Mao Zedong, Essay Example

Mao Zedong was a communist leader, who led the People’s Republic of China (“Mao Zedong”, 2010). He was a Han Chinese revolutionary as well as a political theorist. During his life, he contributed to Marxism-Leninism and his brand of communism is known today as Maoism.

It was during the 1920s when Mao organized a Socialist Youth League at a school he was a principal at. A few years later, he became one of the first communists to join Sun Yat-sen’s Nationalist party (“Mao Zedong”, 2009). Mao began working with Hunanese peasants, channeling their protests and creating a network of peasant associates.

Mao Zedong successfully developed tactics of guerilla warfare as the commander in chief of the army. During 1923, Mao became chairman of the Chinese Soviet Republic in a portion of Jiangxi province. After a while, the communists broke out into divided groups during the time of the anti-Japanese war. They had managed to expand their military forces at the time when the Japanese surrendered (“Mao Zedong”, 2010).

It was in 1958 when Mao came up with the second five-year plan known as The Great Leap Forward. It was a plan intended for economic growth. This plan eliminated all privately owned food production, and everything was brought under collective ownership.

However, The Great Leap Forward was denounced for causing a widespread famine. This was declared in 1962 at a meeting called The Conference of Seven Thousand. This was saved by Liu and Deng Xiaoping who rescued the economy and re-introduced private control.

References

Mao zedong. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/mao-zedong

Mao Zedong. (2010). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved September 25, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong