Portrait of Mao Zedong
Radical left · Leader · From history

Mao Zedong

Chairman of the Communist Party of China, 1943 to 1976

See how China compares →

Policies led to mass famine and repression

Founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The Great Leap Forward caused a famine that killed tens of millions, and the Cultural Revolution brought years of upheaval.

Mao Zedong sits in the left-authoritarian part of the Caucus economy and liberty compass: strongly state-led and strongly authoritarian. The clearest positions are strongly authoritarian on liberty and authority, strongly state-led on economy and strongly secular on religion.

Read more about Mao Zedong on Wikipedia →

Where Mao Zedong sits on ten dimensions

Each scale runs from one pole to the other, and the dot shows the overall tendency of this person's record and public life. These are simplified estimates and open to debate.

💰EconomyStrongly state-led
State-ledFree market
⚖️Liberty and authorityStrongly authoritarian
LibertarianAuthoritarian
🎭CultureLeaning progressive
ProgressiveTraditional
🌍NationLeaning nationalist
GlobalistNationalist
🌱EnvironmentStrongly growth-first
Growth-firstNature-first
🤖TechnologyLeaning tech-optimist
Tech-cautiousTech-optimist
🕊️War and peaceStrongly strength-first
Peace-firstStrength-first
🏛️InstitutionsStrongly anti-establishment
Anti-establishmentInstitutional
🙏ReligionStrongly secular
SecularReligious
🛡️InterventionismLeaning interventionist
Non-interventionistInterventionist

People most like Mao Zedong

Ho Chi Minh President of North Vietnam, 1945 to 196999%Fidel Castro Leader of Cuba, 1959 to 200897%Indira Gandhi Prime Minister of India, 1966 to 1977 and 1980 to 198494%Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Founding President of Bangladesh, 1971 to 197590%Josip Broz Tito Leader of Yugoslavia, 1945 to 198090%Gamal Abdel Nasser President of Egypt, 1956 to 197090%Vladimir Lenin Head of the Soviet government, 1917 to 192489%Frantz Fanon Martinique-born psychiatrist and revolutionary, 1925 to 196189%

People furthest from Mao Zedong

Leo Tolstoy Russian novelist and moral thinker, 1828 to 19102%Pope Francis Pope, 2013 to 20253%Dorothy Day American journalist and Catholic Worker founder, 1897 to 19803%Dalai Lama Tibetan spiritual leader3%

Political views closest to Mao Zedong

MaoismA Marxist-Leninist current built on peasant-based revolution and mass mobilization under…99%Marxism-LeninismAims at a classless society through revolution and a single party ruling on behalf of…91%BolivarianismA Latin American left movement mixing socialism, nationalism and Simón Bolívar's dream…85%Anti-colonial nationalismFuses independence struggles with economic self-reliance and national dignity.79%

Read more about Mao Zedong

These links open book searches on Amazon. If you buy through them, Caucus earns a small commission at no extra cost to you. They have no influence on where anyone is placed on the map.

Biographies of Mao ZedongBooks on maoism

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Percentages show how close two profiles are across all ten dimensions. Including a person here is for study and comparison, not approval. Portrait: Chen Zhengqing (1917–1966), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; see all photo credits.