Was Mao’s China an authoritarian state and Mao its undisputed authoritarian leader? Mao Zedong was a Chinese communist revolutionary who founded the People’s Republic of China which he was the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from the establishment of the PRC in 1949. His goal as a leader was to preserve communist ideals by removing any remnants of capitalistic features and traditional features from society, whilst imposing Mao Zedong Thought. In order to evaluate if Mao managed to impose his ideals and achieve his aims which an authoritarian leader should be able to do, I will be looking at the following principles; propaganda and censorship, coercion and terror as well as the use of ideology. In the first paragraph, the focus is religious freedom to investigate if Mao had achieved authoritarian control. Then I will look at policies the leader used to create an authoritarian state, and lastly …….... Mao China is an authoritarian state as it lacked civil liberties such as freedom of religion. Mao as an undisputed leader used propaganda and terror to ban all religions as the religious authority is a threat to his leadership. Religious clothing and practice were illegal and there was also use of propaganda through public loudspeakers which denounced religion to ensure that China would be an atheist state and that everyone devoted themselves to Maoism with loyalty to CCP. Mao as an undisputed authoritarian leader is shown to have full control as the public stripped clothes off the clergy who dared to walk abroad in their traditional distinctive clothing As well as that people helped to destroy monasteries and shrines whilst priests were banned. The fact that Mao even managed to form his own followership which people worship which is seen by people bowing 3 times, reading passages from 'Little Red Book', wishing Mao 'ten thousand years'. As China lacked civil liberties such as religious freedom which is resultant of Mao’s undisputed leadership shows how much power and control Mao has achieved with the use of propaganda and support. Furthermore, Mao’s China is an authoritarian state and an undisputed authoritarian leader as people followed his social policies blindly. Social policies are the following as that everyone was 'Loyalty to the state and party' thus children tended to speak out against parents if they were unloyal to Mao whilst they were also taking revolutionary action against the older generation. In addition, education was completely reformed to follow Mao’s ideology which was that experience is more important than reading books. From 1966-1976, 12 million young people were sent to the countryside to experience peasant work, instead of attending school. Manual labour which peasants used to do was now done by all children as in 1966 all universities closed the idea was that (1965) 'The more books you read, the more stupid you become” thus they worked in in the countryside rather than having a formal education. These ideas also got 130 million people to stop attending school/university in 1966-1970. The fact that many complied with these policies and ideals, dropped out of school or harassed and vandalised universities to the point that they closed down and many children worked in the countryside shows how everyone blindly obeys Mao as a leader, whilst the fact that universities were forced to close down shows the lack of freedom to make choices in education thus showing how CHina was an authoritarian state. Achieved The way he achieved power, he expected everyone to blindly obey him and power was concentrated in a party that was dictated by Mao Exercised power According to his ideological beliefs, political and civil rights were non existent and those who did not comply were forced to undergo struggle sessions Not achieved Mao tolerated some pluralism from ethnic and religious minority groups