Leader Analysis Sheet
Name of Leader: Mao Zedong
Lifespan- (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976
Country/region: China
Title: 1st Chairman of the Communist party of
China
Years in Power- March 20, 1943 – September 9,
1976
Political, Social, & Economic Conditions Prior to Leaders Gaining Power
 Nationalists built their power primarily on the support of urban businesspeople and merchants
 90% of the population was the peasantry and they were miserable following the long period of
government ineffectiveness
 A brutal massacre occurred in Shanghai in 1927, where many workers were gunned down or
beheaded.
 Chiang Kai-shek's anticommunist crusade had been interrupted by the Japanese invasion of the
Chinese mainland
 the Japanese invaders captured much of the Chinese coast, where the cities were the centers of the
business and mercantile backers
Ideology, Motivation, Goals:
 As a boy he attended the Whampoa Military Academy which connected military and was found by
Soviets
 He was born as a peasant
 He rebelled against his father when he was a boy for exploiting the tenants and laborers who worked
the family fields
 He was educaded in history and philosophy
 Mao was interested in thinkers such as Li Dazhao, who wanted to solve the peasant problem
 An attack on the communist rural stronghold in south central China, supported by German advisors,
caused Mao to spearhead a Long March of 90,000 followers in 1934.
Significant Actions & events During Term of Power
 By 1949 the war was over, Chiang fled to Taiwan and Mao proclaimed the establishment as
the People's Republic of China.
 Mao made uplifting the peasants, land reforms, access to education, and improved healthcare the
central elements
 in the early 1960s, China beat India in a brief war over border disputes, and that showed their new
military strength
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China played a role in the liberation of the south of Vietnam
Mao and his supporters pushed the Mass Line approach that led to the formation of agricultural
cooperatives in 1955, and began farming collectives that accounted for more than 90% of China’s
peasant population.
Mao launched the Great Leap Forward in 1958, which proposed industrialization of small-scale
projects, and restoring a mass, rural base, but it was a disaster and ended in 1960.
Short-Term effects:
 a Stalinist style five year plan was employed in
1953, and urban workers began to be seen as
the hope for new China.
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Long-Term Effects
 Between 1950 and 1952 most of the
landlord class was disposed
 Birth control was seen as a symptom of
capitalist selfishness and inability to provide
a decent living for all of the people, which
led to China’s population being about 1.3
billion
 The victory of the revolution brought
women to legal equality with men. And Jian
Qing, his wife played a major rule.