Chairman Mao Dies - 9th September 1976

Mao Zedong, Chinese revolutionary and statesman, dies at the age of 83. In 1934, during his long civil war with the Nationalists, he broke through enemy lines and led his followers on the Long March to northern China. There, he built up his Red Army and fought against the Japanese invaders. In 1945, civil war resumed, and in 1949 the Nationalists were defeated and Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China. As leader of Communist China, Chairman Mao launched the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, programs that reformed the Chinese economy and society at the cost of millions of lives. Nevertheless, he maintained fanatical followers all across China and remains one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. After Mao's death, Deng Xiaoping emerged as China's leader.

Today
Top government officials no longer recite the Marxist saw that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” In a speech at a religious affairs conference last December, President Jiang Zemin said religion “may outlast the party and the state,” a stunning acknowledgement from a man supposedly committed to wiping out religion.

Christianity’s growth has been rapid all over China, however, from the richer east coast to the central plains to the rust belt in Manchuria. In Heilongjiang, in the far northeast, for example, there were 5,000 registered Protestant worshipers in the early 1980s. Today there are 1.3 million, according to a government-authorized pastor in that province.