This year marks the 30th anniversary of the passing away of Chinese leader Mao Zedong who died on September 9, 1976. Mao was a Chinese Marxist theorist, soldier, poet, and statesman who led China's communist revolution after decades of foreign occupation and civil war in the 20th century. Following the Communist Party of China's military victory over the Kuomintang in the Third Revolutionary Civil War (1945-49), Mao announced the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 in Beijing.