Historian Frank Dikötter, author of the important book Mao’s Great Famine recently published an article in History Today, summarizing what happened:
Mao thought that he could catapult his country past its competitors by herding villagers across the country into giant people’s communes. In pursuit of a utopian paradise, everything was collectivised. People had their work, homes, land, belongings and livelihoods taken from them. In collective canteens, food, distributed by the spoonful according to merit, became a weapon used to force people to follow the party’s every dictate. As incentives to work were removed, coercion and violence were used instead to compel famished farmers to perform labour on poorly planned irrigation projects while fields were neglected.
A catastrophe of gargantuan proportions ensued. Extrapolating from published population statistics, historians have speculated that tens of millions of people died of starvation. But the true dimensions of what happened are only now coming to light thanks to the meticulous reports the party itself compiled during the famine….
What comes out of this massive and detailed dossier is a tale of horror in which Mao emerges as one of the greatest mass murderers in history, responsible for the deaths of at least 45 million people between 1958 and 1962. It is not merely the extent of the catastrophe that dwarfs earlier estimates, but also the manner in which many people died: between two and three million victims were tortured to death or summarily killed, often for the slightest infraction. When a boy stole a handful of grain in a Hunan village, local boss Xiong Dechang forced his father to bury him alive. The father died of grief a few days later. The case of Wang Ziyou was reported to the central leadership: one of his ears was chopped off, his legs were tied with iron wire, a ten kilogram stone was dropped on his back and then he was branded with a sizzling tool – punishment for digging up a potato.
11 comments:
But his suits look so good on Hillary!
Or, in the words of Wang Ziyou, feel the Burn!
And don't we have about 45 million illegals here now?
Someone like Hillary Clinton who so emulates Chairman Mao is clearly not to be trusted as Potus.
Is Radical Marxist Progressive Collectivism so grand and pure? Pure horror.
Mao seldom bathed and his whores were forced to fuck a man who had lice between his rolls of fat. Enjoy your lunch, folks.
Other than the bad outcome, how much of that idea would our current Leftists disagree with. I bet at least half of Bernie's supporters would find that a liberating, fair and smart way to manage resources if they never learned of the disaster it was. Even then many would say it was just Mao's stupid implementation and not the idea itself.
It was called the Great Leap Forward and it was Mao's version of the Kulakization of southern Russia and the Ukraine, where about 18 million died. Mao was going to industrialize China or die trying. Too bad he didn't.
Another 20 million died in the Cultural Revolution (same with Joe and the Great Terror).
BTW Joe zapped another 5 mil during WWII (it was easier just to draft them) and murdered another 10 mil in resettlement schemes and the Doctors' Plot after the war. Had he lived, he intended to finish the job the Narzis started on the Jews.
Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
Sixty, I have a feeling those 45 millions victims of Mao may have made far better immigrants to the West than say the flood of migrants from Syria.
Bet on it.
Bags, in response... You just made that up. You can't just invent facts!
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"Eating bitter" I think the Chinese called it who knew first hand about food scarcity. Chinese immigrants who operate Chinese buffets in America often post signs admonishing patrons not to take more than they can eat. Part of the reason probably has to do with profits but I suspect they see it as being immoral.
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