What were Mao Tse-tung's contributions?

Answer 1

Today, September 9th, marks the 32nd anniversary of the passing of Comrade Mao Zedong. Mao made many important contributions to Marxism-Leninism. He correctly understood the nature of revolution in underdeveloped countries and laid out the line and strategy of New Democratic Revolution andprotracted people's war. He developed the philosophy of dialectical materialism in his essays On Practice and On Contradiction. He expounded the theory ofleadership which communists came to know as the Mass Line. He struggled against both 'Left' and Right opportunism and in the struggle against modern revisionism Chairman Mao developed the theory of continuing the revolution under the Dictatorship of the proletariat. Today, his theories are being put into practice by revolutionaries around the world, in the Philippines, in Colombia, in Nepal, Palestine and here at home. To honor his life and contributions to Marxism-Leninism and international proletarian revolution, I'm posting thismemorial speech by his successor, Comrade Hua Guofeng. Hua fought to carry forward Mao Zedong's revolutionary legacy amid attacks from both the 'Left' and the Right.

Answer 2

Generally speaking, Mao has overthrown the corrupt and heavy-handed authoritarian government of KMT, and replaced it with his own extremely authoritarian and equally or more currupt (mainly after his death) government of CCP. Oh well.

To be fair, Mao had some pure contribution to China as well. Despite wreaking havoc such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, by fighting the Korean War and obtaining substantial nuclear weapons (plus long range delivery vehicles for those), Mao has (intentionally or not) created the foundation for the high negotiating power and potentially superpower status for the FUTURE China. Also, by shifitng away from the Soviet Union and befriending non-affiliated third world nations (including Canada), Mao masterfully created the unique, independent political status for China during the Cold War. Do not forget the fact that after almost half a century of wars and revolutions, China was literally wrecked to the core. Mao managed to make it an independent, strong power that other players could hardly ignore.

On the economics side, (again) despite doing substantial damage on agriculture and wiping out China's (not to big) pre-communist revolution financial sector, Mao successful enforced (by hard-handed tools most of the time) heavy industrialization in China. And the enforced education also created more people who are capable to work effectively as skilled workers. After the fiasco of economic mismanagement, immediately this working force found their right place throughout China and even abroad, and contributed IMMENSELY to the Chinese economic miracle.

Also, you can count on his (in a way, crazy and irrelevant looking) policy of pursuing the highest technologies for weapon and production. Though China was not a great nation on invention, its technical power could quickly adapt to Soviet and later US European products and convert them into their own. Also in advanced sectors such as space and nuclear, China is (miraculously) among the most advanced nations. This is without doubt, one score for Mao. Finally, during cultural revolution period (which is contrary to popular belief, quite soundly-managed economically from the centre) China underwent extensive infrastructure building. Much of (probably more than 50%) the older bridges, railway, road, airport, and mines and oilfields could actually be credited to this period. Of course, after the opening up of the capital market and private ownership all these assets are proved to be IMMENSELY valuable, and good for upgrades as well, which looks very good on balance sheets. Tell you one thing: bankers and stock investors LOVES good-looking balance sheets.

Social contributions are few. But if you really want some, I'd say it is the population of China. Yes Mao directly or indirectly killed many, but because of him WAY MORE were born... Chinese population doubled during his rule because of the policy of childbirth encouragrment (believe it or not, partly for preparing for the nuclear massacre). This of course, is loved by your average managers and investors as well in the form of cheap labour after the reform. Another one might be the sense of gender equality. China is a country with enormous history of man 1st women 2nd. During the cultural revolution, this concept, along with numerous much more benign "feudalism anti-revolutionary thoughts", were CRUSHED to bits. Let me word it this way: girl red guards did as much as the guy red guards, and gender equity is practically PART OF THE Propaganda AGENDA and repeated touted by the government. Ya I know it is sad. But anyways, the result is that despite a huge counter-wave of gender difference after Mao's death (old habits die hard), China still has significant gender equality in terms of employment, education, marriage, life and so on. This is probably also a reason why lots of Chinese guys prefer Asian girls from other country because they are more "reserved", well.

I guess this is a brief look at Mao's contribution to China. The opposite side is gonna take at least 3 times the length to list, trust me.