Mao Zedong was a political leader.
The Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was the head of the Communist Party of China ( CPC ) . In political and social sciences , communism ( from Latin communis , `` common , universal '' ) is the philosophical , social , political , and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society , which is Great Leap Forward . The campaign was led by Chairman Mao Zedong and aimed to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a socialist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization . Mao Zedong . ( Mao himself admitting 800,000 deaths in the classicide and 712,000 in the suppression of Counterrevolutionaries ) In 1957 , he launched the Great Leap Forward campaign that aimed to rapidly transform China 's economy from an agrarian economy to an industrial one . In modern Chinese politics , the paramount leader ( , , Zuìgāo lǐngdǎo rén ) of the Communist Party of China and the State is an informal term that refers to the most prominent political leader in the People 's Republic of China .