Mao Zedong Analysis

Rebecca Huang

Mr. Brown

History of Asia

March 19, 2014

Word Count:

Mao Zedong: A Man with Few Redeeming Values

In history, Mao Zedong is considered to be one of the most controversial figures in Chinese history. Born in a small village in Hunan, China in December of 1893, he eventually rose to become a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party in 1935, and then the first chairman of the People’s Republic of China in 1945. His revolutionary movements to purge China of its traditional behavior and change the country’s lifestyle are often disputable, particularly in the matter of his methods and the aftermath of his actions. From the perspective of Taipei American School, Mao Zedong essentially did not embody the values; having been only generally responsible, marginally courageous, largely dishonest, considerably disrespectful, and significantly unkind.

To begin, Mao was mostly responsible in terms of establishing a strong foundation in his soldiers, setting aside internal conflict to first deal with the matter of saving China, and considering the rights of those with lesser status. However, irresponsibility was shown through the effects of the Great Leap Forward and the following famine as well as the Cultural Revolution. In Jinggang of 1927, Mao united five rural villages as a self-governing Communist state and attempted to bring them into order. Additionally he changed the military tactics so that the soldiers would stand a better chance against the enemy . Mao rose to the occasion, took charge of the administration as a leader, and essentially pledged himself into giving the area a higher possibility of survival. Also in Jinggang Shan, Mao also took to issues regarding the women and their personal privileges. At the end o...

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...ive when he disgraced Luo Yigu, his first wife through an arranged marriage, by rejecting to accept and live her . Because of his actions, Luo was socially humiliated by the community until her death. Later on in his life Mao was unfaithful to his third wife, He Zizhen, in terms of their marriage and often had affairs with other women . His cavorting not only degraded her, but also put her down in terms of esteem and created rifts in both their marriage and family life. The Five-anti Campaign of 1952 was designed by Mao to use peer and mental pressure and force large company leaders into confession, and sometimes false confession, of cheating to save themselves from the government . The movement essentially created large amounts of psychological strain to force the company leaders into giving up their power and often left them afraid. This action was not a kind one.