Mao's Legacy

I've been reading Mao's Great Famine and thanks to new research we now know that the famine was even worse than previously believed. Briefly, via his 'Great Leap Forward' Mao sought to vault China into the 21st century and become the leader of the communist world. There was mass collectivization of course, and the industrial goal of surpassing Britain in steel production, steel being the barometer by which communists measure economic progress. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he talked about steel quotas.

The author describes forced collectivization, food used as a weapon, militias enforcing discipline; in the process Chinese society almost completely broke down. With so many farmers producing steel in their backyards, the fields lay empty. Famine ensued and the author estimates that 45 Million people died.

A few days ago at the bus stop I asked my Chinese neighbors about this. One woman, a big-pharma rep nodded her head and new all about it. The other, an IT-specialist insisted Mao was a great leader and new nothing. The big-pharma rep began speaking in Mandarin to the IT-guy, cluing him in I guess.

Its hard to cover up the death of 45 million, but I guess Mao pulled it off. The author says that there are no known photos from the Great Famine other than communist propaganda pics. How is that even possible? Secret photos and films were smuggled out of eastern Europe during the Holocaust. Mao succeeded where Hitler didn't?

Even fifty years later Mao callous indifference to his people's suffering is breathtaking. Even more breathtaking is the fact that there are Chinese who don't know anything about it.

Maybe that's Mao's legacy.