Supporters credit him with driving imperialism out of China,[3] modernizing China and building it into a world power, promoting the status of women, improving education and health care,
and increasing life expectancy as China's population grew from around 550 to over 900 million during the period of his leadership.[4][5] He is also known as a theorist, military strategist, poet, and visionary.[6]
In contrast, critics consider him a dictator who severely damaged traditional Chinese culture, as well as a perpetrator of systematic human rights abuses who was responsible for an
estimated 40 to 70 million deaths through starvation, forced labour andexecutions, ranking his tenure as the top incidence of democide in human history.[7][8][9]