Editing Maoism (section)

== History ==
{{politics of China}}
{{further|Ideology of the Chinese Communist Party}}

=== Chinese intellectual tradition ===
At the turn of the 19th century, the contemporary [[Chinese intellectual]] tradition was defined by two central concepts: [[iconoclasm]] and [[nationalism]].<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|pages=12–16}}

==== Iconoclastic revolution and anti-Confucianism ====
By the turn of the 20th century, a proportionately small yet socially significant cross-section of China's traditional elite (i.e., landlords and bureaucrats) found themselves increasingly sceptical of the efficacy and even the moral validity of [[Confucianism]].<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=10}} These skeptical iconoclasts formed a new segment of Chinese society, a modern intelligentsia whose arrival—or as the historian of China [[Maurice Meisner]] would label it, their defection—heralded the beginning of the destruction of the [[gentry]] as a social class in China.<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=11}}

The [[1911 Revolution|fall]] of the [[Qing dynasty]] in 1911 marked the final failure of the Confucian moral order, and it did much to make Confucianism synonymous with political and [[social conservatism]] in the minds of Chinese intellectuals. This association of conservatism and Confucianism lent to the iconoclastic nature of Chinese intellectual thought during the first decades of the 20th century.<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=14}}

Chinese iconoclasm was expressed most clearly and vociferously by [[Chen Duxiu]] during the [[New Culture Movement]], which occurred between 1915 and 1919.<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=14}} Proposing the "total destruction of the traditions and values of the past", the New Culture Movement, spearheaded by the ''[[New Youth]]'', a periodical published by Chen Duxiu, profoundly influenced the young Mao Zedong, whose first published work appeared in the magazine's pages.<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=14}}

==== Nationalism and the appeal of Marxism ====
Along with iconoclasm, radical [[anti-imperialism]] dominated the Chinese intellectual tradition and slowly evolved into a fierce nationalist fervor which influenced Mao's philosophy immensely and was crucial in adapting Marxism to the Chinese model.<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44">{{Cite book |last=Meisner |first=Maurice |author-link=Maurice Meisner |title=Mao's China and After |title-link=Mao's China and After |date=1999 |publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]] |isbn=978-0-684-85635-3 |pages= |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=44}} Vital to understanding Chinese nationalist sentiments of the time is the [[Treaty of Versailles]], which was signed in 1919. The Treaty aroused a wave of bitter nationalist resentment in Chinese intellectuals as lands formerly ceded to Germany in [[Shandong]] were—without consultation with the Chinese—transferred to Japanese control rather than returned to Chinese sovereignty.<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=17}}

The adverse reaction culminated in the [[May Fourth Movement]] in 1919, during which a protest began with 3,000 students in Beijing displaying their anger at the announcement of the Versailles Treaty's concessions to Japan. The protest turned violent as protesters began attacking the homes and offices of ministers who were seen as cooperating with or being in the direct pay of the Japanese.<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=17}} The popular movement which followed "catalyzed the political awakening of a society which had long seemed inert and dormant."<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=17}}

Another international event would have a significant impact not only on Mao but also on the Chinese intelligentsia. The [[Russian Revolution]] elicited great interest among Chinese intellectuals, although the socialist revolution in China was not considered a viable option until after the 4 May Incident.<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=18}} Afterward, "[t]o become a Marxist was one way for a Chinese intellectual to reject both the traditions of the Chinese past and Western domination of the Chinese present."<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=18}}

=== Yan'an period between November 1935 and March 1947 ===
Immediately following the [[Long March]], Mao and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were headquartered in the [[Yan'an Soviet]] in [[Shaanxi]]. During this period, Mao established himself as a Marxist theoretician and produced most of the works that would later be canonised as the "Thought of Mao Zedong".<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=45}} The rudimentary philosophical base of Chinese Communist ideology is laid down in Mao's numerous dialectical treatises and was conveyed to newly recruited party members. This period established ideological independence from Moscow for Mao and the CCP.<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=45}}

Although the Yan'an period did answer some of the ideological and theoretical questions raised by the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]], it left many crucial questions unresolved, including how the Chinese Communist Party was supposed to launch a socialist revolution while wholly separated from the urban sphere.<ref name="Meisner, Maurice 1999. Page 44" />{{Rp|page=45}}

=== Mao Zedong's intellectual development ===
[[File:抗日游击战争的战略问题03538.jpg|thumb|''Strategic Issues of Anti-Japanese Guerrilla War'' (1938)]]
Mao's intellectual development can be divided into five significant periods, namely:

# the initial Marxist period from 1920 to 1926
# the formative Maoist period from 1927 to 1935
# the mature Maoist period from 1935 to 1940
# the Civil-War period from 1940 to 1949
# the post-1949 period following the revolutionary victory

==== Initial Marxist period (1920–1926) ====
Marxist thinking employs immanent socioeconomic explanations, whereas Mao's reasons were declarations of his enthusiasm. Mao did not believe education alone would transition from [[Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|capitalism]] to [[Communism#Marxist communism|communism]] for three main reasons. (1) the capitalists would not repent and turn towards communism on their own; (2) the rulers must be overthrown by the people; (3) "the proletarians are discontented, and a demand for communism has arisen and had already become a fact."<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Lowe |first=Donald M. |url=https://archive.org/details/functionofchinai0000unse |title=The Function of "China" in Marx, Lenin, and Mao |date=1966 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-00771-0 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=109}}

==== Formative Maoist period (1927–1935) ====
In this period, Mao avoided all theoretical implications in his literature and employed a minimum of Marxist category thought. His writings in this period failed to elaborate on what he meant by the "Marxist method of political and class analysis".<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|page=111}}

==== Mature Maoist period (1935–1940) ====
Intellectually, this was Mao's most fruitful time. The orientation shift was apparent in his pamphlet ''Strategic Problems of China's Revolutionary War'' (December 1936). This pamphlet tried to provide a theoretical veneer for his concern with revolutionary practice.<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|page=113}} Mao started to separate from the Soviet model since it was not automatically applicable to China. China's unique set of historical circumstances demanded a correspondingly unique application of Marxist theory, an application that would have to diverge from the Soviet approach.

In the late 1930s, writings and speeches by Mao and other leaders close to Mao began to emerge as the Communist Party's developing ideology.<ref name=":23">{{Cite book |last=Leese |first=Daniel |title=Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History |date=2013 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-05722-7 |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=Alexander C. |location=Cambridge |pages= |chapter=A Single Spark: Origins and Spread of the Little Red Book in China}}</ref>{{Rp|page=27}} This was described as the Sinicization of Marxism.<ref name=":23" />{{Rp|page=27}} Mao's view was that these concepts were not a complete system of thought but were still developing.<ref name=":23" />{{Rp|page=27}} As a result, he decided not to use the term "Maoism" and instead favored characterizing these ideological contributions as Mao Zedong Thought (''Mao Zedong sixiang'').<ref name=":23" />{{Rp|page=27}}

Beginning in the [[Yan'an Soviet|Yan'an]] period, Mao Zedong Thought became the ideological guide for developing revolutionary culture and a long-term social movement.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=53}}

[[File:中国革命战争的战略问题03531.jpg|thumb|''Strategic Issues in the Chinese Revolutionary War'' (1947)]]

==== Civil War period (1940–1949) ====
Unlike the Mature period, this period was intellectually barren. Mao focused more on revolutionary practice and paid less attention to Marxist theory. He continued to emphasise theory as practice-oriented knowledge.<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|page=117}} The most crucial topic of the theory he delved into was in connection with the [[Cheng Feng]] movement of 1942. Here, Mao summarised the correlation between Marxist theory and Chinese practice: "The target is the Chinese revolution, the arrow is Marxism–Leninism. We Chinese communists seek this arrow for no other purpose than to hit the target of the Chinese revolution and the revolution of the east."<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|page=117}} The only new emphasis was Mao's concern with two types of subjectivist deviation: (1) [[dogmatism]], the excessive reliance upon abstract theory; (2) [[empiricism]], excessive dependence on experience.

In 1945, the party's first historical resolution put forward Mao Zedong Thought as the party's unified ideology.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last1=Doyon |first1=Jérôme |title=The Chinese Communist Party: A 100-Year Trajectory |last2=Froissart |first2=Chloé |date=2024 |publisher=ANU Press |isbn=9781760466244 |editor-last=Doyon |editor-first=Jérôme |location=Canberra |chapter=Introduction |editor-last2=Froissart |editor-first2=Chloé}}</ref>{{Rp|page=6}} It was also incorporated into the [[Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party|party's constitution]].<ref name=":Li">{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Hongshan |title=Fighting on the Cultural Front: U.S.-China Relations in the Cold War |date=2024 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=9780231207058 |location=New York, NY |doi=10.7312/li--20704 |jstor=10.7312/li--20704}}</ref>{{Rp|page=23}}

==== Post-Civil War period (1949–1976) ====
To Mao, the victory of 1949 was a confirmation of theory and practice. "Optimism is the keynote to Mao's intellectual orientation in the post-1949 period."<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|page=118}} Mao assertively revised the theory to relate it to the new practice of socialist construction. These revisions are apparent in the 1951 version of ''On Contradiction''. "In the 1930s, when Mao talked about contradiction, he meant the contradiction between subjective thought and objective reality. In ''Dialectal Materialism'' of 1940, he saw idealism and materialism as two possible correlations between subjective thought and objective reality. In the 1940s, he introduced no new elements into his understanding of the subject-object contradiction. In the 1951 version of ''On Contradiction'', he saw contradiction as a universal principle underlying all processes of development, yet with each contradiction possessed of its own particularity."<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|page=119}}

In 1956, Mao first fully theorized his view of continual revolution.<ref name=":Laikwan" />{{Rp|page=92}}

=== Differences from Marxism ===
[[File:Pekín 1978 18.jpg|thumb|Beijing, 1978. The billboard reads, "Long Live Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought!"]]
Maoism and [[Marxism]] differ in how the proletariat is defined and in which political and economic conditions would start a [[communist revolution]].
# For Marx, the proletariat was the urban [[working class]], which was determined in the revolution by which the [[bourgeoisie]] overthrew [[feudalism]].<ref>Sandmo, Agnar. ''Economics Evolving: A History of Economic Thought'', Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.</ref> For Mao Zedong, the revolutionary class was the millions of peasants he referred to as ''the popular masses''. Mao based his revolution upon the peasantry. They possessed, according to him, two qualities: (i) they were poor and (ii) they were a political blank slate; in Mao's words, "[a] clean sheet of paper has no blotches, and so the newest and most beautiful words can be written on it."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gregor |first1=A. James |last2=Chang |first2=Maria Hsia |date=1978 |title=Maoism and Marxism in Comparative Perspective |journal=[[The Review of Politics]] |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=307–327 |doi=10.1017/S0034670500028527 |issn=0034-6705 |jstor=1407255}}</ref>
# For Marx, the [[proletarian revolution]] was internally fuelled by the capitalist mode of production; as capitalism developed, "a tension arises between the [[productive forces]] and the [[mode of production]]."<ref>Sandmo, Agnar (2011). ''Economics Evolving: A History of Economic Thought'', Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.</ref> The political tension between the productive forces (the workers) and the owners of the [[means of production]] (the capitalists) would be an inevitable incentive for the proletarian revolution, resulting in a [[communist society]]. Mao did not subscribe to Marx's theory of inevitable cyclicality in the economic system. His goal was to unify the Chinese nation and so realise progressive change for China in the form of communism; hence, a revolution was needed at once. In ''The Great Union of the Popular Masses'' (1919), Mao wrote that "[t]he decadence of the state, the sufferings of humanity, and the darkness of society have all reached an extreme."<ref>Mao, Zedong. [https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-6/mswv6_04.htm "The Great Union of the Popular Masses"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124035624/https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-6/mswv6_04.htm|date=2021-01-24}}. Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung. Retrieved 25 April 2019.</ref>

=== After Mao Zedong's death ===
[[File:Deng Xiaoping and Jimmy Carter at the arrival ceremony for the Vice Premier of China. - NARA - 183157-restored(cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Deng Xiaoping]]]]
The CCP's ideological framework distinguishes between political ideas described as "Thought" (as in Mao Zedong Thought) or as "Theory" (as in [[Deng Xiaoping Theory]]).<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Hu |first=Richard |title=Reinventing the Chinese City |date=2023 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-21101-7 |location=New York |doi=10.7312/hu--21100}}</ref>{{Rp|page=2}} Thought carries more weight than Theory and conveys the greater relative importance of a leader's ideological and historical influence.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=2}} The process of formalizing a leader's political thinking in the Marxist tradition is important in establishing a leader's ideological legitimacy.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=3}}

Mao Zedong Thought is frequently described as the result of collaboration between the [[Generations of Chinese leadership#First generation|first-generation leaders]] of the Party and is principally based on Mao's analysis of Marxism and Chinese history.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Karl |first=Rebecca E. |title=Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World: A Concise History |date=2010 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8223-4780-4 |series=Asia-pacific |location=Durham, NC |doi=10.2307/j.ctv11hpp6w |jstor=j.ctv11hpp6w}}</ref>{{Rp|page=53}} It is often also described as the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=53}} Observing that concepts of both Marxism and Chinese culture were and are contested, academic Rebecca Karl writes that the development of Mao Zedong Thought is best viewed as the result of Mao's mutual interpretation of these concepts producing Mao's view of theory and revolutionary practice.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=53}}

Mao Zedong Thought asserts that class struggle continues even if the proletariat has already overthrown the bourgeoisie and there are capitalist restorationist elements within the CCP itself. Maoism provided the CCP's first comprehensive theoretical guideline regarding how to continue the socialist revolution, the creation of a socialist society, and socialist military construction and highlights various contradictions in society to be addressed by what is termed "socialist construction". While it continues to be lauded to be the major force that defeated "imperialism and feudalism" and created a "New China" by the Chinese Communist Party, the ideology survives only in name on the Communist Party's Constitution as Deng Xiaoping abolished most Maoist practices in 1978, advancing a guiding ideology called "[[socialism with Chinese characteristics]]".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Xinhua: Constitution of the Communist Party of China |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2002-11/18/content_633225_1.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017214011/http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2002-11/18/content_633225_1.htm |archive-date=17 October 2011 |access-date=10 November 2011 |website=news.xinhuanet.com}}</ref>{{Request quotation|date=January 2024}}

Shortly after [[Death and state funeral of Mao Zedong|Mao died]] in 1976, Deng Xiaoping initiated socialist market reforms in 1978, thereby beginning the radical change in Mao's ideology in the People's Republic of China (PRC).<ref>{{Cite web |title=UC Berkeley Journalism -Faculty - Deng's Revolution |url=http://journalism.berkeley.edu/faculty/schell/schelldeng.html |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090104132630/http://journalism.berkeley.edu/faculty/schell/schelldeng.html |archive-date=4 January 2009 |access-date=22 August 2007}}</ref> Although Mao Zedong Thought nominally remains the state ideology, Deng's admonition to "[[seek truth from facts]]" means that state policies are judged on their practical consequences, and in many areas, the role of ideology in determining policy has thus been considerably reduced. Deng also separated Mao from Maoism, making it clear that Mao was fallible, and hence the truth of Maoism comes from observing social consequences rather than by using Mao's quotations dogmatically.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Exploring Chinese History :: Culture :: Philosophy :: Maoism |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/chinesehistory/contents/02cul/c04s07.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124035536/http://www.ibiblio.org/chinesehistory/contents/02cul/c04s07.html |archive-date=24 January 2021 |access-date=17 January 2019 |website=ibiblio.org}}</ref>

On June 27, 1981, the Communist Party's Central Committee adopted the ''[[Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China]]''.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=166}} The ''Resolution'' assesses the legacy of the Mao era, describing Mao as first among equals in the development of Mao Zedong Thought before 1949 and deeming Mao Zedong Thought as successful in establishing national independence, transforming China's social classes, the development of economic self-sufficiency, the expansion of education and health care, and China's leadership role in the Third World.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|pages=166–167}} The ''Resolution'' describes setbacks during the period 1957 to 1964 (although it generally affirms this period) and major mistakes beginning in 1965.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=167}} The ''Resolution'' describes upholding the guidance of Mao Zedong Thought and Marxism-Leninism as among the Communist Party's cardinal principles.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=168}}

Contemporary Maoists in China criticise the social inequalities created by the revisionist Communist Party. Some Maoists say that Deng's ''[[Reform and Opening]]'' economic policies that introduced market principles spelled the end of Maoism in China. However, Deng asserted that his reforms were upholding Mao Zedong Thought in accelerating the output of the country's productive forces. A recent example of a Chinese politician regarded as neo-Maoist in terms of political strategies and mass mobilisation via red songs was [[Bo Xilai]] in [[Chongqing]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Kerry |url=https://archive.org/details/chinanewmaoists0000brow |title=China and the New Maoists |last2=Nieuwenhuizen |first2=Simone van |date=2016-08-15 |publisher=Zed Books Ltd. |isbn=978-1-78360-762-4 |language=en}}</ref>

Although Mao Zedong Thought is still listed as one of the [[Four Cardinal Principles]] of the People's Republic of China, its historical role has been re-assessed. The Communist Party now says that Maoism was necessary to break China free from its feudal past, but it also says that the actions of Mao led to excesses during the Cultural Revolution.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Exploring Chinese History :: Culture :: Philosophy :: Maoism |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/chinesehistory/contents/02cul/c04s07.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124035536/http://www.ibiblio.org/chinesehistory/contents/02cul/c04s07.html |archive-date=24 January 2021 |access-date=26 February 2018 |website=ibiblio.org}}</ref>

The official view is that China has now reached an economic and political stage, known as the [[primary stage of socialism]], in which China faces new and different problems completely unforeseen by Mao, and as such, the solutions that Mao advocated are no longer relevant to China's current conditions. The 1981 ''Resolution'' reads:
<blockquote>Chief responsibility for the grave 'Left' error of the 'cultural revolution,' an error comprehensive in magnitude and protracted in duration, does indeed lie with Comrade Mao Zedong [...] [and] far from making a correct analysis of many problems, he confused right and wrong and the people with the enemy [...] herein lies his tragedy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=China the Four Modernizations, 1979-82 |url=http://www.country-studies.com/china/the-four-modernizations,-1979-82.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211032140/https://www.country-studies.com/china/the-four-modernizations,-1979-82.html |archive-date=11 February 2021 |access-date=10 November 2011 |website=country-studies.com}}</ref></blockquote>

Scholars outside China see this re-working of the definition of Maoism as providing an ideological justification for what they see as the restoration of the essentials of capitalism in China by Deng and his successors, who sought to "eradicate all ideological and physiological obstacles to economic reform".<ref>S. Zhao, "A State-Led Nationalism: The Patriotic Education Campaign in Post-Tiananmen China", Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 1998, 31(3): p. 288.</ref> In 1978, this led to the [[Sino-Albanian split]] when Albanian leader [[Enver Hoxha]] denounced Deng as a revisionist, stating "The events and facts are demonstrating ever more clearly that China is sinking deeper and deeper into revisionism, capitalism and imperialism"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Enver Hoxha: Imperialism and the Revolution (1979) |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/imp_rev/imp_ch1.htm |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> and formed [[Hoxhaism]] as an anti-revisionist form of Marxism.

[[File:Tsinghua University (Tsinghua Southern Road).jpg|right|thumb|"[[Ten thousand years|Long live]] [[Mao Zedong|Chairman Mao]]! Long live [[Abimael Guzmán|Chairman Gonzalo]]! Long live the theory of [[People's war|protracted people's war]]!" (毛主席万岁！贡萨罗主席万岁！持久人民战争理论万岁！) [[Chinese New Left|New Leftist]] graffiti on a wall at Qinghua South Road, Beijing, 6 December 2021.]]
The CCP officially regards Mao himself as a "great revolutionary leader" for his role in fighting against the [[Japanese fascism|Japanese fascist invasion]] during the Second World War and creating the People's Republic of China, but Maoism, as implemented between 1959 and 1976, is regarded by today's CCP as an economic and political disaster. In Deng's day, support of radical Maoism was regarded as a form of "left deviationism" and based on a [[cult of personality]], although these "errors" are officially attributed to the [[Gang of Four (China)|Gang of Four]] rather than Mao himself.<ref>For a newest expression of the official judgment see 中国共产党历史第二卷下册，中共中央党史研究室著，中共党史出版社，第二八章对"文化大革命"十年的基本分析(History of China Communist Party, Vol. 2, Party History Research Centre (November 2010), Chap. 28 Analysis on Cultural Revolution).</ref> Thousands of Maoists were arrested in the [[Hua Guofeng]] period after 1976. The prominent Maoists [[Zhang Chunqiao]] and [[Jiang Qing]] were sentenced to death with a two-year-reprieve, while others were sentenced to life imprisonment or imprisonment for 15 years.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

After the [[Tiananmen Square protests and massacre]], Mao's influence continued to be weaker. Although not very influential, some radical Maoists, disgruntled by the injustices suffered by migrant workers, organized a number of protests and strikes, including the [[Jasic incident]]. In the 2020s, influenced by the [[income inequality in China|growing wealth gap]] and the [[996 working hour system]], Mao's thoughts are being revived in China's [[generation Z]], as they question authority of the CCP. The Chinese government has censored some Maoist posts.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Yuan |first=Li |date=8 July 2021 |title='Who Are Our Enemies?' China's Bitter Youths Embrace Mao |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/business/china-mao.html |access-date=29 October 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Lau |first=Mimi |date=10 August 2018 |title=Chinese Maoists join students in fight for workers' rights |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2158991/chinese-maoists-join-students-fight-workers-rights |access-date=4 May 2023 |work=South China Morning Post |language=en}}</ref>

The 2021 The [[Resolution on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century|''Resolution'' ''on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century'']] describes Mao Zedong Thought as "a summation of theories, principles, and experience on China's revolution and construction that has been proven correct through practice, and [having] put forward a series of important theories for socialist construction."<ref name=":Hou">{{Cite book |last=Hou |first=Xiaojia |title=China under Xi Jinping: A New Assessment |publisher=[[Leiden University Press]] |year=2024 |isbn=9789087284411 |editor-last=Fang |editor-first=Qiang |chapter=China's Shift to Personalistic Rule: Xi Jinping's Centralization of Political Power |jstor=jj.15136086 |editor-last2=Li |editor-first2=Xiaobing}}</ref>{{Rp|page=91}}