What did Mao do to deserve his reputation to be remembered as a top leader of China?
From the time the CCP defeated Chiang Kai-shek of the Nationalists in 1949 to his death in 1976, under his watch as the Great Helmsman, it has been a litany of tragic policies that failed and caused millions to suffer and die, and the people to experience famine and poverty.
Mao unleashed the tragic policies – Let a hundred flowers bloom in February 1957, the Anti-Rightist Campaign, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.
Critics said the last policy was meant to reassert Mao’s control when he was getting old and feeble. Others say Mao wanted to keep the revolution pure to its roots before he died.
China under Mao: A Revolution Derailed by Andrew Walder, 2015, posits that the real revolution starts not with the fall of the Qing, but from 1949 and ended with Mao’s death in 1976, a quarter of a century later.
He asked the question of why China’s population followed Mao’s orders willingly and blindly.
Why didn’t other leaders like Zhao, Marshal Peng, and Lin Shao Qi try to stop Mao?
To be fair, Marshal Peng De Huai tried to stop the Great Leap Forward when it was showing signs of failure and was sacked as a traitor.
Lin Shao Qi, his no 2, similarly tried to tell Mao the Great Leap Forward was a failure.
There is no space or time to detail all my thoughts here.
I would end by asking, is Mao really a great leader?
His great deed is to win the Civil War and unify China. But Chiang Kai-shek was not defeated by Mao. He was defeated by the Japanese invasion. Without the Japanese, Chiang Kai-shek would have won.
Lwh @ Lone Pine Resort Penang.
1 June 2025