China marks 50 years since Mao Zedong's death as public tributes and state controls persist

Public commemorations across China

On Wednesday, 9 September 2026, people across China commemorated 50 years since the death of Mao Zedong, who died on 9 September 1976 at age 82. In Beijing, the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall extended its opening hours to accommodate a surge of visitors seeking to view his preserved body. Mao's six-metre portrait continues to overlook Tiananmen Square, the political centre of China, while his likeness remains on national banknotes. In Shaoshan, Mao's birthplace in Hunan province, crowds gathered around his bronze statue to pay tribute to the leader who proclaimed the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949.

Personal and political impact on current leadership

Mao led China for more than 25 years, overseeing campaigns that brought turbulence to society, including the Cultural Revolution initiated in 1966 and the Great Leap Forward. The Chinese Communist Party later designated the Cultural Revolution a grave error for which Mao held primary responsibility, yet official party doctrine maintains that his achievements surpass his mistakes. The era directly affected current Chinese President Xi Jinping. In 1962, Xi's father, former vice premier Xi Zhongxun, was purged from office, and the family residence was ransacked during the unrest. The teenage Xi faced interrogation, coercive political study, and execution threats before being sent to a village in northwestern China in 1969 for seven years of rural re-education.

“Because I had a stubborn streak and refused to be bullied, I offended the rebel faction. Everything bad was blamed on me... I wasn't even 15.”

Red tourism and public nostalgia

In Beijing's public parks, groups of retirees regularly assemble to sing patriotic red songs from their youth, remembering Mao as the leader who ended foreign dominance in China. Performers describe the singing as a source of morale and positive spirit in retirement, even while painful memories from past political movements remain largely unspoken. Outside the capital, state-supported red tourism has expanded into organized public reenactments. At Loushanguan in Guizhou province, visitors put on Red Army uniforms and carry wooden rifles to stage the February 1935 Long March battle against nationalist forces twice a day.

“We love life, our motherland, our party, our army, our people and our magnificent landscapes. All these themes are present in the songs we sing.”

Institutional legacy and ideological control

Five decades after Mao's death, academic researchers and political commentators trace the enduring structure of Chinese governance back to his tenure. Zhang Lun, a professor at Cergy-Paris University, outlined four key legacies from the era: an authoritarian centralized system, governance through mass campaigns, populist anti-elitism, and egalitarian moralism. University of Zurich professor Jean Christopher Mittelstaedt noted that Mao's foundational principle of party supremacy over the state and society remains active. Commentator Chang Ping observed that the core doctrine of party leadership enables the state to concentrate and mobilize resources across society to accomplish central goals.