Mao Zedong

== State visits ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Country
! Date
! Host
|-
|{{flag|Soviet Union}}
| 16 December 1949
|[[Joseph Stalin]]
|-
|{{flag|Soviet Union}}
| 2–19 November 1957
|[[Nikita Khrushchev]]
|}

During his leadership, Mao traveled outside China on only two occasions, both of which were state visits to the Soviet Union. His first visit abroad was in December 1949 to celebrate the 70th birthday of Soviet leader [[Joseph Stalin]] in Moscow, which was also attended by East German Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers [[Walter Ulbricht]] and Mongolian communist [[Chairman of the Mongolian People's Party|General Secretary]] [[Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal]].<ref>''Лев Котюков.'' [http://www.ykt.ru/ilken/n0803/s13.htm Забытый поэт.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928062213/http://www.ykt.ru/ilken/n0803/s13.htm |date=28 September 2007 }}</ref> The second visit to Moscow in November 1957 was a two-week [[state visit]] of which the highlights included Mao's attendance at the 40th anniversary ([[Ruby Jubilee]]) celebrations of the [[October Revolution]] (he attended the annual [[1957 October Revolution Parade|military parade]] of the Moscow Garrison on [[Red Square]] as well as a banquet in the [[Kremlin|Moscow Kremlin]]) and the [[1957 International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties|International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties]], where he met with other communist leaders such as North Korea's [[Kim Il Sung]]<ref name="ParkSnyder2012">{{cite book |first1=Kyung-Ae |last1=Park |first2=Scott |last2=Snyder |title=North Korea in Transition: Politics, Economy, and Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mwoD97Y8XPMC&pg=PA214 |year=2012 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield Publishers]] |isbn=978-1442218130 |page=214}}</ref> and Albania's [[Enver Hoxha]]. When Mao stepped down as head of state on 27 April 1959, further diplomatic state visits and travels abroad to the Soviet Union and other countries were undertaken by either President [[Liu Shaoqi]], Premier [[Zhou Enlai]] or Deputy Premier [[Deng Xiaoping]] rather than Mao personally.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}