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Mao Ze Dong - Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun
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| On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong declared
the founding of the People's Republic of China on the Tian'anmen
Rostrum. |
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| Mao Zedong (first left) talking with steelworkers on a visit to Anhui. |
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| After the founding of new China, Mao Zedong often went on inspection tours around the country. The picture shows him in Hangzhou in 1954. |
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| Mao Zedong (first left) chatting with local peasants in Yan'an |
Mao Zedong was born in 1893 to a peasant family in a mountain village of Hunan Province. Unlike some CPC leaders, he never went to a big university, or studied abroad. During his first 10 years as member of the Party, he was inconspicuous and little heed paid to him. However, he was later to rise to prominence in the history of the Party.
Born a peasant, Mao understood very well the Chinese peasantry, and how important it was for an agricultural country like China to solve peasant issues. He brought the role of the Chinese peasant into full play in accomplishing China's New Democratic Revolution. He was opposed to the reformist approach, believing that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Even after the founding of new China, he still advocated the class struggle as a major Party priority. Mao was unlike some revolutionaries in that he did not put all his faith in, or accept without question, foreign theories. Instead he skillfully adapted Marxism and Leninism to the parameters of the Chinese revolution.
Mao's rise to prominence began in the 1930s, and was marked by a meeting held in Zunyi, Guizhou. By this time, the CPC had suffered severe losses, the Party and its army having been driven out of their revolutionary bases by the Kuomintang, as a result of blindly following the Russian model. The Zunyi meeting established Mao's leadership of the CPC. From that point, the Chinese revolution broke away from the control of the Third International and underwent healthy independent development.
Mao Zedong was a typical Chinese scholar, who pursued character perfection and was also something of a romanticist. This is why he stayed close to the people, sharing with them their happiness and woes even after the founding of new China. The Chinese people still admire him today for sending his eldest son to the Korean War, where he died.
Mao's romanticism is best reflected in his poems and revolutionary ideals. As early as the 1920s, he put forward, "transforming China and the world" as the main guideline for the Society of the New Masses. He held that "socialism should be international and not colored by national patriotism." His internationalism continued in new China as the goal of the CPC. The belief that "two-thirds of the world's oppressed have not been liberated" became an emotional obligation to Chinese Communists. The combination of Mao's scholarly romanticism and revolutionary internationalism enabled him to lead China from being a poor, weak country to one which was active and purposeful, although there did occur some tragic events, such as the Great Leap Forward in 1958 and the cultural revolution (1966-1976).
The Chinese people nevertheless still respect Mao as a great person and a savior. In certain remote mountain villages, his image can be seen in temples being worshipped alongside that of Sakyamuni. In cities, his miniature portrait often hangs in taxis. The general attitude towards Mao is similar to that generally held towards the CPC: many may complain about its mistakes, but the majority has to admit that there could be no stable, developing China without the CPC.