Of all the ideological contradictions within Maoism, none is more profoundly ironic than its relationship with Anarchism. The core conflict between the two can be defined as a centralised vanguardism vs decentralised spontaneity.1 But the true irony lies not just in their methodological divergence, but in the complete reversal of Mao’s own stance. A central paradox is revealed, as Mao’s quest to destroy one form of authority became a reproduction of the very power it sought to overthrow.
Mao’s early thought was saturated with an anarchist spirit. As seen in his declaration that “the value of the individual is greater than that of the universe” and his condemnation of the “four evils,” which are the church, capitalism, monarchy, and the state. This reveals a pure, radical individualism.2 His seminal essay published in 1919 titled “The Great Union of the Popular Masses”, was less a blueprint for a party-state and more a vision of a collectivist anarchist society, deeply resonant with the Confucian ideal of Datong, or Great Unity. 3 This is influenced by the early Chinese reception of Marxist texts, including the Communist Manifesto, as seen by the intellectual Li Dazhao (1888–1927). He was influenced by the popular Western anarchist writings he encountered at the Beijing library, and interpreted Marxism not as a call for a vanguard party, but as a theoretical reinforcement for anarchist ideals.4 He perceived a similarity between Marx’s egalitarian society and Confucian utopianism, and was particularly drawn to Marxism’s critique of Western imperialism, which resonated with the anti-Qing movement. This made anarcho-communist ideals seem inevitable in China. Similarly, intellectual Chen Duxiu returned to China in 1908 after studying for seven years in Japan. His exposure to the growing anarchist movement abroad led to him and Li joining forces and developing poltical theories and philosophies, applying Marxist theory to their current Anarchist movement.5 At this stage, Mao was not drawn to anarchism for its destructiveness, but for its ultimate, utopian goal in a social order where government itself would wither into obsolescence.6 But, the irony becomes clear as the future architect of one of the most centralised states in history began by dreaming of its abolition.
This initial collusion made the subsequent departure more significant, as the early anarchist movement was absorbed by the more successful Communist movement. The Communist Party, for Mao, became the indispensable instrument of liberation. Functioning as a necessary, temporary concentration of power to guide the masses. In June of 1949 he states that “our present task is to strengthen the people’s state apparatus of the people’s army, the people’s police and the people’s courts”.7 This pragmatic approach departs from the strong anarchist spirit. For anarchists, this increasing form of centralised power was not a means to an end, but the creation of a new elite, a new enemy in the very form of the liberating party itself.8 The revolution was an ironic contradiction as it had to build a powerful, hierarchical institution in order to achieve its stated goal of a stateless, classless society.9 As historian Dirlik argues, anarchism nourished the radical culture that made the communist revolution possible, only to be systematically purged once that revolution succeeded.10
The anarchist slogan to “doubt everything and overthrow everything” which was once the rallying cry of his own May Fourth generation was no longer a form of revolutionary fervor.11 The ultimate irony is that Maoism, in its ruthless suppression of anarchism, proved the anarchists’ core argument that power, once centralized, inherently corrupts and seeks to perpetuate itself.
- Arif Dirlik, Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution, (Berkeley, 1991), p.176 [↩]
- Robert Elliot Allinson, ‘Mao in the Margins: Mao’s Commentary on Freiedrich Paulsen’s, A System of Ethics’ in Jean-Claude Pastor, One Thousand Years of Chinese Thought: Song Dynasty to 1949 (2015), pp.14-16 [↩]
- ‘The Great Union of the Popular Masses’, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project. <https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-6/mswv6_04.htm> [Accessed 5 October 2025]. Ibid, p.57 [↩]
- Dirlik, Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution, p.72 [↩]
- Ibid, p.15 [↩]
- Ibid, pp.56-57 [↩]
- Mao Zedong, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, ed. Stuart R Schram (New York: Frederick A. Praeger), p.20 [↩]
- Dirlik, Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution, p.101 [↩]
- Ibid, p.77 [↩]
- Ibid, p.25 [↩]
- Ibid, p.114 [↩]