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The Birth of Mao Tse-Tung
Mao Tse-Tung was born in Shaosan, Hunan, China to a peasant family. His father was perceived to be a harsh authoritarian figure who beat his children, while Mao's mother was seen as a gentle Buddhist who always supported her eldest son. -
Mao's Initial Beliefs
In 1925, Mao realized the possibilities that could occur if peasantry was to be organized, and he began to focus on issues in rural China. Mao believed in the Three Peoples' Principles of Sun Yat-Sen, focusing on the third principal, which was social and economic equality. This seperated Mao from the other Chinese communists. Mao believed that peasants should be the epitome of a revolution, while Marxism believed a class struggle was to be between laborers and capitalists. -
Establishment of the People's Republic of China
The People's Republic of China, or PRC, was officially established. This was Mao's creation of a 'People's Democratic Dictatorship', in which the people were categorized into four castes: workers, peasants, the bourgeois, and nation-capitalists. Mao's main goal of the dictatorship was to ensure that those of the counter-revolutionary would not have an input in government affairs or have the ability to sway the opinions of the people. The idea was that all castes could be represented by few. -
The Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance
The Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance was an agreement made between China and the Soviet Union which became publicly announced in February 1950. This treaty was mainly meant to counter Japan or any alliance of Japan in times of agression. -
China in the Korean War
By the 1950s, there was a widespread global recognition of China's communist government, but China's participation in the Korean War delayed the process. In October 1950, members of the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA), calling themselves 'Chinese Peoples' Volunteers', crossed the YaluJiang River into North Korea to respond to a request for aid after perceiving a threaet in north-east China from the U.N. forces. At the same time, PLA forces marched into Xizang to reclaim 'Chinese sovereignity'. -
Global Sanctions against China
In 1951, the United Nations claimed that China was acting as an agressor in Korea. The organization imposed "sanctions of global embargo on the shipments of arms and war material to China". -
Delegate Elections
In 1953, elections for delegates for the first National Peoples' Congress ocurred. When the State's constitution was made public in 1954, it officially delcared Mao as the president of the People's Republic. -
Hong Kong Plane Bombing
In order to make the British look bad, Mao chose to create conflict between Hong Kong, which was at that time a colony of Britain, and Taiwan. Peking was aware of a Taiwanese assasination plot of Chou En-Lai, but did not alert the British Mission in Peking or the Hong Kong governnment. This put a portion of Taiwan's network out of Hong Kong, allowing Peking to secure 'clandestine deals' for their nuclear program through the colony, with one purchase from western Europe costing 150 tons of gold. -
Mao's Superpower Status 'Yardstick'
After telling communist leaders tht China would overtake Britain in fifteen years, Mao shortened the target timespan to three years, setting 1958's steel production goal to 10.7 million tons of steel. 30,000 workers were killed within a few months, and equipment was overworked. 90 million people were forced to construct backyard furnaces as well as 'donate' posessions that was made out of metal. Mao promoted this by saying that "to hand in one pick-axe is to wipe out one imperialist". -
The Three Simultaneouslys
From 1958 to 1962, over 100 million peasants were forced into building irrigation systems, damns, reservoirs and canals. This involved the use of the peoples' own tools and materials from their deconstructed homes. Mao wanted instant results, leading to the creation of the 'Three Simultaneouslys': "Survey, design and execute simultaneously". -
The Great Leap Forward
Mao's Superpower Program, in which he intended for China to become a global arsenal of nuclear weaponry, required assistance from the Soviet Union To pay for this assistance, The Great Leap Forward plan was launched in May 1958. Banking, industry and trade were nationalized, leading to a total elimination of private industry. The Great Leap Forward also resulted in a large crop extraction. This resulted in the creation of 'Sputnik Fields'. -
People's Daily's Propaganda
On June 12, People's Daily wrote that in Henon, a 'Sputnik Co-operative' had produced 1.8 tons of wheat on 1/6 of an acre, which was ten times the norm. Sputnik fields were created by transferring ripe crops to one single artificial plot. This was meant to allow the Chinese to believe that they had a food surplus, which meant that the government could collect more to turn into domestic capital. -
Embassies in Peking
On August 22, over ten thousand Chinese set the British Mission in Peking on fire, trapping British staff inside. This sparked violent assaults against the Russian, Indonesian, Indian, Bumese and Mongolian embassies situated in Peking as well. -
Launch of Missile
In October 1966, a missile with an atomic warhead attached was fired 800 km across north-west China. The test's success led to Mao's belief of "the spiritual atomic bomb detonating the physical atomic bomb". One month later, the decision was made that China must possess the entire missile arsenal, including intercontinental missiles within four years. -
Burmese Bans
The Burmese government bans Mao's 'Little Red Book', wearing Mao badges and saluting Mao's portrait. The government regarded these practices as defying the country's authority. The ethnic Chinese rebelled against the ban, and the confrontation between them and the government resulted in bloodshed. Mao stated that "it is better if the Burmese government is against us. I hope they break off diplomatic relations with us, so we can more openly support the Burmese Communist Party. -
Peking disrupts Hong Kong
Mao believed that instead of taking Hong Kong back by force, he could provoke the British into massacring the Chinese. In 1967, Peking took advantage of a labor dispute, encouraging Hong Kong radicals to intensify violence. During the riots, Hong Kong police killed demonstrators, but colonial authorities refused to apologize. In retaliation, Peking told the radicals to attack policemen. However, they were uable to do so. -
Infiltration of the Hong Kong Colony and the Bombing Campaign
Because the radicals were unable to attack Hong Kong authorities, Mao infiltrated the colony with PLA soldiers, shooting five policemen on July 8. This commenced Peking's 'indiscriminate' bombing campaign, and within the next two months, there had been 160 bombing incidents. The British, instead of being provoked into causing a massacare, collected activists quietly at night. -
Mao's Foreign Policy
With Mao's nuclear program 'riding high', Mao expanded his worldwide promotion of Mao Tse-Tung Thought, making it the first priority in foreign policy. -
Mao's Views on World Unification
In November 1968, Mao expressed his views on world unification to the Australian Maoist leader Hill, saying that "In my opinion, the world nees to be unified... In the past, many, including the Mongols, the Romans... Alexandar the Great, Napolean, and the British Empre, wanted to rule the world. Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union want to unify the world. Hitler wanted to unify the world... but they all failed... In my view, the world can be unified." -
Mao;s Recogniton
By the end of the 1960s, Mao had become well recognized in the Western World. His 'Little Red Book' had been studied both by intellectuals as well as students, and Jean Paul Sartre, a French writer and philosopher, "praised the revolutionary violence of Mao as profoundly moral".
