Mao Zedong Quote

Mao Zedong (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 and led the country from its establishment until his death in 1976. Mao served as chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1943 until his death, and as the party's de facto leader from 1935. His theories, which he advocated as a Chinese adaptation of Marxism–Leninism, are known as Mao Zedong Thought (or Maoism).
Born to a peasant family in Shaoshan, Hunan, Mao studied in Changsha and was influenced by the 1911 Revolution and ideas of Chinese nationalism and anti-imperialism. While working as a librarian at Peking University, he was involved in the May Fourth Movement of 1919 and was exposed to Marxism. In 1921, he became a founding member of the CCP, and began to develop his distinctive interpretation of Marxist theory, advocating that the rural peasantry, which constituted the vast majority of China's population, would be the main revolutionary force. After the start of the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) and CCP, Mao led the failed Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927, and in 1931 he founded the Jiangxi Soviet and Chinese Soviet Republic. He helped establish the Chinese Red Army, and developed a strategy of guerilla warfare. In 1935, Mao became leader of the CCP during the Long March, a military retreat to the Yan'an Soviet in Shaanxi, where it began rebuilding its forces. The party allied with the KMT in the Second United Front at the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, but the civil war resumed after Japan's surrender in 1945. In 1949, Mao's forces defeated the Nationalist government, which withdrew to Taiwan.
On 1 October 1949, Mao proclaimed the foundation of the PRC, a one-party state controlled by the CCP. He initiated land redistribution and industrialisation campaigns, suppressed political opponents, intervened in the Korean War, and began the ideological Hundred Flowers and Anti-Rightist Campaigns. In 1958, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward, aiming to rapidly transform China's economy from agrarian to industrial. It resulted in the Great Chinese Famine. In 1966, Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution, marked by violent class struggle, destruction of historical artifacts, and Mao's cult of personality. From the late 1950s, Mao's foreign policy was dominated by a political split with the Soviet Union, and during the 1970s he began establishing relations with the United States. In 1976, Mao died after suffering a series of heart attacks. He was succeeded as leader by Hua Guofeng, and in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping. The CCP's official evaluation of Mao's legacy both praises him and acknowledges he made errors in his later years.
His policies resulted in a vast number of deaths, with tens of millions of victims of famine, persecution, prison labor and executions, and his regime has been described as totalitarian. Mao has also been credited with transforming China from a semi-colony to a major world power and advancing literacy, women's rights, basic healthcare, education, and life expectancy. In modern China he is widely regarded as a national hero who liberated the country from foreign imperialist influence. He became an ideological leader within the international communist movement, inspiring various Maoist organisations.