By Alex Winston

Jerusalem Post September 10, 2026

Wednesday, September 9, marked 50 years since the death of Mao Zedong, the Chinese revolutionary leader whose long shadow is still cast over Asian and world geopolitics.

For almost three decades after proclaiming the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing in October 1949, Mao stood at the center of a political transformation that altered China entirely and reshaped the balance of the Cold War.

Under his leadership, the world’s most populous country emerged from decades of civil war, foreign occupation and internal collapse as a Communist power determined to chart its own course, eventually challenging both the United States and, after the Sino-Soviet split, the Soviet Union for influence across Asia, Africa and the developing world.