Mao Zedong (1893-1976) was a great Marxist, proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist, and the main founder and leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Republic of China. Born into a peasant family on December 26, 1893, in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, he served in the insurgent Republican Army for half a year following the outbreak of the Revolution of 1911. Then he studied at Hunan First Teachers College from 1914 to 1918 and established the revolutionary Society of the New Masses in collaboration with Cai Hesen and others shortly before his graduation from the college. 

    Comrade Mao Zedong was a great Marxist and a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist. It is true that he made gross mistakes during the "cultural revolution", but, if we judge his activities as a whole, his contributions to the Chinese revolution far outweigh his contributions to his mistakes. His merits are primary and his errors secondary. He rendered indelible meritorious service in People's Liberation of the Chinese people, in founding the People's Republic of China and in advancing our socialist cause. He made major contributions to the liberation of the oppressed nations of the world and to the progress of mankind.
     ——"Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China ".

  Adhering to the principle of integrating the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the revolutionary practice of China, the first generation of the central collective leadership of the CPC with Comrade Mao Zedong at the core persisted in independence and self-reliance in inter-party relations with Communist Parties of other countries. In order to break through the encirclement and blockade of the hostile forces of the West against New China, the Communist Party of China succeeded in opening the gate to the outside world for the young Republic through friendly exchanges and visits with the socialist countries, the communist Parties of various countries and other progressive forces.