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Birth
MAO Zedong was born on December 26 in the small village of Shaoshan in the province of Hunan (Southeast China). While Mao spent much of his childhood working on the family farm, he developed a passion for learning during his brief
primary education. -
Graduation
Mao graduated from middle school and traveled to Beijing. There he became actively involved in the May Fourth Movement and began publishing articles in local journals promoting cultural reform. -
The Beginning
Mao became one of the first members of the new Chinese Communist Party (CCP.) He began working in his home province of Hunan to organize labor unions and activist groups and became an important figure in local politics. -
GMD
Under encouragement from the Comintern and the CCP, Mao became a member of the Guomindang (GMD), or Nationalist Party. -
Major Campaign
The GMD initiated a major campaign to completely stamp out Communist influence in China. The Jiangxi Soviet where Mao was stationed became one of the major targets of this campaign and sustained repeated attacks over the next three years. -
Long March
Sustaining heavy losses from disease, famine, and enemy attack, Mao led his Red Army through some six thousand miles of rivers, swamps, forests, and mountains to reach its new base in the city of
Yan’an in Shaanxi province. It was this journey, known as the “Long March,” that elevated Mao to the upper ranks of the CCP. -
Kidnap
Throughout the early 1930s, popular opinion shifted from fighting the Chinese Communists to fighting Japanese aggression. By 1936, this feeling was shared by the CCP and even some within the GMD. Very late in the year, CHIANG Kai-shek was kidnapped by one of his own generals (in what became known as the “Xi’an
Incident”). Chiang was released after two weeks when he agreed to ally with the Communists against the Japanese. This alliance became known as the Second United Front. -
Japanese Invasion
Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China, which marked the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). The Japanese were initially successful in the North, and within months had captured the GMD capital city of Nanjing. Here, in an episode known as the “Rape of Nanjing,” the Japanese army turned on the civilian population committing countless acts of rape and torture in an apparent effort to force the Chinese into submission. -
Chairman
Mao received the title of “Chairman” of the Communist Central Committee a title that heretofore had not existed and Chairman of the Politburo, making him the
unchallenged leader of the CCP. -
Japan's surrender
The final surrender of Japan after the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the Sino-Japanese War to a close. As the Japanese evacuated China, the conflict between the CCP under Mao and the GMD under Chiang reemerged. Within
a year, full-scale war had erupted between the two parties. -
Korean War
North Korean forces launched an offensive on South Korea, marking the beginning of
the Korean War (1950-53). By the fall of 1950, the South Koreans, backed by American-led UN forces, had driven the invading North Korean army from South Korea. UN forces then launched an invasion of North Korea, taking North Korea’s capital city of Pyongyang and pushing farther north. -
Hundred Flowers
Mao delivered his famous “hundred flowers” speech, in which he encouraged Chinese to express their opinions about the government openly. -
Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution
In part an effort to regain power and in part as a way to renew the revolutionary spirit of the people, Mao launched the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Mao mobilized students and young adults from throughout China to serve as “Red Guards,” or agents of the Revolution. The Red Guards sought to extinguish old traditions and root out “counterrevolutionaries.” The movement resulted in political disorder, terror, and violence, as the country was thrown into chaos. -
President Richard
Mao made one of his last and boldest political moves he invited President Richard Nixon of the United States to visit China. After decades of poor Sino-American relations, it was a shocking gesture on the part of Mao. -
DENG Xiaoping
Mao allowed DENG Xiaoping, one of the reformers removed from party leadership during the first years of the Cultural Revolution, to reenter politics, incurring the criticism of the revolutionary purists within the party -
Death
On September 9, MAO Zedong died at the age of 81.