40 APPENDIX 1 MAO ZEDONG'S CHRONOLOGY
1893, December 26—a son Zedong (his second, unofficial name is Runzhi) is born into the family of a prosperous peasant Mao Yichang and his wife, Wen Qimei, in the village of Shaoshanchong, Xiangtan county, Hunan province.
1913, Spring–June 1918—attends the Provincial Fourth (later First) Normal School in Changsha.
1918, April—takes part in organizing the educational liberal-democratic Renovation of the People Study Society.
1918, October–March 1919—works as an assistant to the librarian of Peking University. First becomes acquainted with Marxism-Leninism.
1921, January 1–3—founds a communist organization in Changsha.
July 23–31—takes part in the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Shanghai and Jiaxing as a representative of the Hunan organization.
1923, June 12–20—takes part in the Third Congress of the CCP in Canton. He is elected as a member and secretary of the CEC and director of the Organizational Department of the CEC. After the congress, in keeping with the united front policy, he joins the Guomindang.
1924, January 20–30—takes part in the sessions of the First Congress of the Guomindang in Canton. He is chosen as a candidate member of the CEC Guomindang.
1925, February–August—takes leave due to illness, leads the movement of the poorest peasants and paupers in Shaoshan and neighboring villages.
1925, October–May 1926—serves as acting director of the Propaganda Department of the Guomindang CEC in Canton. He edits the Guomindang journal Zhengzhi zhoubao (Political weekly).
1927, January 4–February 5—undertakes research on the peasant movement in Hunan, after which he calls for a radical agrarian revolution.
April 12—Chiang Kai-shek unleashes a bloody white terror in Shanghai and other regions in eastern China.
April 27–May 9—takes part in the Fifth Congress of the CCP in Wuhan. He is chosen as a candidate member of the Central Committee.
July 15—Wang Jingwei, the leader of the Guomindang leftists, breaks the united front with the communists.
August 7—takes part in an emergency conference of the CCP Central Committee in Hankou. He is chosen as a candidate member of the Provisional Politburo of the CC.
September 9–19—organizes a communist uprising in eastern Hunan, and, after its failure, goes to the high mountain area of Jinggang on the Hunan-Jiangxi border, where, with the help of local bandits, he founds the first soviet area.
1928, April 20 or 21—Zhu De's forces and Mao's detachments unite in eastern Hunan and soon are designated the Fourth Corps of the Chinese Worker-Peasant Revolutionary Army. In June 1928, Mao founds the Red Army.
June 18–July 11—at the Sixth Congress of the CCP he is chosen in absentia as a member of the Central Committee.
1929, January–February—leads troops to the Jiangxi-Fujian border region.
1930—Mao becomes the general political commissar of the First Front Army and twice attacks Changsha.
September—at an enlarged plenum of the Central Committee in Shanghai he is co-opted as a candidate member of the Politburo.
October—establishes a guerrilla base in south Jiangxi; it is called the Central Soviet Area (CSA).
December—provokes the Futian Incident.
1930, end–September 1931—Mao's forces repel Chiang Kai-shek's three punitive expeditions against the CSA.
1931, November 7–20—Mao presides over the First All-China Congress of Soviets in Ruijin. He is chosen as chairman of the CEC and head of the Council of People's Commissars of the Chinese Soviet Republic (CSR).
1931–1932—is subjected to single-minded attacks from the CCP Central Committee that he rejects. He is stripped of all his positions in the Red Army.
1933, February–October 1934—the Red Army of the Central Soviet Area fights against Chiang Kai-shek's fourth and fifth punitive expeditions.
1934, January 15–18—on Moscow's insistence he is transferred from a candidate member to a member of the Politburo at an enlarged plenum of the CCP Central Committee.
January 22–February 1—takes part in the work of the Second All-China Congress of Soviets. He is reelected chairman of the CEC of the CSR, but is stripped of his post as head of the Council of People's Commissars.
October—departs on the Long March with troops of the Red Army.
1935, January 15–17—takes part in an enlarged Politburo meeting at Zunyi. He criticizes the party and army leadership. He is co-opted into the Politburo Standing Committee and is appointed assistant to the general political commissar of the Red Army.
March 4—appointed front political commissar of the Red Army.
July–August—Stalin starts to promote Mao's cult of personality.
1935, September–November 1936—split with Zhang Guotao, who establishes a second “CCP Central Committee.”
1935, October—completion of the Long March. Mao begins to establish a soviet area in northern Shaanxi.
1937, July 7—Japan launches a full-scale war against China.
September 22–23—formation of a new united front with the Guomindang.
1938, July—Georgii Dimitrov, general secretary of the Executive Committee of the Comintern, transmits to the CCP Central Committee Moscow's decision to recognize Mao Zedong as the leader of the Chinese people. The Comintern insists that Chinese communists unite around Mao.
1939, December–January 1940—formulates his theory of New Democracy.
1942, February—begins a wide-scale purge in the party, the zhengfeng campaign.
1945, April 23–June 11—presides over the Seventh Congress of the CCP in Yan'an. The congress adopts new party statutes that say “Mao Zedong Thought” “guides its entire work.” He is chosen as a member of the Central Committee, and at the First Plenum as chairman of the Central Committee, of the Politburo, and of the Secretariat of the Central Committee.
August 14 (15)—Japan surrenders.
End of August–mid-October—conducts peace talks with Chiang Kai-shek and other Guomindang leaders in Chongqing.
1946, June—start of a new civil war with the Guomindang.
1949, January 31—PLA troops enter Beiping (Beijing).
September 30—chosen as chairman of the Central People's Government.
October 1—proclaims the founding of the People's Republic of China.
1949, December 16–February 17, 1950—pays an official visit to the Soviet Union. He conducts negotiations with Stalin and signs a Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance with the USSR.
1950, June—starts the New Democratic agrarian reform.
October 19—sends PLA troops to Korea to take part in the war against United Nations forces.
1953, January—start of implementation of the First Five-Year Plan.
Summer—formulates the party's general line to build socialism on the Soviet model.
1953–1954—concocts the Gao Gang–Rao Shushi Affair.
1954, September 15–28—presides over the First Session of the National People's Congress, which adopts the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. He is chosen as chairman of the PRC.
1955–1956—the socialist transformation of agriculture, industry, and commerce.
1956, April 25—delivers a speech at an enlarged plenum of the Politburo, “On the Ten Major Relationships,” which lays the foundation for the new policy of the CCP regarding socialist construction distinct from the Soviet model.
1957, February 27—delivers a speech at an enlarged meeting of the Supreme State Council, “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People,” in which he calls for a campaign, “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend.” The campaign is cut off on June 8 and followed by a struggle against “rightist bourgeois elements.”
1958, February 18—at an enlarged meeting of the Politburo he announces the policy of “more, faster, better, and more economically” as the new general line of the party in socialist construction. Three months later the Second Session of the Eighth Congress of the CCP confirms this policy. The Great Leap Forward begins.
November–December—submits request to the plenum of the CCP Central Committee that he be relieved of his post as chairman of the PRC. Four months later his request, approved by the plenum, is confirmed by the National People's Congress. Liu Shaoqi replaces him.
1959, July 2–August 16—presides over the Lushan enlarged meeting of the Politburo and the plenum of the CCP Central Committee. Unleashes a campaign against Peng Dehuai and his supporters, who had criticized the horrendous results of the Great Leap Forward.
1960, April—the beginning of public polemics between the CCP and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1961, Spring—Mao retreats to the “second line,” transferring daily leadership of the Central Committee to the “moderate” Liu Shaoqi, who implements a program of “adjustment.”
1962, January–February—at an enlarged meeting of the Central Committee attended by seven thousand cadres in Beijing, Mao's policies are subjected to criticism. He makes a self-criticism.
July—returns to the “first line” and initiates a struggle against the “moderates” in the party.
1965, November 10—on his initiative the Shanghai newspaper Literary Reports publishes Yao Wenyuan's critical article about Wu Han's play The Dismissal of Hai Rui from Office.
1966, May 16—on Mao's initiative an enlarged plenum of the Politburo acting in the name of the Central Committee adopts the text of a special communiqué to all party organizations throughout the country calling for the entire party to hold high the banner of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
August 5—writes a dazibao, “Bombard the Headquarters,” directing the Red Guards to strike against the “moderates” in the highest echelon of the party leadership.
August–November—greets parades of Red Guards on Tiananmen Square.
1967, February—a group of Politburo members come out in opposition to the Cultural Revolution.
May–July—mass disturbances in Wuhan directed against Red Guard extremists.
1968, July 3—demands the prompt cessation of Red Guard outrages. Over the next two months the PLA restores order.
1969, March 2–15—armed conflicts occur on Damansky (Zhenbao) Island between Soviet and Chinese border guards.
1970, August 23–September 6—a new Lushan plenum of the CCP Central Committee takes place. Mao strikes a blow against minister of defense Lin Biao and his subordinates.
1971, September 13—an airplane carrying Lin Biao, his wife, and son crashes in the territory of the Mongolian People's Republic. All aboard die.
October 25—the PRC becomes a member of the United Nations.
Autumn—Mao is seriously ill. His doctors diagnose congestive heart failure.
1972, February 21—receives President Richard Nixon on an official visit to the PRC and has a “philosophical discussion” with him lasting sixty-five minutes.
February 28—a joint Sino-American communiqué is published in Shanghai signifying progress toward the normalization of relations between the two countries.
1974, January—Mao loses his vision because of cataracts on both eyes.
February—formulates the theory of the “Three Worlds.”
Summer—doctors diagnose him with Lou Gehrig's disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
1976, January—after the death of Zhou Enlai, he names Hua Guofeng acting premier and entrusts him with daily leadership of the work of the Central Committee.
March 19–April 5—demonstrations and meetings on Tiananmen Square. Chinese citizens express grief at the passing of Zhou Enlai. The Politburo deploys the police against the demonstrators and disperses them. Mao supports the suppression of the “counterrevolutionary rebellion.”
April 7—appoints Hua Guofeng first deputy chairman of the Central Committee and premier of the State Council.
September 9, 12:10 a.m.—Mao dies.