His picture hangs on the gate of Heavenly Staircase Square in the heart of the political center of the People's Republic of China, which was founded in 1949. He died on September 9, 1976, at the age of 82, in Beijing. Even half a century after his death, Mao's legacy remains very contradictory.
Mao dreamed of a strong communist state with a command economy in which the state would redistribute wealth. He called for class struggle and in 1966 launched the Cultural Revolution that continued until his death. Those who belonged to the so-called "five black classes", including capitalists and coup plotters, were imprisoned. The working class was supposed to rule the country.
Historian Professor Daniel Leese of the University of Freiburg explains that one of the most important changes that occurred after Mao's death was the end of the classification of people based on their class origins. He suggests that the uncertainty and strategic arbitrariness associated with classifying individuals as “enemies” of society have caused a deep sense of insecurity and made society vulnerable to manipulation. In his political campaigns, Mao pushed this to seemingly absurd limits.
Are Mao's ideas still relevant to the times?
Zhang Lun, a professor at the Université Sergy de Paris, answers the question of whether China today still needs Mao's ideas indefinitely. He says Mao's political legacy is unusable. "The fundamental change in China was 'getting rid of Maoism,'" Zhang says in an interview with DW.
“But this process was never completed during the past five decades,” the expert admits. What remains is the one-party system and the strong leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Mao's name is included in the Chinese Constitution and his ideas remain part of China's official ideology.
Professor Jan Christopher Mittelstedt of the University of Zurich's Asia-East Institute says the party's dominance over state and society has been a fundamental principle for decades. Mao's famous dictum "Political power emerges from the muzzle of a gun" still applies: all General Secretaries of the Chinese Communist Party were at the same time Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Mao established his ideas as an institutional core in the management of state affairs. Zhang Ping, a journalist who criticizes the government and lives in exile in Germany, says the principle is: "The party leads everything." “The state wants to pool resources to accomplish major tasks. The Chinese Communist Party will impose its political goals at any cost. The interests of the general public may be sacrificed to the extent necessary to maintain order.”
Mao's legacy
Despite the controversy that Mao raised within the party, those who assumed power after him showed their respect for him. Hua Guofeng, leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1976 to 1981, summed up the political course with the following statement: “We will firmly adhere to all the political decisions made by Chairman Mao and unhesitatingly follow all the instructions he issued.”
Hua's successor, the reformist politician Deng Xiaoping, had himself suffered from Mao's political campaigns. However, Deng stated in 1980 in an interview with Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci that Mao's portrait hanging above the Tiananmen Gate should remain "forever." He noted that Mao's achievements outweighed his mistakes. “Damending Comrade Mao Zedong also means tarnishing the reputation of our Party and our country.”
Deng also mentioned in this interview a percentage: Mao acted correctly and well in 70 percent of the cases, while he was wrong in 30 percent of them, especially regarding the Cultural Revolution that lasted from 1966 to 1976, which was the result of Mao's initiative calling for mass class struggle and plunged the country into chaos.
In 1978, Deng launched what is known as the reform and opening-up policy, paving the way for China to prosperity. But the presidents who succeeded him never questioned the authority of Mao, who was considered a political icon. In 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping stated that the post-reform and opening-up period should not be used to deny the period that preceded it. The era leading up to 1978 was characterized almost exclusively by Mao's personality.
The Communist Party avoids reassessment
“Even today the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party still depends on Mao,” asserts historian Mittelstedt of the University of Zurich. “A comprehensive reappraisal of Mao could radically destabilize the Chinese Communist Party. "It will raise questions not only about Mao's personal decisions, but also about the institutions and structures that enabled them as well as the Party's claim that it has the exclusive right to interpret its own history."
Professor Felix Wimhuer, a specialist in Chinese studies and historian at the University of Cologne, explains that the political scene in China is clearly different from the scene in the Soviet Union at the time, which included two prominent figures. “Nikita Khrushchev, as leader of the Soviet Communist Party, could say that Lenin was the great founding leader while Stalin was a dictator. But Mao plays a dominant role in the history of the Chinese Communist Party. If it was rejected in its entirety, this would put large parts of the party’s history into question.”
Current President Xi Jinping has bad memories of the Cultural Revolution in his family. His father, General Shi Zhongchun, was one of the victims of the purges that took place at that time. Because of his family background, the Chinese Communist Party refused nine times between 1969 and 1974 to accept the younger Xi's accession. He did not become a member of the party until he submitted the tenth application.
Is Shi the new Mao?
“What Xi learned from the Cultural Revolution was not a lesson derived from being a victim of political campaigns, but a lesson about power,” explains journalist Zhang Ping. “He did not learn that a regime like this should never exist again, but rather that whoever loses political power becomes a hostage to the mercy of others.”
When Xi rose to the top of the party hierarchy in 2012, he allowed himself to be portrayed and publicly presented as a cult figure just like Mao. China affairs researcher Wimhuer says he attaches greater importance to oversight and top-down governance. He can thus consolidate his power by strengthening institutions and the party apparatus.
But there is a difference between these two politicians in the Communist Party, as Mittelstedt explains: Mao was above the party. His authority was based simply on being “Mao.” “As for Xi, he is a party soldier to the core. His authority derives from the party apparatus and he rules through these apparatuses. In the end, Xi Jinping remains a product of the system that Mao created.”
Prepared in Arabic by: M.A.M
Edited by: Imad Ghanem
