Just as Mythologizing Mao Zedong Led the Nation to Tragedy, Mythologizing Mao Zedong's Military Thought Will Lead to a National Security Crisis.

If Mao Zedong were not a person with brilliant military achievements, his current fan base would be greatly reduced. But just as mythologizing Mao Zedong led the nation to tragedy, mythologizing Mao Zedong's military thought will lead to a national security crisis.

All those who mythologize Mao Zedong's military thought often cannot face the fact that it was formed under specific historical conditions. Moreover, Mao Zedong's military thought was also the result of collective wisdom -- for example, Lin Biao's brilliant practice with the Fourth Field Army constituted an extremely important organic part of Mao Zedong's military thought. No theory in the world is ultimate. Every theory has its applicable scope and a day when it completes its historical mission. Mao Zedong's military thought is no exception.

Mythologizing Mao Zedong's military thought makes it impossible for us to seriously study the causes, applicable conditions, limitations, and so on of its formation, and thereby also impossible to truly develop Mao Zedong's military thought. Using a stagnant theory to guide ever-changing national security challenges in reality will increasingly face crises caused by breaching the theory's applicable scope and conditions.

Mao Zedong's military thought is not theology -- it can be studied, supplemented, and developed. More importantly, such development should be a dialectical sublation based on constantly evolving real conditions, not minor patching that forces reality to fit theory. That Mao Zedong's military thought is an important ideological form in world military history is beyond question. But that new forms must emerge is equally beyond question. The key question is whether reality has already reached the critical point for the birth of new theory.