Why Mao Zedong Was The Most Brutal Tyrant

Summary

The video explores the complex legacy of Mao Zedong, delving into his early life, rise to power, and the devastating impact of his policies, particularly the 'Great Leap Forward,' which led to a catastrophic famine. It discusses the challenges in estimating the death toll, the regime's cruelty, and Mao's role in shaping China's modern history. The script also touches on the broader themes of power, criticism, and the responsibility of leaders, urging viewers to reflect on the past to inform the present.

Takeaways

• 😐 Mao Zedong is often considered one of the worst mass murderers in history, with estimates of deaths under his regime ranging from 40 to 65 million.
• 📚 The exact number of deaths during Mao's rule is difficult to determine due to limited access to records and the challenge of attributing deaths directly to his policies.
• 🌏 Mao's policies, particularly during the Great Leap Forward, led to one of the worst catastrophes in world history, with around 45 million people starved, worked to death, or beaten to death.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 The regime was extremely cruel, with instances of children being punished harshly for minor crimes, such as stealing food, and even parents being forced to bury their children alive.
• 📈 Mao's early life included a rural upbringing, a period of education, and a growing interest in communism, which influenced his later political ideology.
• 🔥 Mao led the Red Army against the Nationalists, eventually forming the Soviet Republic of China and contributing to the defeat of the Japanese during World War II.
• 🏛️ Despite some positive reforms such as land redistribution, increased education, and healthcare improvements, Mao's rule was marked by fear, repression, and the silencing of dissent.
• 🌾 The Great Leap Forward, aimed at rapidly industrializing China, led to a catastrophic famine due to failed agricultural and industrial policies.
• 📜 The Chinese Communist Party's censorship and control over information during Mao's era contributed to the severity of the famine and the suffering of the people.
• 📚 The accounts of the famine and its horrors are documented in books like 'Tombstone' by Yang Jisheng, which was banned in China due to its critical content.

Q & A

What is the estimated range of deaths attributed to Mao Zedong's policies?

The estimated range of deaths attributed to Mao Zedong's policies is between 40 million to 65 million, with some sources suggesting around 45 million people died due to starvation, overwork, or violence.

What does the phrase 'A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic' imply?

This phrase, sometimes attributed to Joseph Stalin, implies that individual deaths evoke empathy and sorrow, while large-scale deaths become impersonal and are often treated as mere numbers or statistics.

How did Mao Zedong's policies during the Great Leap Forward contribute to the famine?

Mao Zedong's policies during the Great Leap Forward contributed to the famine by forcing farmers to work in collectives and industries, leading to lower grain production. Coupled with natural disasters like floods and bad harvests, this caused widespread food shortages and famine.

What was the impact of Mao's 'Hundred Flowers Campaign' on the Chinese people?

The 'Hundred Flowers Campaign' initially allowed people to voice their concerns about the country's leadership but later turned into a campaign of fear and repression, resulting in the imprisonment and execution of many who criticized the government.

What were some of the brutal punishments meted out under Mao's regime as described in the script?

Under Mao's regime, brutal punishments included tying hands and throwing children into rivers, forcing people to work naked in winter, branding, setting people on fire, and cutting off body parts such as noses or ears.

How did Mao Zedong's early life experiences shape his later political ideology?

Mao Zedong's early life experiences, including his rural upbringing, education, and exposure to Western philosophers like Karl Marx, shaped his political ideology, leading him to advocate for the redistribution of power to the agrarian masses and the eventual formation of the Chinese Communist Party.

What was the significance of the 'Long March' in Mao Zedong's rise to power?

The 'Long March' was a significant event in Mao Zedong's rise to power as it allowed the Communist Party to regroup and gain support, ultimately leading to the formation of the Soviet Republic of China and Mao's eventual control over the country.

How did Mao Zedong's policies affect education, healthcare, and women's rights in China?

Mao Zedong's policies led to significant improvements in education, healthcare, and women's rights in China by doubling the number of people receiving an education, improving healthcare services, and championing the rights of the rural classes.

What was the role of the 'Little Red Book' in promoting Mao Zedong's ideology?

The 'Little Red Book', containing 427 quotations from Mao Zedong, played a crucial role in promoting his ideology by spreading his thoughts and policies widely among the Chinese population, with over a billion copies published.

How did the Chinese Communist Party's response to the Japanese invasion impact Mao Zedong's position?

The Chinese Communist Party's response to the Japanese invasion, which included forming an alliance with the Nationalist Party to fight against Japan, strengthened Mao Zedong's position, as it allowed the Red Army to grow and gain popular support, eventually leading to his control over all of China.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Early Life and Rise of Mao Zedong

The first paragraph delves into Mao Zedong's early life, detailing his birth in a rural community and his family's background as farmers. It discusses his education, his strained relationship with his father, and his eventual departure from home to pursue modern education. The narrative then transitions to Mao's political awakening, influenced by Western philosophers and economists, and his subsequent involvement with the Revolutionary Army and the Nationalist Party. The paragraph also covers the establishment of the Republic of China, Mao's initial foray into politics, and his eventual rise as a leader within the Communist Party.

05:01

🚩 Mao's Leadership and the Chinese Communist Party

Paragraph two continues the narrative of Mao's political journey, focusing on his role in leading the Red Army against the Nationalists, the formation of the Soviet Republic of China, and the subsequent 'Long March'. It discusses the impact of the Japanese invasion on China's internal politics and Mao's strategic alliance with the Nationalists to repel the invaders. The paragraph also highlights Mao's eventual rise to power, his efforts to improve education, healthcare, and women's rights, and his attempts to address social issues such as land distribution and opium addiction. However, it also touches upon the darker aspects of his rule, including the suppression of dissent, the 'Hundred Flowers Campaign', and the establishment of labor camps.

10:01

🌾 The Great Leap Forward and Its Devastating Consequences

The third paragraph addresses the 'Great Leap Forward', a series of reforms initiated by Mao aimed at rapidly industrializing China and collectivizing agriculture. It discusses the disastrous effects of these policies, including widespread famine, forced labor, and the suppression of dissent. The paragraph details the extreme measures taken against those who criticized the government or failed to meet production quotas, including public humiliation, torture, and execution. It also references the work of historian Yang Jisheng, who documented the harrowing experiences of the Chinese people during this period through extensive research and firsthand accounts. The paragraph concludes with a reflection on the dangers of absolute power and the importance of critical thinking and open dialogue in preventing the repetition of historical tragedies.

Keywords

💡Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong was the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and played a central role in shaping modern China. His policies, including the Great Leap Forward, are discussed in the video, highlighting both the positive and negative impacts of his leadership. He is also described as responsible for one of the largest death tolls in human history due to starvation and harsh political policies.

💡Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap Forward was an economic and social campaign led by Mao Zedong in China from 1958 to 1962. The aim was to rapidly transform China from an agrarian society into an industrialized nation. However, it led to widespread famine and the deaths of millions, as mentioned in the video, making it one of the most catastrophic events of the 20th century.

💡Famine

The famine in China, caused in part by the policies of the Great Leap Forward, led to the deaths of millions. The video explains how farmers were forced into industrial work, grain production dropped, and a severe famine ensued, particularly affecting the rural poor. This event is central to understanding Mao's negative legacy.

💡Cult of Personality

A 'cult of personality' refers to the idealization and near-worship of a leader, often maintained through propaganda. Mao Zedong developed such a cult, where he was portrayed as a near-demigod. This led to the suppression of dissent, as anyone criticizing him was punished, contributing to the devastating outcomes of his policies.

💡Hundred Flowers Campaign

The Hundred Flowers Campaign was a brief period where Mao encouraged Chinese citizens to express their opinions about the government. However, it is believed that this was a trap to identify dissenters, many of whom were later imprisoned or executed. This campaign plays into the theme of silencing critics in the video.

💡Public Security Bureau Reports

These were official government records mentioned in the video, used by historians like Frank Dikötter to uncover the horrors of Mao's regime. They document the brutality inflicted on citizens, such as forced labor, executions, and the deliberate starvation of millions during the Great Leap Forward.

💡Peasant Army

Mao’s Red Army was initially composed of peasants who fought against the Chinese Nationalist Party. This army played a significant role in the rise of Mao’s Communist Party, as described in the video. The support of the agrarian masses was crucial to Mao’s success in overthrowing the Nationalists and later ruling China.

💡Starvation

Starvation is highlighted in the video as the primary cause of death during the Great Leap Forward. Millions of Chinese citizens starved due to failed agricultural policies, with food being denied to those deemed 'unnecessary' in Mao’s economic plans. Starvation is a tragic consequence of Mao's rigid and disastrous policies.

💡Karl Marx

Karl Marx, the German philosopher and economist, was a significant influence on Mao Zedong. The video notes that Mao was inspired by Marxist ideas, particularly the belief in class struggle and the importance of the proletariat. Mao’s implementation of communism in China was based on Marxist principles, though with devastating consequences.

💡Censorship

Censorship, a major theme in the video, was a tool used by Mao's regime to suppress criticism and dissent. The banning of books like Yang Jisheng’s 'Tombstone' reflects how the Chinese government continues to control the narrative around Mao's rule, preventing a full understanding of the famine and other atrocities.

Highlights

Steven Pinker's book 'The Better Angels of Our Nature' explores the history of violence and its impact on humanity, with a focus on Mao Zedong.

Mao Zedong is often cited as one of the worst mass murderers in history, with estimates of deaths under his rule ranging from 40 million to 65 million.

The number of deaths due to Mao's policies is hard to determine due to limited access to records, but historians agree on the catastrophic impact.

Historian Frank Dikötter, in his research on the Great Leap Forward, described Mao's policies as one of the worst catastrophes in history, responsible for 45 million deaths.

Mao's regime treated people as mere 'digits' to serve the state's goals, leading to brutal punishments for dissent, such as forced labor and executions.

Shocking examples of cruelty during the Great Leap Forward include children being thrown into rivers for stealing food and parents being forced to bury their children alive.

Starvation was the leading cause of death during the Great Leap Forward, with entire towns being deliberately starved by withholding food.

Mao Zedong was born in 1893 to a farming family in rural Hunan, China, and was a rebellious student who later became inspired by Marxist ideologies.

Mao rejected traditional norms, including an arranged marriage at age 14, and pursued intellectual and revolutionary pursuits that eventually led to his rise in the Chinese Communist Party.

Mao's rise to power was marked by the formation of the Red Army, leading peasants in a violent conflict against the Nationalist Party, ultimately resulting in the creation of the People's Republic of China.

While Mao is credited with reforms such as land redistribution, improved education, healthcare, and women's rights, his policies led to immense suffering and death.

Mao’s 'Hundred Flowers Campaign' initially encouraged criticism of the government, but it quickly turned into a crackdown on dissent, with many critics being imprisoned or executed.

The Great Leap Forward (1958) was intended to rapidly industrialize China, but it resulted in disastrous famine, with millions dying due to poor planning and forced labor.

The famine during the Great Leap Forward led to widespread starvation, desperation, and extreme acts of cruelty, including torture and cannibalism, as documented in archives.

Mao's infamous 'Little Red Book' containing his quotations was one of the most widely distributed books in history, promoting his cult of personality and rigid ideology.

Mao’s legacy is a mix of progress and tragedy, with his rule leaving behind a deep impact on China and sparking debates about authoritarianism, fear, and censorship.

Transcripts

In the Steven Pinker book, “The better Angels of Our Nature” – a history of violence

and an attempt to understand the darker side of humanity- the man who is the focus of today’s

show plays almost a starring role among many of the other tyrants, criminals and government-sanctioned

sadists.

He is sometimes called the worst mass murderer in the history of tyrants, but knowing the

exact number of how many died due to his policies and those just murdered under the regime,

is not easy.

That number is sometimes said to be about 40 million, sometimes we are told 45 million,

and sometimes we are told even as many as 65 million.

It’s hard to even imagine such a thing and we might be reminded of the phrase sometimes

attributed (there are doubters), to the tyrant Joseph Stalin “A single death is a tragedy,

a million deaths is a statistic.”

The reason the number of deaths changes of course is because getting access to records-

if there even is a record of death- is not easy, and it is also difficult to know who

died as a direct result of Mao’s policies and zero-tolerance attitude to critics.

But historians haven’t pulled the number out of hats, and there are ample well-researched

accounts of the devastation of Mao’s policies and also how his regime was sometimes incredibly

cruel towards the Chinese people, especially dissidents.

The historian Frank Dikötter, who spent a lot of time researching in archives for what

went down during the Great Leap Forward, said Mao Zedong was responsible for “one of the

worst catastrophes the world has ever known”.

He said around 45 million people either starved, were worked to death, or were beaten to death.

“It ranks alongside the gulags and the Holocaust as one of the three greatest events of the

20th century...

It was Pol Pot's genocide multiplied 20 times over,” he said.

We can tell you first hand how this writer told a captivated audience at a literary festival

that people were seen only as “digits”, things to move the Great Leap ahead.

This historian, while researching his book, “Mao's Great Famine; The Story of China's

Most Devastating Catastrophe”, explained to people that while looking through China’s

Public Security Bureau reports he found some things that turned his blood cold.

Dikötter said that in these records of the provinces he found that there were instances

of children, hungry children, stealing potatoes.

The rulers were strict about crime, and in one instance the child had his hands tied

and was thrown into a river.

Others were forced to work naked in winter as punishment, some were branded, others set

on fire, while others merely had their nose or ears cut off.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing was a record of parents being forced by officials to bury

their children alive.

But starvation killed the most people.

To give you an example, Dikötter writes that in one town containing around 250,000 people,

80 percent of the folks were deliberately kept away from the official canteens where

food was served.

They were old or weak and so it was decided they were a waste of space in the greater

scheme of things and should be starved to death.

That’s how bad it was, and this information was taken from archives, not word of mouth.

But before we talk about more misery, let’s look at who this leader was.

This will be a very abridged history, as people have written long books on this man’s life.

Little Mao was born on December 26, 1893, in a small rural community called Shaoshan,

in the province of Hunan, China.

His parents were farmers and were said to have worked hard in the fields of that town

for generations.

It’s said his family weren’t that bad off for their area, which was mostly made

up of very poor peasants.

He did a bit of schooling, but by the time he was 13 he was working in the fields, too.

It’s said he had been a good student, and enjoyed reading and writing poetry.

It’s said he was asked to leave school for being unruly, according to an excerpt from

a book featured in the New York Times.

His mother, whom he worshipped, was ok with him leaving but his father was displeased,

according to this book.

Mao himself once said he had bitter fights with his father.

At 14, his dad said he had found a wife for Mao, but we are told he turned the offer down.

Other sources tell us he did in fact marry her, but that Mao never later recognized her

as his proper wife.

In his own words, Mao once said, “When I was 14, my parents married me to a girl of

20.

But I never lived with her ... I do not consider her my wife ... and have given little thought

to her.”

She died a year after their marriage anyway, and it’s said even though his father wanted

him to work in a rice store, Mao had his sights set on studying in a modern school where he

could learn things like foreign languages, science and world history.

He would soon be inspired by western economists, philosophers, military leaders and scientists,

as well as the writings of philosopher and economist Karl Marx.

It’s said at around this time, still a young man, he developed a reasoning that the end

justifies the means, or perhaps you might say that to make an omelet you have to break

some eggs.

His father at this time thought Mao’s intellectual pursuits were totally pointless.

Their break-up was imminent.

At age 17 he left home and went to study in another city.

After educating himself more he went on to join the Revolutionary Army and the Nationalist

Party (Kuomintang), whose intention was to overthrow the monarchy.

That happened in 1912, and the Republic of China was born.

These were exciting times for Mao no doubt, but he didn’t exactly rocket into politics.

In 1918 he became qualified as a teacher, but after looking for jobs in Beijing he was

still unemployed.

Instead he managed to land a job as a librarian’s assistant at Beijing University.

Around this time we are told that Mao had taken an interest in Russia and what was going

on there with the revolution (1917), an uprising that would lead to the formation of the Soviet

Union based on the tenets of communism.

Just a couple of years later and Mao would become one of the first members of the Chinese

Communist Party.

There was still a ruling nationalist party in China that Mao had supported from the beginning,

but having watched Vladimir Lenin’s ideas come to fruition not too far away, Mao believed

it was time for China to give some power back to the people, the agrarian masses that made

up most of the country.

What happened next, in short, is the Chinese Nationalist Party broke all alliances with

the upstarts, the Communist Party.

And here’s where Mao stepped in.

He led an army (The Red Army) of peasants against the nationalists.

This violent reprisal wasn’t without its reasons of course, the Nationalists had killed

and locked up many people affiliated with the Communist Party before the fighting.

Mao then formed the Soviet Republic of China and by 1934 ten provinces in the country were

under his Communist control.

Government forces then buckled down and tried to defeat all those mostly peasant guerillas,

but the Communists retreated and began was has been called “The Long March”, basically

a hard trek through the mountains.

It’s said from about 100,000 people that started the march, around 10-30,000 died on

the way (the exact number is disputed).

Walking 8,000 miles over treacherous territory gave Mao some stories to tell; he was in some

ways a great action and intellectual hero, and this would later fuel the “cult of personality.”

If you don’t know what that is, it’s when a leader becomes somewhat like a demigod,

and he and his cronies (often paranoid themselves of being accused of not being devout) use

propaganda, the media, posters, unrealistic stories, to promote this veritable savior.

Look no further than North Korea for a present example.

Matters became worse in China in 1937 when the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the country.

The government couldn’t have internal discord and also fight Japan.

The Red Army of Mao grew in size in part because of the atrocities of the Japanese.

Mao’s communists were asked to get on one side and they did, and together along with

help from the Allied forces the Japanese were defeated.

Where did this leave Mao?

Well, in a pretty strong position.

He wanted all of China, and that he got in the end.

A second civil war ensued and that ended with Mao’s enemies skipping off to Taiwan.

So, now we have Mao the leader, and he did a lot of good things.

If people got in his way, blood was often spilled, but he took land from warlords and

gave it back to the people.

He tried to stop opium production and cut down on addiction.

He doubled the number of Chinese people getting an education; he greatly improved healthcare

and women’s rights.

It’s said because of Mao’s policies life expectancy improved quite quickly in the country.

He was a champion of the rural classes, but things would take a turn for the worse.

Although he thought he had done so much good, and he had in many respects, he was still

heavily criticized by those he said were on the right – these were mostly urban folk

with urban educations.

We might remember many of these people were bullied, hurt, had their lives turned upside

down.

After some amount of condemnation he embarked on a campaign of fear.

His doubters had to be silenced, and they were.

Mao had even allowed people to voice their concerns about how the country should be run,

which came under the banner “Hundred Flowers Campaign.”

But many of those on the right, expressing concern of the leadership, were just sent

to prison.

If you think being doxxed is bad, imagine hundreds of thousands being sent to dank jail

cells just for sharing an opinion.

Some writers say the campaign was only there in the first place to weed out so-called threats.

In many other cases people were executed, and it’s said in every village there were

executions.

People also perished in labor camps, where Mao had hoped to see a “reform through labor”

campaign change people’s views.

It’s also written that during this time many people took their own lives before they

could be forced to work or be executed.

But without criticism there can be no progress, without a dialectic it’s hard to move forward,

and when you glue the mouths of your detractors something bad is likely going to happen.

It did, and worse than anything previously seen.

In 1958, Mao launched his “Great Leap Forward”, which were a series of reforms to push the

country forward.

This included forcing farmers to work in a collective, everything was for the country,

the move ahead, the bright future, and anyone working for themselves in the vein of an individualist

capitalist was severely punished.

The reforms were many, but a big emphasis was also on quickly industrializing the country,

which often involved taking the peasants out of the fields and into iron and steel production.

China was then hit by devastating floods and some bad harvests, and all the efforts to

have people working in industries did not really work out.

The movement from field to factory also meant lower grain production.

Mao’s propaganda would tell a different story, however.

When you have zero-tolerance to criticism, or even complaining, it’s not always the

police or army that get to you.

It’s your neighbor, because much of the time they are playing a bad part in the Prisoner’s

Dilemma game, which basically means they get you before you can get to them.

One writer for the Guardian interviewing a Chinese author wrote, “Across China teachers,

former landlords and intellectuals were being humiliated, beaten and murdered.

They were hounded by neighbors, colleagues and pupils moved by misguided revolutionary

fervor, personal grudges or little more than whim.

Friends, children and spouses turned on them.”

We might also say that during rules of cults of personality people can become quite drunk

with love, stoned on their belief that they know the true path cut by the great leader.

So, when ruin comes, there just wasn’t anywhere the people could turn.

Many of those that did criticize the policies were called “right opportunists” and imprisoned.

It was a chaotic time, to say the least.

What happened was a famine, a terrible famine.

This was a response from one party official who had been told there is no food for people

to eat, they are dying.

“That's right-deviationist thinking.

You're viewing the problem in an overly simplistic matter.”

This famine literally killed off entire villagers, decimated towns, turned some people on each

other.

Farmers declaring that their harvest was terrible were sometimes beaten, set alight, drowned.

The Guardian writes, “Others are tortured, beaten or buried alive for declaring realistic

harvests, refusing to hand over what little food they have, stealing scraps or simply

angering officials.”

One Chinese man called Yang Jisheng who lived through those harsh times many years later

wrote a book called “Tombstone”, which he penned after travelling the length and

breadth of China to find out how people had been affected by the famine.

His own father had died of starvation back then.

He finds case upon case of acts of sheer desperation and depravity.

In one such case 13 kids appeal to officials to give them a scrap of food.

The officials take the young kids to the edge of the mountains where they die of exposure.

In another case a young boy kills and eats his own brother.

He mentions other cases where people didn’t bury their deceased family members (they hid

them) so that they could collect their food rations, and in some cases people just ate

their dead friends and family.

Like the historian we mentioned, the Chinese writer got this information from Chinese provincial

archives.

The authorities at least were good at keeping records.

"To start with, I felt terribly depressed when I was reading these documents," he told

The Guardian “But after a while I became numb – because otherwise I couldn't carry

on.”

His book is banned in China, and some critics wonder if the Chinese authorities have not

learned a lesson already about censorship.

Is history doomed to repeat itself?

We doubt it, but one might ask even as right and left schisms destroy friends’ alliances,

if banning and blocking is a good thing.

Yang called the banning of his book, “an offense to the memories of tens of millions.”

Of course we can’t directly charge Chairman Mao for all the deaths, and it’s said that

some of Communist Party leaders kept a lot of information away from him regarding the

depth of the famine, but we must also make him accountable for his part, his rule by

fear, his intolerance for criticism.

While one man alone we cannot blame, it perhaps is just easier to focus ire on one thing,

one face.

But that man, that face, did say things like, “Political power grows out of the barrel

of a gun.”

He also said, “To read too many books is harmful.”

This was in his famous “Little Red Book”, which consists of 427 quotations from Mao.

It’s said a billion copies of this book have been published, making it more widespread

than the whole of the Harry Potter series of books, but still a little way behind the

bible.

Still in some countries today leaders look upon their population as a herd of sheep designed

for their sometimes unruly demands and absolute theories, mostly indirectly related to them

retaining their power.

As sir Francis Bacon once said, “Knowledge is Power,” and maybe we should all arm ourselves

with a foundation of knowledge, a willingness to listen and change, to not fall for a despot’s

lies, to not be seduced by GroupThink, to not be enthralled too much by the madness

of a crowd, and live with open hearts and curious minds.

What do you think of Mao Zedong?

Could the famine have been averted?

Also, be sure to check out our other video, greatest naval battle in history - battle

of leytte gulf.

Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.

See you next time.