Mao Zedong

American  

[mou zuh-doong, dzuh-, mou zuh-dawng] / ˈmaʊ zəˈdʊŋ, dzə-, ˈmaʊ ˈzʌˈdɔŋ /

Wade-Giles, Mao Tse-tung

noun

1. 1893–1976, Chinese Communist leader: chairman of the People's Republic of China 1949–59; chairman of the Chinese Communist Party 1943–76.

---

Mao Zedong Cultural  

1. A Chinese revolutionary leader of the twentieth century. He led an army of workers and peasants on the Long March in the 1920s and used guerrilla warfare techniques successfully on both the Japanese invaders and the forces of the Chinese government under Chiang Kai-shek. In 1949, his armies took over the country and established the People's Republic of China. Mao continued as chairman of China's Communist party and as premier. His “Little Red Book,” Quotations from Chairman Mao, was standard reading for schoolchildren of the country. Toward the end of his life, he brought about the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, in which all capitalist or elitist culture was to be purged. Mao died in 1976.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Mao Zedong

At issue are the sovereign bonds sold to investors worldwide by the Republic of China prior to the government of Mao Zedong, who led the country from 1949 until his death in 1976.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026

Zhu studied electrical engineering at Beijing's elite Tsinghua University and joined the Communist Party in 1949, the same year leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the "New China".

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

When Mao Zedong visited Moscow in 1950 to forge the Sino-Soviet alliance, Soviet propaganda posters depicted Stalin as slightly taller than Mao—a carefully calibrated signal of who was the elder brother.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

They are Mao Zedong, the long-deceased dictator who founded the People's Republic of China, and presided over some of the most traumatic chapters in China's recent history.

From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2026

Nor could any authority with powers short of Mao Zedong have stopped them.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker