Editing Mao Zedong (section)

== Legacy ==
[[File:Mao Zedong youth art sculpture 4.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Young Mao Zedong statue|Statue of young Mao]] in [[Changsha]], the capital of [[Hunan]]]]
Mao has been regarded as one of the most important and influential individuals in the 20th century.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2046285_2045996_2045849,00.html |title=Top 25 Political Icons |last1=Webley |first1=Kayla |date=4 February 2011 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/samplep02 |title=Mao Zedong |work=The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060321185302/http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/samplep02 |archive-date=21 March 2006 |access-date=23 August 2008}}</ref> He has also been described as a political intellect, theorist, military strategist, poet, and visionary.<ref>{{Harvnb|Short|2001|p=630}} "Mao had an extraordinary mix of talents: he was visionary, statesman, political and military strategist of cunning intellect, a philosopher and poet."</ref> He was credited and praised for driving [[imperialism]] out of China,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.eteacherchinese.com/history-of-china/chinese-leader-mao-zedong-part-i/ |title=Chinese Leader Mao Zedong / Part I |access-date=2 April 2015 |archive-date=12 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712232214/http://blog.eteacherchinese.com/history-of-china/chinese-leader-mao-zedong-part-i/ |url-status=usurped}}</ref> having unified China and for ending the previous decades of civil war. He has also been credited with having [[Feminism in Chinese communism#Mao era (1949–1976)|improved the status of women in China]] and for improving literacy and education.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pantsov |first1=Alexander V. |url= |title=Mao: The Real Story |last2=Levine |first2=Steven I. |date=2013 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=978-1451654486 |location= |page=574}}</ref><ref name="Galtung" /><ref name="PopulationStudies2015" /> In December 2013, a poll from the state-run ''[[Global Times]]'' indicated that roughly 85% of the 1,045 respondents surveyed felt that Mao's achievements outweighed his mistakes.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mao's achievements 'outweigh' mistakes: poll |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/12/mao-achievements-outweigh-mistakes-poll-2013122553410272409.html |work=[[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]] |date=23 December 2013}}</ref> It has been said in China that Mao was 70 percent right and 30 percent wrong.<ref name=":11" />{{Rp|page=55}}<ref name=":13"/>{{Rp|page=445}}

His policies resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people in China during his reign,<ref name="Fenby"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Evangelista |first=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9IAfLDzySd4C&pg=PA96 |title=Peace Studies: Critical Concepts in Political Science |date=2005 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-33923-0 |pages=96 |language=en |quote=It resulted in an estimate of as many as 80 million deaths resulting from Chinese government policies under Mao Zedong between 1950 and 1976.}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/07/17/how-many-died-new-evidence-suggests-far-higher-numbers-for-the-victims-of-mao-zedongs-era/01044df5-03dd-49f4-a453-a033c5287bce/ |title=How Many Died? New Evidence Suggest Far Higher Numbers for the Victims of Mao Zedong's Era |last1=Strauss |first1=Valerie |date=17 July 1994 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=28 November 2019 |last2=Southerl |first2=Daniel |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> mainly due to starvation, but also through persecution, prison labour in ''[[laogai]]'', and mass executions.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=631}}<ref name="Fenby"/> Mao rarely gave direct instruction for peoples' physical elimination.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=631–632}} According to [[Philip Short]], the overwhelming majority of those killed by Mao's policies were unintended casualties of [[List of famines in China|famine]], while the other three or four million, in Mao's view, were necessary victims in the struggle to transform China.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=632}} Mao's China has been described as an autocratic and totalitarian regime responsible for mass repression.<ref name=":7">{{cite magazine |title=The Cultural Revolution and the History of Totalitarianism |url=https://time.com/4329308/cultural-revolution-history-totalitarianism/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=14 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Johnson (writer) |date=5 February 2018 |title=Who Killed More: Hitler, Stalin, or Mao? |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/02/05/who-killed-more-hitler-stalin-or-mao/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205193203/https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/02/05/who-killed-more-hitler-stalin-or-mao/ |archive-date=5 February 2018 |access-date=18 July 2020 |website=The [[New York Review of Books]] |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{cite book |last=Fenby |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/modernchinafallr00fenb/page/351/mode/2up |title=Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present |publisher=[[Penguin Group]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0061661167 |pages=351 |author-link=Jonathan Fenby}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Schram |first=Stuart |author-link=Stuart R. Schram |date=March 2007 |title=Mao: The Unknown Story |journal=[[The China Quarterly]] |issue=189 |pages=205 |doi=10.1017/s030574100600107x |s2cid=154814055}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Evangelista |first=Matthew A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9IAfLDzySd4C&q=80+million |title=Peace Studies: Critical Concepts in Political Science |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0415339230 |pages=96 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Mao was accused as one of the great tyrants of the twentieth century.<ref name = "tyrant">{{Harvnb|MacFarquhar|Schoenhals|2006|p=471}}: "''Together with Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, Mao appears destined to go down in history as one of the great tyrants of the twentieth century''"</ref><ref name = "compare">{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Lynch |author-link=Michael Lynch (historian, born 1938) |title=Mao |series=Routledge Historical Biographies |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2004 |page=230}}</ref>{{sfn|Short|2001|p=631}}<ref name="Fenby">{{cite book |author-link=Jonathan Fenby |last=Fenby |first=J. |title=Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present |publisher=[[Ecco Press]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0061661167 |page=[https://archive.org/details/modernchinafallr00fenb/page/351 351] |quote=Mao's responsibility for the extinction of anywhere from 40 to 70 million lives brands him as a mass killer greater than Hitler or Stalin, his indifference to the suffering and the loss of humans breathtaking |url=https://archive.org/details/modernchinafallr00fenb/page/351}}</ref> He was frequently likened to the First Emperor of a unified China, [[Qin Shi Huang]].{{sfn|MacFarquhar|Schoenhals|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mCKPmUzKeZUC&pg=PA428 428]}}<ref>''Mao Zedong sixiang wan sui!'' (1969), p. 195. Referenced in {{cite book |title=Governing China: From Revolution to Reform |edition=Second |first=Kenneth |last=Lieberthal |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |date=2003 |isbn=0393924920 |page=71}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Mao |last=Zedong |title=Speeches At The Second Session Of The Eighth Party Congress |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-8/mswv8_10.htm |access-date=28 June 2016 |website=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref name="compare"/>{{efn|"The People's Republic of China under Mao exhibited the oppressive tendencies that were discernible in all the major absolutist regimes of the twentieth century. There are obvious parallels between Mao's China, [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Soviet Russia]]. Each of these regimes witnessed deliberately ordered mass 'cleansing' and extermination."<ref name="compare"/>}}

China's population grew from around 550 million to over 900 million under his rule.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Attane |first=Isabelle |year=2002 |title=China's Family Planning Policy: An Overview of Its Past and Future |journal=Studies in Family Planning |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=103–113 |doi=10.1111/j.1728-4465.2002.00103.x |issn=0039-3665 |jstor=2696336 |pmid=11974414}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wu |first=J. |year=1994 |title=Population and family planning in China |journal=Verhandelingen – Koninklijke Academie voor Geneeskunde van Belgie |volume=56 |issue=5 |pages=383–400; discussion 401–402 |issn=0302-6469 |pmid=7892742}}</ref> Mao's [[People's war|insurgency strategies]] continue to be used by insurgents, and his political ideology continues to be embraced by many Communist organisations around the world.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/16/onward-march-maoism-julia-lovell |title=Maoism marches on: the revolutionary idea that still shapes the world |last=Lovell |first=Julia |authorlink=Julia Lovell |date=16 March 2019 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=20 January 2020 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
[[File:Shanghai, guardería 1978 03.jpg|thumb|In 1978, the classroom of a kindergarten in Shanghai putting up portraits of then-Chairman [[Hua Guofeng]] and former Chairman Mao Zedong]]

=== In China ===
In mainland China, Mao is respected by a great number of the general population. Mao is credited for raising the average life expectancy from 35 in 1949 to 63 by 1975, bringing "unity and stability to a country that had been plagued by civil wars and foreign invasions", and laying the foundation for China to "become the equal of the great global powers".{{sfn|Gao|2008|p=81}} He is lauded for carrying out massive [[land reform]], promoting the status of women, improving popular literacy, and positively "transform(ing) Chinese society beyond recognition."{{sfn|Gao|2008|p=81}} Mao has been credited for boosting literacy (only 20% of the population could read in 1949, compared to 65.5% thirty years later), doubling life expectancy, a near doubling of the population, and developing China's industry and infrastructure, paving the way for its position as a world power.<ref name="China 2010, pp. 327">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vr81YoYK0c4C&pg=PA327 |title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of China |last=Ebrey |first=Patricia Buckley |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0521124331 |page=327 |author-link=Patricia Buckley Ebrey |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="Galtung">{{cite book |last1=Galtung |first1=Marte Kjær |last2=Stenslie |first2=Stig |date=2014 |title=49 Myths about China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqqDBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |page=189 |isbn=978-1442236226 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="PopulationStudies2015">{{cite journal |last1=Babiarz |first1=Kimberly Singer |last2=Eggleston |first2=Karen |display-authors=etal. |date=2015 |title=An exploration of China's mortality decline under Mao: A provincial analysis, 1950–80 |journal=[[Population Studies (journal)|Population Studies]] |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages= 39–56 |doi=10.1080/00324728.2014.972432 |pmid=25495509 |quote=China's growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history. |pmc=4331212}}</ref>

Opposition to Mao can lead to censorship or professional repercussions in mainland China,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a94281fa.html |title=China 'fires' editors over criticism of Mao, detains leftist activist |website=Refworld |access-date=18 May 2019}}</ref> and is often done in private settings.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/world/asia/06iht-letter06.html |title=Mao's Legacy Still Divides China |last=Tatlow |first=Didi Kirsten |date=5 May 2011 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=18 May 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> When a video of [[Bi Fujian]], a television host, insulting Mao at a private dinner in 2015 went viral, Bi garnered the support of Weibo users, with 80% of them saying in a poll that Bi should not apologize amidst backlash from state affiliates.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.firstpost.com/world/everyone-victim-mao-no-one-dares-say-says-tv-host-china-draws-ire-2191357.html |title=Everyone is a victim of Mao, but no one dares to say it, says TV host in China, draws ire |website=Firstpost |date=10 April 2015 |access-date=18 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Chinese TV Anchor To Be Punished For Mao Jibe |url=https://news.sky.com/story/chinese-tv-anchor-to-be-punished-for-mao-jibe-10349877 |access-date=18 May 2019 |publisher=[[Sky News]]}}</ref> Chinese citizens are aware of Mao's mistakes, but many see Mao as a national hero. He is seen as someone who successfully liberated the country from [[Japanese occupation of China|Japanese occupation]] and from Western imperialist exploitation dating back to the [[Opium Wars]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last1=Ding |first1=Iza |last2=Javed |first2=Jeffrey |date=26 May 2019 |title=Why Maoism still resonates in China today |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/29/why-maoism-still-resonates-china-today/}}</ref> Between 2015 and 2018, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' interviewed 70 people in China about the Maoist era. A "sizable proportion" lauded the era's simplicity, attributing to it the "clear meaning" of life and minimal inequality; they contended that the "spiritual life" was rich. The interviewees simultaneously acknowledged the poor "material life" and other negative experiences under Mao.<ref name=":2" />
[[File:Mao Zedong Square 20210319.jpg|thumb|Mao Zedong Square at Shaoshan]]
On 25 December 2008, China opened the Mao Zedong Square to visitors in his home town of central Hunan Province to mark the 115th anniversary of his birth.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-12/25/content_7341714.htm |title=Chairman Mao square opened on his 115th birth anniversary |work=[[China Daily]] |date=25 December 2008 |access-date=2 January 2013}}; {{cite news |title=Mao Zedong still draws crowds on 113th birth anniversary |url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200612/27/eng20061227_336033.html |date=27 December 2006 |access-date=2 January 2013 |work=[[People's Daily]]}}</ref>

Former party official Su Shachi has opined that "he was a great historical criminal, but he was also a great force for good."<ref name="Biography 2005">[[Biography (TV series)]] [https://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3081083673/ Mao Tse Tung: China's Peasant Emperor] [[A&E Network]] 2005, {{ASIN|B000AABKXG}} {{time needed|date=January 2013}}</ref> In a similar vein, journalist [[Liu Binyan]] has described Mao as "both monster and a genius."<ref name="Biography 2005"/> [[Li Rui (politician)|Li Rui]], Mao's personal secretary and Communist Party comrade, opined that "Mao's way of thinking and governing was terrifying. He put no value on human life. The deaths of others meant nothing to him."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Watts |first=Jonathan |date=1 June 2005 |title=China must confront dark past, says Mao confidant |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/02/china.jonathanwatts |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917215335/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/02/china.jonathanwatts |archive-date=17 September 2018 |access-date=13 August 2021 |website=[[The Guardian]] |language=en}}</ref>

[[Chen Yun]] remarked "Had Mao died in 1956, his achievements would have been immortal. Had he died in 1966, he would still have been a great man but flawed. But he died in 1976. Alas, what can one say?"<ref>{{cite news |title=Big bad wolf |url=http://www.economist.com/node/7854042 |access-date=28 July 2015 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=31 August 2006}}</ref> [[Deng Xiaoping]] said "I should remind you that Chairman Mao dedicated most of his life to China, that he saved the party and the revolution in their most critical moments, that, in short, his contribution was so great that, without him, the Chinese people would have had a much harder time finding the right path out of the darkness. We also shouldn't forget that it was Chairman Mao who combined the teachings of Marx and Lenin with the realities of Chinese history—that it was he who applied those principles, creatively, not only to politics but to philosophy, art, literature, and military strategy."<ref>{{cite news |title=Deng: Cleaning up Mao's mistakes |url=http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=472059 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=1980 |access-date=20 November 2021 |archive-date=29 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829143815/http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=472059 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Outside China ===
{{external media| float = right| width = 230px|video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?155775-1/mao-life ''Booknotes'' interview with Philip Short on ''Mao: A Life'', April 2, 2000], [[C-SPAN]]}}
[[Philip Short]] argued that the overwhelming majority of the deaths under Mao were unintended consequences of famine.{{sfn|Short|2001|p=632}} Short stated that landlord class were not exterminated as a people due to Mao's belief in redemption through thought reform,{{sfn|Short|2001|p=632}} and compared Mao with 19th-century Chinese reformers who challenged China's traditional beliefs in the era of China's clashes with Western colonial powers. Short writes that "Mao's tragedy and his grandeur were that he remained to the end in thrall to his own revolutionary dreams. ... He freed China from the straitjacket of its Confucian past, but the bright Red future he promised turned out to be a sterile purgatory."{{sfn|Short|2001|p=632}}

Alexander V. Pantsov and Steven I. Levine, in their biography, asserted that Mao was both "a successful creator and ultimately an evil destroyer" but also argued that he was a complicated figure who should not be lionised as a saint or reduced to a demon, as he "indeed tried his best to bring about prosperity and gain international respect for his country."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pantsov |first1=Alexander V. |last2=Levine |first2=Steven I. |date=2013 |title=Mao: The Real Story |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |pages=5–6 |isbn=978-1451654486}}</ref> They also remarked on Mao's legacy: "A talented Chinese politician, an historian, a poet and philosopher, an all-powerful dictator and energetic organizer, a skillful diplomat and utopian socialist, the head of the most populous state, resting on his laurels, but at the same time an indefatigable revolutionary who sincerely attempted to refashion the way of life and consciousness of millions of people, a hero of national revolution and a bloody social reformer—this is how Mao goes down in history. The scale of his life was too grand to be reduced to a single meaning." Mao's English interpreter [[Sidney Rittenberg]] wrote in his memoir that whilst Mao "was a great leader in history", he was also "a great criminal because, not that he wanted to, not that he intended to, but in fact, his wild fantasies led to the deaths of tens of millions of people."<ref name="Reut09"/>

[[File:President Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong.jpg|thumb|Mao greets U.S. President [[Richard Nixon]] during his [[1972 Nixon visit to China|visit to China in 1972]].]]

The United States placed a trade embargo on the People's Republic as a result of its involvement in the [[Korean War]], until [[Richard Nixon]] decided that developing relations with the PRC would be useful.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Xin-zhu J. |date=2006 |title=China and the US Trade Embargo, 1950–1972 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44288827 |journal=[[American Journal of Chinese Studies]] |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=169–186 |jstor=44288827 |issn=2166-0042}}</ref> The television series ''[[Biography (TV series)|Biography]]'' stated: "[Mao] turned China from a feudal backwater into one of the most powerful countries in the World. ... The Chinese system he overthrew was backward and corrupt; few would argue the fact that he dragged China into the 20th century. But at a cost in human lives that is staggering."<ref name="Biography 2005"/> Professor [[Jeffrey Wasserstrom]] compares China's relationship to Mao to Americans' remembrance of [[Andrew Jackson]]; both countries regard the leaders in a positive light, despite their respective roles in devastating policies. Jackson forcibly moved Native Americans through the [[Trail of Tears]], resulting in thousands of deaths, while Mao was at the helm.<ref name="Schiavenza 2010">{{cite web |title=Some China Book Notes |url=http://mattschiavenza.com/2010/10/08/some-china-book-notes/ |website=Matt Schiavenza.com |access-date=8 February 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209022723/http://mattschiavenza.com/2010/10/08/some-china-book-notes/ |archive-date=9 February 2015}}</ref>{{efn|"Though admittedly far from perfect, the comparison is based on the fact that Jackson is remembered both as someone who played a significant role in the development of a political organisation (the Democratic Party) that still has many partisans, and as someone responsible for brutal policies toward Native Americans that are now referred to as genocidal.

Both men are thought of as having done terrible things yet this does not necessarily prevent them from being used as positive symbols. And Jackson still appears on $20 bills, even though Americans tend to view as heinous the institution of slavery (of which he was a passionate defender) and the early 19th-century military campaigns against Native Americans (in which he took part).

At times Jackson, for all his flaws, is invoked as representing an egalitarian strain within the American democratic tradition, a [[self-made man]] of the people who rose to power via straight talk and was not allied with moneyed interests. Mao stands for something roughly similar."<ref name="Schiavenza 2010"/>}}

[[File:MaoStatueinLijang.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Statue of Mao in [[Lijiang, Yunnan|Lijiang]]]]

[[John King Fairbank]] remarked, "The simple facts of Mao's career seem incredible: in a vast land of 400 million people, at age 28, with a dozen others, to found a party and in the next fifty years to win power, organize, and remold the people and reshape the land—history records no greater achievement. [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]], [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]], [[Charlemagne]], all the kings of Europe, [[Napoleon]], [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]], [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]]—no predecessor can equal Mao Tse-tung's scope of accomplishment, for no other country was ever so ancient and so big as China."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fairbank |first=John King |author-link=John King Fairbank |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eGbZgYbDVugC&pg=PA276 |title=The United States and China |edition=4th Revised and Enlarged |date=1983 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|isbn=9780674036642 }}</ref> In ''China: A New History'', Fairbank and Goldman assessed Mao's legacy: "Future historians may conclude that Mao's role was to try to destroy the age-old bifurcation of China between a small educated ruling stratum and the vast mass of common people. We do not yet know how far he succeeded. The economy was developing, but it was left to his successors to create a new political structure."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fairbank |first1=John King |last2=Goldman |first2=Merle |title=China: a new history |date=2006 |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge (Mass.) |isbn=0-674-01828-1 |edition=2nd enlarged}}</ref>

[[Stuart R. Schram]] said that Mao was an "Eternal rebel, refusing to be bound by the laws of God or man, nature or Marxism, [who] led his people for three decades in pursuit of a vision initially noble, which turned increasingly into a mirage, and then into a nightmare. Was he a [[Faust]] or [[Prometheus]], attempting the impossible for the sake of humanity, or a despot of unbridled ambition, drunk with his own power and his own cleverness?"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schram |first1=Stuart R. |author1-link=Stuart R. Schram |title=The thought of Mao Tse-Tung |date=1989 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] |isbn=978-0521310628}}</ref> Schram also agreed "with the current Chinese view that Mao's merits outweighed his faults, but it is not easy to put a figure on the positive and negative aspects. How does one weigh, for example, the good fortune of hundreds of millions of peasants in getting land against the execution, in the course of land reform and the 'Campaign against Counter-Revolutionaries,' or in other contexts, of millions, some of whom certainly deserved to die, but others of whom undoubtedly did not? How does one balance the achievements in economic development during the first Five-Year Plan, or during the whole twenty-seven years of Mao's leadership after 1949, against the starvation which came in the wake of the misguided enthusiasm of the Great Leap Forward, or the bloody shambles of the Cultural Revolution?" Schram added, "In the last analysis, however, I am more interested in the potential future impact of his thought than in sending Mao as an individual to Heaven or to Hell."<ref name="MacFarquhar">{{cite journal |title=Stuart Reynolds Schram, 1924–2012 |last=MacFarquhar |first=Roderick |journal=[[China Quarterly]] |date=December 2012 |volume=212 |issue=212 |pages=1099–1122 |doi=10.1017/S0305741012001518 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[Maurice Meisner]] assessed Mao's legacy: "It is the blots on the Maoist record, especially the Great Leap and the Cultural Revolution, that are now most deeply imprinted on our political and historical consciousness. That these adventures were failures colossal in scope, and that they took an enormous human toll, cannot and should not be forgotten. But future historians, without ignoring the failures and the crimes, will surely record the Maoist era in the history of the People's Republic (however else they may judge it) as one of the great modernizing epochs in world history, and one that brought great social and human benefits to the Chinese people."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meisner |first1=Maurice J. |title=Mao's China and after: a history of the People's Republic |date=1999 |publisher=Free Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=0684856352 |edition=3.}}</ref>

=== Third World ===
{{see also|Maoism–Third Worldism}}
The ideology of Maoism has influenced many Communists, mainly in the [[Third World]], including revolutionary movements such as [[Cambodia]]'s [[Khmer Rouge]],<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert Jackson |last=Alexander |title=International Maoism in the developing world |publisher=Praeger |date=1999 |page=200}}; {{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Karl D. |title=Cambodia, 1975–1978: Rendezvous with Death |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0691025414 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h27D3EYGwzgC&q=Radical+Left-wing+Chinese+Communist+Underpinnings+of+Cambodian+Communism&pg=PA219 |page=219 |date=1992 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[Peru]]'s [[Shining Path]], and the [[Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)|Nepalese revolutionary movement]]. Under the influence of Mao's agrarian socialism and [[Cultural Revolution]], [[Pol Pot]] and the Khmer Rouge conceived of his disastrous [[Year Zero (political notion)|Year Zero]] policies which purged the nation of its teachers, artists and intellectuals and emptied its cities, resulting in the [[Cambodian genocide]].<ref>[[Biography (TV series)]]: Pol Pot; [[A&E Network]], 2003.</ref> The [[Revolutionary Communist Party, USA]], also claims Marxism–Leninism-Maoism as its ideology, as do other Communist Parties around the world which are part of the [[Revolutionary Internationalist Movement]]. China itself has moved sharply away from Maoism since Mao's death, and most people outside of China who describe themselves as Maoist regard the Deng Xiaoping reforms to be a betrayal of Maoism, in line with Mao's view of "[[capitalist roader]]s" within the Communist Party.<ref>{{cite book |first=Tim |last=Clissold |title=Chinese Rules: Mao's Dog, Deng's Cat, and Five Timeless Lessons from the Front Lines in China |location=NY |publisher=Harper |date=2014 |isbn=978-0062316578}}</ref> As the Chinese government instituted market economic reforms starting in the late 1970s and as later Chinese leaders took power, less recognition was given to the status of Mao. This accompanied a decline in state recognition of Mao in later years in contrast to previous years when the state organised numerous events and seminars commemorating Mao's 100th birthday. Nevertheless, the Chinese government has never officially repudiated the tactics of Mao. Deng Xiaoping, who was opposed to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, stated that "when we write about his mistakes we should not exaggerate, for otherwise we shall be discrediting Chairman Mao Zedong and this would mean discrediting our party and state."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dirlik |first=Arif |date=4 June 2012 |title=Mao Zedong in Contemporary Chinese Official Discourse and History |journal=China Perspectives |language=en |volume=2012 |issue=2 |pages=17–27 |doi=10.4000/chinaperspectives.5852 |issn=2070-3449 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The July 1963 [[Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty]] increased Chinese concerns over a US-Soviet re-alignment against China and prompted Mao's articulation of the "Two Intermediate Zones" concept.<ref name=":172" />{{Rp|page=|pages=96–97}} Mao viewed Africa and Latin America as the "First Intermediate Zone", in which China's status as a non-white power might enable it to compete with and supersede both United States and Soviet Union influence.<ref name=":172" />{{Rp|page=48}} The other intermediate zone was the USA's wealthier allies in Europe.<ref name=":172" />{{Rp|page=97}}

=== Military strategy ===
Mao's military writings continue to have a large amount of influence both among those who seek to create an insurgency and those who seek to crush one, especially in manners of guerrilla warfare, at which Mao is popularly regarded as a genius.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ghandhi |first=R.K.S. |date=1965 |title=Mao Tse-tung: His Military Writings and Philosophy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44635448 |journal=Naval War College Review |volume=17 |issue=7 |pages=1–27 |jstor=44635448 |issn=0028-1484 }}</ref> The [[Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)|Nepali Maoists]] were highly influenced by Mao's views on [[On Protracted War|protracted war]], [[New Democracy|new democracy]], [[Mass line|support of masses]], [[Continuous revolution theory|permanency of revolution]] and the [[Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Upreti |first=Bhuwan Chandra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwGa885LPQAC&pg=PA56 |title=Maoists in Nepal: From Insurgency to Political Mainstream |date=2008 |publisher=Gyan Publishing House |isbn=978-8178356877 |pages=56 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Mao's major contribution to the military science is his theory of [[People's War]], with not only guerrilla warfare but more importantly, [[Mobile Warfare]] methodologies. Mao had successfully applied Mobile Warfare in the Korean War, and was able to encircle, push back and then halt the UN forces in Korea, despite the clear superiority of UN firepower.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Zhang, Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950-1953, 1995 {{!}} US-China Institute |url=https://china.usc.edu/zhang-maos-military-romanticism-china-and-korean-war-1950-1953-1995 |access-date=19 May 2023 |website=china.usc.edu |language=en |archive-date=13 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213153410/https://china.usc.edu/zhang-maos-military-romanticism-china-and-korean-war-1950-1953-1995 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Literature ===
Mao's poems and writings are frequently cited by both Chinese and non-Chinese. The official Chinese translation of President [[Barack Obama]]'s inauguration speech used a famous line from one of Mao's poems.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://chinapressusa.com/newscenter/2009-01/22/content_186098.htm |work=[[People's Daily]] |script-title=zh:奧巴馬就職演說 引毛澤東詩詞 |language=zh |title=Àobāmǎ jiùzhí yǎnshuō yǐn máozédōng shīcí |trans-title=Obama Inaugural Speech Quotes Mao Zedong's Poetry |date=22 January 2009 |access-date=28 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827144936/http://chinapressusa.com/newscenter/2009-01/22/content_186098.htm |archive-date=27 August 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In the mid-1990s, Mao's picture began to appear on all new [[renminbi]] currency from the People's Republic of China. This was officially instituted as an anti-counterfeiting measure as Mao's face is widely recognised in contrast to the generic figures that appear in older currency. On 13 March 2006, the ''[[People's Daily]]'' reported that a member of the [[Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]] proposed to include the portraits of [[Sun Yat-sen]] and Deng Xiaoping in the renminbi.<ref>{{Cite news |date=13 March 2006 |title=Portraits of Sun Yat-sen, Deng Xiaoping proposed adding to RMB notes |work=[[People's Daily]] |url=http://en.people.cn/200603/13/eng20060313_250192.html |access-date=23 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308043656/http://en.people.cn/200603/13/eng20060313_250192.html |archive-date=8 March 2016}}</ref>

=== Public image ===
Mao gave contradicting statements on the subject of [[personality cults]]. In 1956, as a response to the [[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|Khrushchev Report]] that criticised [[Joseph Stalin]], Mao stated that personality cults are "poisonous ideological survivals of the old society", and reaffirmed China's commitment to [[collective leadership]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Mao Zedong: A Political and Intellectual Portrait |first=Maurice |last=Meisner |publisher=Polity |year=2007 |page=133}}</ref> At the 1958 party congress in Chengdu, Mao expressed support for the personality cults of people whom he labelled as genuinely worthy figures, not those that expressed "blind worship".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/cultural-revolution/cult.html |title=Cult of Mao |publisher=library.thinkquest.org |access-date=23 August 2008 |quote=This remark of Mao seems to have elements of truth but it is false. He confuses the worship of truth with a personality cult, despite there being an essential difference between them. But this remark played a role in helping to promote the personality cult that gradually arose in the CCP. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080601001246/http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/cultural-revolution/cult.html |archive-date=1 June 2008}}</ref>

In 1962, Mao proposed the [[Socialist Education Movement]] (SEM) in an attempt to educate the peasants to resist the "temptations" of feudalism and the sprouts of capitalism that he saw re-emerging in the countryside from Liu's economic reforms.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://chineseposters.net/resources/landsberger-paint-it-red.php |title=Stefan Landsberger, Paint it Red. Fifty years of Chinese Propaganda Posters |website=chineseposters.net |access-date=7 November 2017}}</ref> Large quantities of politicised art were produced and circulated—with Mao at the centre. Numerous posters, [[Chairman Mao badge|badges]], and musical compositions referenced Mao in the phrase "Chairman Mao is the red sun in our hearts" ({{lang-zh|labels=no |t=毛主席是我們心中的紅太陽 |p=Máo Zhǔxí Shì Wǒmen Xīnzhōng De Hóng Tàiyáng}})<ref name="WangMaoBadgesChapter5">{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090808123527/https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/2%20-%20Part%202%20-%20Mao%20badges%20with%20low%20res%20image%20of%20poster.pdf|date=2009-08-08}} [https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/2%20-%20Part%202%20-%20Mao%20badges%20with%20low%20res%20image%20of%20poster.pdf Chapter 5: "Mao Badges – Visual Imagery and Inscriptions"] in: [[Helen Wang]]: ''[[Chairman Mao badge]]s: symbols and Slogans of the Cultural Revolution'' (British Museum Research Publication 169). The Trustees of the British Museum, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0861591695}}.</ref> and a "Savior of the people" ({{lang-zh|labels=no |c=人民的大救星 |p=Rénmín De Dà Jiùxīng}}).<ref name="WangMaoBadgesChapter5"/>

In October 1966, Mao's ''[[Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung]]'', known as the ''Little Red Book'', was published. Party members were encouraged to carry a copy with them, and possession was almost mandatory as a criterion for membership. According to ''[[Mao: The Unknown Story]]'' by [[Jung Chang|Jun Yang]], the mass publication and sale of this text contributed to making Mao the only millionaire created in 1950s China (332). Over the years, Mao's image became displayed almost everywhere, present in homes, offices and shops. His quotations were [[Emphasis (typography)|typographically emphasised]] by putting them in boldface or red type in even the most obscure writings. Music from the period emphasised Mao's stature, as did children's rhymes. The phrase "Long Live Chairman Mao for [[ten thousand years]]" was commonly heard during the era.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lu |first=Xing |title=Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: the impact on Chinese thought, Culture, and Communication |year=2004 |publisher=[[University of South Carolina Press]] |isbn=978-1570035432 |page=65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GO5HrrJC_aMC&q=Long+Live+Chairman+Mao+for+ten+thousand+years&pg=PA65 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

[[File:Mao mausoleum queue.jpg|thumb|center|<div style="text-align: center">Visitors wait in line to enter the Mao Zedong Mausoleum.</div>|alt=|300x300px]]

Mao also has a presence in China and around the world in popular culture, where his face adorns everything from T-shirts to coffee cups. Mao's granddaughter, [[Kong Dongmei]], defended the phenomenon, stating that "it shows his influence, that he exists in people's consciousness and has influenced several generations of Chinese people's way of life. Just like [[Che Guevara in popular culture|Che Guevara's image]], his has become a symbol of revolutionary culture."<ref name="Reut09">[http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-42756920090928?sp=true Granddaughter Keeps Mao's Memory Alive in Bookshop] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210104030930/https://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-42756920090928?sp=true |date=4 January 2021 }} by Maxim Duncan, [[Reuters]], 28 September 2009</ref> Since 1950, over 40 million people have visited Mao's birthplace in [[Shaoshan]], Hunan.<ref name="ShaoShan">{{cite web |url=http://www.shaoshan.gov.cn/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=14617 |script-title=zh:韶山升起永远不落的红太阳 |language=zh |title=Sháoshān shēng qǐ yǒngyuǎn bù luò de hóng tàiyáng |trans-title=The red sun that never sets rises in Shaoshan |publisher=Shaoshan.gov.cn |access-date=25 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107235535/http://www.shaoshan.gov.cn/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=14617 |archive-date=7 November 2014}}</ref>

A 2016 survey by [[YouGov]] survey found that 42% of American [[millennials]] have never heard of Mao.<ref>{{cite news |title=Poll: Millennials desperately need to bone up on the history of communism |url=https://www.marketwatch.com/story/poll-millennials-desperately-need-to-bone-up-on-the-history-of-communism-2016-10-17 |work=MarketWatch |date=21 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Poll Finds Young Americans More Open to Socialist Ideas |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/young-americans-seen-less-opposed-to-socialist-ideas/3562681.html |work=[[Voice of America|VOA News]] |date=23 October 2016}}</ref> According to the [[Centre for Independent Studies|CIS]] poll, in 2019 only 21% of Australian millennials were familiar with Mao Zedong.<ref>{{cite news |first=Tom |last=Switzer |title=Opinion: Why Millennials are embracing socialism |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/anxiety-plus-ignorance-why-millennials-are-embracing-socialism-20190222-p50zj5.html |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=23 February 2019}}</ref> In 2020s China, members of [[Generation Z]] are embracing Mao's revolutionary ideas, including violence against the capitalist class, amid rising social inequality, long working hours, and decreasing economic opportunities.<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 |work=[[The New York Times]] |location= |access-date=8 July 2021}}</ref> As of the early 2020s, surveys conducted on [[Zhihu]] frequently rank Mao as one of the greatest and most influential figures in Chinese history.<ref name=":11" />{{Rp|page=58}}