place_of_death lin zhao
Lin Zhao ( Chinese :  ; December 16 , 1932 -- April 29 , 1968 ) , born Peng Lingzhao (  ) , was a prominent dissident who was imprisoned and later executed by the People ' s Republic of ___MASK11___ during the Cultural Revolution for her criticism of Mao Zedong ' s policies . The Chairman of the ___MASK63___ Committee of the Communist Party of ___MASK11___ was the head of the Communist Party of ___MASK11___ ( CPC ). In 1982 , it was succeeded by the General Secretary of the ___MASK63___ Committee . Mao Zedong or Mao Tse - tung ( December 26 , 1893September 9 , 1976 ), also known as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese communist revolutionary and founding father of the People ' s Republic of ___MASK11___ , which he ruled as an autocrat styled the Chairman of the Communist Party of ___MASK11___ from its establishment in 1949 , until his death in 1976 . His Marxist  Leninist theories , military strategies , and political policies are collectively known as Maoism or Marxism - Leninism - Maoism . The Great Leap Forward of the People ' s Republic of ___MASK11___ ( PRC ) was an economic and social campaign by the Communist Party of ___MASK11___ ( CPC ) from 1958 to 1962 . The campaign was led by Chairman Mao Zedong and aimed to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a socialist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization . However , it is widely considered to have caused the Great Chinese Famine . The Communist Party of ___MASK11___ ( CPC ) is the founding and ruling political party of the People ' s Republic of ___MASK11___ ( PRC ). The CPC is the sole governing party of ___MASK11___ , although it coexists alongside eight other legal parties that comprise the United Front ; these parties , however , hold no real power or independence from the CPC . It was founded in 1921 , chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao . The party grew quickly , and by 1949 the CPC had driven the nationalist Kuomintang ( KMT ) government from mainland ___MASK11___ after the Chinese Civil War , thus leading to the establishment of the People ' s Republic of ___MASK11___ . The CPC is currently the world ' s second largest political party with a membership of 88 . 76 million as of 2016 ( while the Indian Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have remained the largest with a membership of 110 million as of the previous year , 2015 ). It also controls the world ' s largest armed force , the People ' s Liberation Army . The Cultural Revolution , formally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution , was a sociopolitical movement that took place in ___MASK11___ from 1966 until 1976 . Set into motion by Mao Zedong , then Chairman of the Communist Party of ___MASK11___ , its stated goal was to preserve ' true ' Communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society , and to re - impose Maoist thought as the dominant ideology within the Party . The Revolution marked the return of Mao Zedong to a position of power after the Great Leap Forward . The movement paralyzed ___MASK11___ politically and negatively affected the country ' s economy and society to a significant degree . Mao Zedong Thought , or Maoism , is a political theory derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong ( 1893  1976 ). Its followers are known as Maoists . Developed from the 1950s until the Deng Xiaoping reforms in the 1970s , it was widely applied as the guiding political and military ideology of the Communist Party of ___MASK11___ ( CPC ), and as theory guiding revolutionary movements around the world . The essential difference between Maoism and other forms of Marxism is that Mao claimed that peasants should be the essential revolutionary class in ___MASK11___ , because , contrary to their industrial working " comrades ", they were more suited to establishing a successful revolution and socialist society in ___MASK11___ . ___MASK11___ , officially the People ' s Republic of ___MASK11___ ( PRC ), is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia . With a population of over 1 . 381 billion , it is the world ' s most populous country . The state is governed by the Communist Party of ___MASK11___ , and its capital is Beijing . It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces , five autonomous regions , four direct - controlled municipalities ( Beijing , Tianjin , ___MASK5___ , and Chongqing ), and two mostly self - governing special administrative regions ( Hong Kong and Macau ), and claims sovereignty over Taiwan . The country ' s major urban areas include ___MASK5___ , Guangzhou , Beijing , Chongqing , Shenzhen , Tianjin and Hong Kong . ___MASK11___ is a great power and a major regional power within Asia , and has been characterized as a potential superpower .