Mao Zedong

Turn down the pages of Chinese history and one name that draws enough eyeballs, both for reasons right and wrong is Mao Zedong. Termed as the most controversial figure of China, Mao Zedong was a Chinese communist revolutionary, politician and socio-political theorist. Founder of the People’s Republic of China, he converted the nation into a single-party socialist state, with industry and business being nationalized under state ownership and socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. He governed the country as Chairman of the Communist Party of China until his death. His Marxist-Leninist ideology, together with his political and military strategies and policies are today known as Maoism. While his supporters honor him for taking the country on road to development and claim him to be responsible for the rise of modern China his critics rebuke him for being a dictator under whose administration human rights abuses were as common as muck. They even think him responsible for the loss of about 70 million lives through starvation, forced labour, suicide and execution.