Mao Zedong Biography and Timeline

Coalition Government

Mao backs Communist participation in negotiations for a coalition government

Role range: 1945-1976

Siping Strategy

Mao urges Communist forces to hold Siping as a strategic position in Manchuria

Role range: 1926-1949 – 1945-1976

Land Reform

Mao supports the shift from rent reduction toward more radical land reform in Communist-held areas

Role range: 1945-1976

Civil War Strategy

Mao frames the renewed conflict as a long revolutionary war against the Nationalists

Role range: 1926-1949 – 1945-1976

Civil War

Civil war between Chiang's Nationalists and Mao's Communists resumes after the failure of postwar coalition efforts

Role range: 1926-1949 – 1945-1976

Chinese Atomic Bomb

China tests its first atomic bomb using uranium programme infrastructure.

Role range: 1949-1976

China First Nuclear Test

China conducts its first nuclear test at Lop Nur and becomes the fifth nuclear-weapon state.

Role range: 1949-1976

Five-Man Group

Mao supports a cultural criticism campaign that develops into the Five-Man Group led by Peng Zhen

Role range: 1945-1976

Hangzhou Meeting

Mao directs criticism of the February Outline and prepares to overturn Peng Zhen's leadership of the cultural campaign

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Central Cultural Revolution Group

Mao replaces the old cultural apparatus with the Central Cultural Revolution Group dominated by his allies

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

May 16 Notification

Mao authorises the May 16 Notification warning that bourgeois representatives have infiltrated the party

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

May 16 Notification

Mao launches the Cultural Revolution through the May 16 Notification against alleged bourgeois elements in the party

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Big-Character Poster

Mao approves broadcasting Nie Yuanzi's poster, turning campus criticism into a national movement

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Bombard the Headquarters

Mao writes Bombard the Headquarters, signalling an attack on senior party leaders

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Sixteen Points

The party adopts the Sixteen Points, defining the programme of the Cultural Revolution

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Red Guard Armband

Mao wears a Red Guard armband, giving symbolic endorsement to student rebels

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Red Guard Rally

Mao receives and addresses a vast Red Guard rally in Tiananmen Square

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Destroy Four Olds

Red Guards attack old ideas, culture, customs and habits under Mao's revolutionary slogans

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Cultural Revolution

Mao calls on students and Red Guards to rebel against party and cultural authorities

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Down to the Countryside

Mao calls for educated youth to learn from workers, peasants and soldiers

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Cultural Revolution

Political leaders and intellectuals are publicly humiliated as Mao calls for attacks on bourgeois influence

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Shanghai Revolutionary Committee

Mao favours replacing the Shanghai Commune with a revolutionary committee model

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Army Intervention

Mao increasingly relies on the People's Liberation Army to restrain factional violence

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Revolutionary Committees

Mao promotes revolutionary committees combining cadres, masses and soldiers as new local governments

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Down to the Countryside

Mao orders educated youth to go to the countryside and be re-educated by poor and lower-middle peasants

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Ninth Party Congress

Mao opens the Ninth Party Congress, which declares the Cultural Revolution victorious but does not end its consequences

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

National Day Cancelled

National Day celebrations are cancelled after the Lin Biao incident shocks the leadership

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Tenth Party Congress

Mao opens the Tenth Party Congress after the Lin Biao incident and renewed factional tensions

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

China Signs Tlatelolco Protocol

China signed Additional Protocol Two in August, undertaking to respect the nuclear weapon free status of treaty parties.

China Ratifies Tlatelolco Protocol

China deposited its ratification of Additional Protocol Two on 12 June, formalising its participation in external nuclear assurances.

Dismissal of Deng

Mao approves Deng Xiaoping's removal from all posts after the Tiananmen Incident

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Death of Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong dies, leaving the Cultural Revolution radicals vulnerable

Role range: 1966-1976 – 1945-1976

Death of Mao Zedong

Death of Mao Zedong

Role range: 1949-1976