Most people are under the impression that Mao is a coarse and illiterate leader, perhaps because of his round and big Hunan facial features. That…
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Tag: Political Leader Biographies
A Biography of Cao Cao
Rafe de Crespigny is an Australian sinologist, now aged 90. He specialises in the history of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. His…
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The learning curve – Iran
Iran has learned from the 2025 war and from the US how to leverage its strength. From Trump’s forced “takeover” of the Panama Canal from…
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Regime Change Between Myth and History
Can regime change in Iran be done from the air? Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah by Baqer Moin, 1999. Trump believes he can create regime…
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Revisiting 1965 Through New Records
The Albatross File Inside Separation edited by Susan Sim, 2025. Late last year, in Dec 2025, a trove of secret documents on the negotiations between…
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Sun Yat-sen in Penang
No. 120 Armenian Street is the site of the Sun Yat-sen Museum. This is because the shop here was the Nanyang Headquarters of Sun Yat-sen.…
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1911 Revolution—Part 1
Dr. Sun Yat-sen has been given too much credit for the 1911 Revolution that toppled the Ching dynasty. (The Unfinished Revolution: Sun Yat-sen and the…
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The Struggle for Modern Tibet
The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering (1997) is an unvarnished history of Tibet from 1929 to the 1990s. Tashi wanted to…
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A critical analysis of Mao’s achievements – Part 3
The Long March began with many defeats for the Reds. The Troika struggled to come up with a strategic plan for retreat. In January 1935,…
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A critical analysis of Mao’s achievements – Part 2
Thongdao, an obscure town in southern Hunan, is where Mao started in December 1934 to play a prominent role in the ultimate victory over the…
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