Mao Zedong: Machiavellian Genius

Mao is a name that either causes people to cheer or to shudder in fear. His policies, lifestyle, thoughts, and emotions helped China through its largest, bloodiest, and harshest transitional period. China was still in its feudal stage when Mao Zedong was born to a poor peasant father. Through hard work, he was able to graduate from a good school and became head of a primary school. In 1923, Mao became a Communist Party worker. During WWII, Mao's base with the peasant population and his link with Marxism allowed him to become a leader of China. By the end of the war, he had driven out the Japanese and the Nationalists out of China and made himself the head of the People's Republic of China. Communism had reached the Chinese peasants by offering them an alternative way of life, much more lenient than the oppressive environment they were forced to work for many years. Although Mao believed in Marxism, he was a socialist of a different kind. He realized that in order for the peasants to become rich and stabilize the economy, they needed buying power. He encouraged entrepreneur spirited efforts to help the people make a way of living and also boosted China's economy in the process. Mao, like Peter the Great, incited the Chinese people into a revolution. He stopped the once great civilization of the Chinese to fall upon itself to its feudal landlords. However, many of his policies failed due to lack of good management and the will of the leader following Mao, Deng Xiaoping. Mao had trained Deng Xiaoping and Deng had effectively reversed his teachings. But it was in this way, that China was able to survive and now surge forth into the 21st century. One major fact that made Mao such a great and influential leader was the fact that he was able to unite China from Beijing to Tibet. Although he faced many troubling times, he was still an effective leader during these harsh times. Many people died during his Cultural Revolution and his Great Leap forward, but he was still able to contain his power and keep China moving forward at a rapid pace. Although Mao cannot be deemed as a total savior to the Chinese, China is still growing. And it was because of Mao's determination that China made it through it's most difficult transition period into the 21st century. Mao died in 1976 of a heart attack but is still revered in China and studied throughout the third world. For what he did with a nation the likes of China was nothing short of a miracle. Mao laid the groundwork for the next great superpower of the future. § by Welton Chang       Go back to main page