Key Players in the Revolution

Mao Tse-tung

The Hero of modern China, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and leader of the Communist Revolution in China.   Mao was born in the rural province of Hunan, received a university education and was introduced to Marxist thought in Beijing by the founding members of the CCP.  Mao rose to power after the Long March that took place from October 1934 to October 1935.  He rebuilt the CCP and led them to victory in WWII.   His accomplishments and failures as Chairman of the Party have received mixed reviews, but it is clear that Mao was the most important figure in modern Chinese history.

Deng Xiaoping

Deng joined the Communist movement in his teens and devoted his life to the communist cause.  A survivor of the long march, he held a number of positions in the Party and the military, rising to the rank of Secretary-General before being vilified in the Cultural Revolution for his ideas of a more economically open china.  He returned to power after Mao’s death and launched a series of massive reforms. His legacy is a stronger economy and improved lives for Chinese. 

Liu Shaoqi

Liu was one of the first Chinese to study in the Soviet Union and his initial role in the CCP was primarily a theoretician.  Following the Great Leap Forward, when Mao’s official power was stripped, Liu became the President of China, and held this position into the Cultural Revolution.  He was vilified for allowing the nation to stray from the revolutionary path and move towards capitalism.  He disappeared shortly into the Cultural Revolution, and died a few years later while in exile.  

Lin Baio

Lin Baio was a General in the PLA and Minister of Defense under Mao.  He was a military hero who had won his fame in the Civil War against the Nationalists, he rose to become Mao's Defense Minister and then eventually was named his successor in the 1960s.  Lin was known as being a great supporter of Mao, organizing a "little red book" of Mao's quotes used by thousands of PLA soldiers and Red Guards.  It was a shock to Chinese when Lin was accused of a plot to assassinate Mao in what is known as the "571 Affair."  He was reported to have died when his plane was shot down in Mongolia, trying to flee after the failed coup.