Mao's former secretary Li Rui says you always had to agree with him

Mao Zedong was a master of mind control whose political influence remains powerful even today, says his former secretary Li Rui.

"Among all the leaders in the world, ancient and modern, what was most forceful about Mao Zedong was that when he was in power, he demanded everyone's thinking be in line with his," the 96-year-old says.

Li was a member of the powerful Central Committee and is a former deputy head of the Communist Party's Organisation Department.

According to him, Mao said on many occasions that he was "Emperor Qin and Marx in one", likening himself to an ancient ruler infamous for his dictatorial rule and brutality.

Those who didn't adapt to Mao's thinking were persecuted, such as President Liu Shaoqi , and this explains why his influence has remained, says Li, one of Mao's most vocal critics, with a rueful smile. "I've seen this in his notes from his early years: 'I am accountable only to myself'," Li says.

Li was vice-minister of Water Resources and Electric Power when Mao hand-picked him to be the chairman's personal secretary in 1958. He was stripped of his party membership and positions following the 1959 Lushan conference after he criticised the disastrous Great Leap Forward, which eventually killed at least 30 million people.