major cities and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in communist-based areas. Mao would also experience loss, with his second wife, whom he had married several years before, being arrested and shot, with his four-year-old son dying soon afterwards. Faced with the threat of constant destruction, Mao would become more ruthless as the war went on and was soon drawn to the use of terror, becoming involved in atrocities of his own. During the early 1930s, purges were launched within the Communist Party to remove suspected traitors, with Mao ordering the torture and execution of those he saw as a threat. Unfortunately, for many, it was a sign of what was yet to come in Mao's China.
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In 1934, as Mao was entering his forties, he would finally get his opportunity to take control over the CCP. The communists had been encircled by the Guoming Dang, forcing them to abandon their base and begin a 5,000-mile trek across China, a journey that would become known as the Long March. After initial disasters, which saw the communists lose over 50 percent of their forces, Mao would take charge, using his considerable military experience to lead his remaining forces to safety. The Long March would become a communist legend, with Mao's forces traveling across some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world, fighting over 200 battles, and pulling off incredible victories. By the time the march ended in 1935, Mao had emerged as the undisputed leader of the party, a position he would formalize in 1943 when he was appointed Chairman of the Communist Party, a title he would hold for the rest of his life.
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Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Guoming Dang, had been so focused on wiping out the communists that he failed to deal with the threat from the east. The Japanese had invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931 and had forced a number of humiliating concessions on Chiang, who had no choice but to accept them. While his attention was focused on the communists, Mao saw this as an opportunity to expand his popular influence. The communists had declared war on the Japanese in 1932, drawing many to their cause who were fed up with the inaction of the Guomingdang. In 1937, Chiang had no option but to sign a peace treaty with Mao, with the two uniting to fight against the Japanese invaders. Suddenly, the communists were no longer a small group of radicals; they were a legal party with a nationally recognized role, fighting for the defense of their nation. As the conflict went on, the communists' popularity would rapidly grow, and by the time of Japan's defeat in 1945, Mao would command almost 900,000 soldiers, over 20 times the number of his initial forces. In contrast, Chiang's Guoming Dang forces were exhausted and demoralized by the conflict, and when the Chinese civil war resumed in 1945, they would be crushed with astonishing speed. By 1949, the communists were victorious, having secured control over the country, with Chiang Kai-shek being forced to flee to the island of Taiwan, where the Guo Ming-dang remains a prominent political party to this day. On October 1st, 1949, Mao would stand atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing and announce the creation of the People's Republic of China. At the age of 55, his rise to power was complete, having become the undisputed ruler of some 500 million people, a fifth of the world's population.

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Life In Mao’s China

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Now in control, Mao would seek to modernize China and eliminate old-fashioned practices. Many Chinese citizens initially saw an improved standard of living when the Communists took power. Only 20 percent of the population was literate at that time, with Mao launching campaigns that saw literacy rates rising to 70 percent by 1976. Healthcare, particularly in the countryside, was drastically improved, with campaigns launched to educate the peasantry in basic hygiene, leading to a rise in life expectancy and a fall in infant mortality. Women gained significantly more rights, including the right to divorce their husbands and employment opportunities where they were entitled to the same pay as men. Mao also banned arranged marriages, a practice he had hated since his own arranged marriage in his youth. However, while the standard of living rose for some, for others, life only got worse. Mao established a tight grip over the thoughts and actions of his citizens, using censorship, mass media, and propaganda. He established a personality cult, presenting himself as China's heroic leader who was incapable of making mistakes. His writings were published as literary schools and buildings were named after him, and his portrait began to appear in homes and public buildings across the country. Mao took full advantage of his power, often traveling with large groups of young women with whom he would have numerous affairs. His word was absolute, and anyone who spoke out against him or his policies faced arrest or was forced to make humiliating self-criticisms, explaining why they had been wronged. To oppose him, purges were soon launched to eliminate undesirable elements of society, such as landlords and capitalists, with millions being executed, driven to suicide, or sent to work camps known as laoghai, where they would be re-educated through labor and subjected to thought reform—psychological techniques designed to destroy their previous identity. Individual thought was harshly suppressed, with intellectuals, those who posed the greatest threat of independent thinking, becoming targets.

To expose them, Mao launched the Hundred Flowers Campaign, encouraging people to criticize the government. "Let a hundred flowers bloom," he said, "let a hundred schools of thought contend." But in reality, anyone who dared to speak their mind was arrested. Over half a million would be exiled to the countryside or forced to work in labor reform camps, leading to a decline in economic growth as skilled workers were afraid to suggest any innovations that might get them branded as traitors.

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The Great Leap Forward

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For Mao, it was important to get China the international respect and prestige that had been lacking during his youth. Soon after taking power, he would send troops to fight in the Korean War, successfully holding back the military might of America and proving that the Chinese army was to be taken seriously. With a Chinese-backed communist North Korea emerging from the conflict, Mao would soon look for an ally in the Soviet Union, the world's leading communist power, signing an alliance with Stalin in 1950—the Sino-Soviet Treaty. Despite this, Mao refused to blindly follow Soviet orders and insisted on being treated as an equal partner, maintaining a strong sense of independence. When Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, led the Soviet Union in a direction he disapproved of, Mao broke off diplomatic relations, proving that China could survive without outside assistance.

By the time of Mao's death in 1976, China had transformed from an impoverished, undeveloped nation into a world power with a seat on the United Nations, widespread cultural influence, and a nuclear arsenal. Despite these victories, Mao's attempts to modernize China's economy and create a global economic power largely ended in failure, costing the lives of millions. Believing that he could exceed the West in agricultural and industrial production, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward in 1958, a campaign he believed could achieve these goals. However, Mao's grasp of economics and agriculture was poor, yet Communist officials, terrified of being purged, refused to challenge his judgment. The Great Leap Forward ended in disaster; China's peasant population, over 500 million people, was placed into collective farms known as communes, where they would eat, sleep, and work together with thousands of others in an effort to increase productivity and eliminate private farming, considered a capitalist system. Private farms and livestock were taken without compensation, and those who did not join willingly or attempted to escape were subjected to struggle sessions, physically abused and humiliated. Local Communist officials, terrified of failing to meet their targets, would often force peasants to work extremely long hours in terrible conditions, with production figures routinely faked to keep up with Mao's ever-increasing targets.

To meet steel production quotas, citizens were encouraged to set up backyard furnaces where they would melt down their possessions to make steel. Pots and pans, as well as bicycles and farming equipment, were thrown into the furnace. At its peak, some 90 million people, a quarter of the active population, had abandoned their jobs to take part, but the steel produced was often of unusable quality, putting unsustainable strain on food production with many fields left untended. Mao also announced the Four Pests Campaign in 1958, encouraging people to kill sparrows and other pests. While the campaign saw massive success, the elimination of sparrows caused locust populations to rapidly grow, eating through much of the crop. Although Mao had rallied an entire nation behind his policies, they would prove to be disastrous, leading to the greatest famine in recorded history, with deaths estimated between 30 and 50 million people. Mao only made the situation worse by continuing to increase production targets and refusing to implement change until it was far too late. He enforced a policy of complete denial, banning the word "starvation." Anyone caught stealing or hoarding food to survive was branded with hot irons, beaten to death, or buried alive. Only in 1961, when the extent of the disaster could no longer be denied, did Mao authorize a retreat from his policies. It was an unprecedented catastrophe, and it took years for China to recover. Mao was forced to reverse many of his policies, with private farming and the production of food for profit seeing a significant return, and industrial production targets brought back to reality. The famine was kept a closely guarded secret, only being acknowledged by the Chinese government in 1980, four years after Mao's death.

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The Cultural Revolution

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The failure of the Great Leap Forward had badly damaged Mao's political authority, forcing him to take a temporary retreat from politics. Prominent politicians Liu Xiao Qui and Deng Xiaoping took control of policy. But by 1966, the 72-year-old chairman was ready to resume control. Taking a symbolic swim in China's longest river, the Yangtze, to prove his health and signal his return to politics, he would decide to launch a mass movement: the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. In this movement, he mobilized China's youth to destroy anything or anyone he saw as opposition. University students and school children, soon to be known as Red Guards, had grown up surrounded by Mao's propaganda, with many following him with a religious-like devotion. They would carry a copy of the Little Red Book, a compilation of Mao's writings and speeches held as the highest source of knowledge. One politician stated:

"Chairman Mao is a genius; one single sentence of his surpasses ten thousand hours."

It would take little persuasion from Mao to turn his devoted followers against his enemies. Hosting a mass rally on August 18, 1966, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, attended by over one million Red Guards, Mao encouraged them to attack anyone they saw as opposing him, especially those in positions of authority. What followed was Red August, a series of massacres committed by the Red Guards in Beijing, where over 10,000 people would be killed for their suspected opposition to Mao. Entire families were murdered for being part of the wrong class of people, with the elderly, children, and infants all being killed, the youngest victim reported to be only 38 days old.

Soon, the violence spread across the country, with traditional authority figures, particularly teachers, being the first to be attacked. Many of them were tortured or beaten to death. Others would be dragged out to people beating meetings where they would be publicly humiliated, and their heads shaved, ink poured over their faces, before they were hit with sticks and belts. Mao did everything he could to support the chaos, setting up a networking movement where Red Guards were given free train passes to travel across the country to spread the violence. He would forbid the police from interfering with them and closed down all schools and universities so that the students could fully devote themselves to the Cultural Revolution. Liu Xiao Qui and Deng Xiaoping, the politicians who had taken over in Mao's absence, would both be purged, with Lou dying after an extended period of torture and then escaping to the countryside after Red Guards threw his son out of a three-story building, permanently paralyzing him. The Red Guards were also instructed to purge the last elements of traditional Chinese society, particularly old ideas, customs, habits, and culture, known as the Four Olds. China's historical sights became targets as they looted temples, destroyed artwork, vandalized graves, burned books, and tore down statues. Even the Forbidden City, one of China's most recognizable landmarks, came under attack by Red Guards armed with pickaxes, narrowly saved from destruction after an army battalion was called in to protect it.

The Four Olds were replaced with the Four News, symbolizing new ideas, customs, habits, and culture, but in reality, it meant the practice of Mao's ideas and the rejection of everything else. Mao became a figure of worship in workplaces; people would stand before his portrait each morning and evening, bowing three times to ask for guidance. Thanks were offered to him before meals, business letters opened with his quotations, and people were expected to perform loyalty dances in front of his image to prove their devotion. The Little Red Book was said to cause miracles, curing the blind and the dead, with Maoism once reported to raise a man from the dead. Eventually, the country descended into complete anarchy. Running out of targets, the Red Guards began turning on each other, with rival factions forming to purge each other of suspected anti-revolutionaries. Many suffered the same torture and humiliation they had inflicted on others. Some provinces descended into near-civil war, with radical groups stealing weapons from the military and bombarding each other's positions with anti-aircraft guns and artillery fire. It was only in 1968, two years after the chaos had begun, that Mao would finally move to restore order, sending the military to deal with the rebel groups. Although the Cultural Revolution would continue in a lesser form for almost 10 years until Mao's death in 1976, it devastated Chinese society. While it is impossible to give an accurate figure, millions are thought to have died, with millions more suffering permanent physical or mental damage. The Red Guards were also victims, brainwashed by a lifetime of propaganda. They would kill for their great leader while missing out on vital years of education, with youth unemployment becoming a serious issue. But Mao had little sympathy for those who had killed in his name, launching a campaign that sent millions of former Red Guards to the countryside, where they would cause less trouble. They were expected to connect with the peasants and learn the realities of manual labor, with most having a miserable experience. Many would become disillusioned with Mao, who had abandoned them after they had served their purpose.
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As Mao entered his late seventies, he would continue to exercise immense political control, negotiating with foreign powers and maintaining an iron grip over Chinese politics. But by the early 1970s, his health would see a steep decline, with him becoming almost unrecognizable from his previous self. He suffered from numerous health conditions, needing help to sit down, stand up, and walk around for extended periods of time. He was partially paralyzed, almost blind, and could barely talk, with oxygen tanks having to be installed in his cars, rooms, and any podium where he might speak. Sensing his death, rival factions began to form within the government to establish themselves as his successor. But even in this debilitated state, Mao would continue to wield immense power, playing these rival factions against each other and purging those who posed a serious threat. However, by the mid-1970s, Mao's body would begin to fail, with him suffering a series of heart attacks. He died in the early hours of September 9, 1976, at the age of 82.

After Mao

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But China's future would not play out as Mao had envisioned it. His wife, Zhang Ching, would be arrested after attempting to seize power, with Deng Xiaoping, the man he had purged during the Cultural Revolution, being rehabilitated and emerging as China's leader. He would criticize Mao, declaring him to have been right seventy percent of the time and wrong thirty percent, something that would have been impossible to do while he was alive. Deng would keep the Communist Party's monopoly on power, allowing him to implement widespread reform while continuing to repress those who challenged the legitimacy of communist rule. His reforms would be centered around China's economy, and just as Mao had feared, he would soon introduce capitalism, with China remaining communist in name alone. Agriculture was decollectivized, price controls were lifted, foreign investment was encouraged, and entrepreneurs were allowed to start their own businesses for the first time. Far from rejecting these policies as Mao had anticipated, the majority of China's population welcomed Deng's reforms with open arms. Although corruption and crime would see an increase, so too would economic growth and opportunities, with per capita income tripling between 1978 and 1994. GDP would quadruple, and by the time Deng died in 1997, the Chinese economy was one of the largest in the world, with over 850 million people having been lifted out of poverty since his reforms began. Mao's dream of creating an economic superpower had finally come true, but it had not come with the Great Leap Forward, as he had expected, but instead, at the cost of introducing capitalism, the very system he had devoted his entire life to fight against.

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