Did the people China like Mao Zedong?

Answer 1

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong is revered publicly in China as a great leader, but there is widespread discrepency over the actual opinions amongst the Chinese. There is no reliable answer, as public polls under the Chinese state media always manipulate the data to be overwhelmingly favor of Mao Zedong, despite the presence of online polls and other surveys by the Chinese themselves that contradict it.

Here are facts highlighting the pros and cons of the former leader of China and his regime, but I encourage you to research the topic yourself for a more concrete answer.

Pros:

1. Unified China under the Han Chinese (traditional Chinese) after decades of foreign rule by Europeans and Imperial Japan. For many Chinese, the exploitation of their country was a huge source of ire, given their extensive history. He also ended the series of civil wars and domestric strifes that plagued the country

2. Despite the the deaths caused by his policies like the "Great Leap Forward" movement, life expectancy did increase during Mao Zedong's reign, and iron production increased over 30% from 1958-1960 (but it plummeted in 1961 and wouldn't rise back until 1964).

3. In terms of personality & relationships, Mao Zedong was known to have a magnetic personality and was moderate in his manner with regards to friends. He behaved like a peasant & believed himself to be one of the masses (he was not elitist)

4. Mao improved the status of women, and statistics reveal that his reign was marked with improved literacy as well as education for the poor.

Cons:

1. Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward" movement led to the "S�nnián dà jīhu�ng", or the "Three Years of Great Chinese Famine" from 1959-1961. The Chinese government admits tht 15,000,000+ deaths occured from this, but scholarly estimates from China's own researchers & professors place the deaths at anywhere between 20,000,000~43,000,000. Liue Shaoqi, the president of China from 1959-1968, said that Great Leap Forward movement was "30% fault of nature, 70% human error". Needless losses were caused by a corrupt government that Mao Zedong statistically did little to reform.

2. His policies, especially the "Great Leap Forward" movement, destroyed the most real estate (houses & property) in HUMAN HISTORY, far exceeding the damage that all of WWII's bombing campaigns caused. This was done to create new farms in arable land. Even then, Chinese governement statistics in the 1980s shows that there was actually a 30% drop in crop production from 1958 to 1960, which also contributed to the famine.

3. Mao Zedong was also known to be willing be ruthless against his enemies and those that failed to meet his expectations. While this normally would be considered utilitarian, the fact that many of the failures by the peasantry & his subordinates were largely caused by Mao Zedong himself makes it seem unfair in retrospect. When the nation experienced food shortages due to his policies, Mao Zedong refused any form of foreign aid and even exported grain while allowing millions of his people to die in an attempt to hide China's instability in the eyes of the world.

In other words, opposition was always met with ruthless suppression and torture. No exceptions.

4. Modern China has largely rejected Mao's economic policies, and most of China's rise as an economic superpower was due to Deng Xiaoping's capitalistic reforms in the late 1970s, not those of Mao Zedong.

5. The "Culturual Revolution" under Mao Zedong led to destruction of many aspects of Chinese culture, including but not limited to: scholars, historical relics/monuments, art, poetry, and literature.

To summarize, Mao Zedong could be considered a monster seeing as how he did not care how many people died to achieve his goals, but he can also be considered a leader for firmly believing in his cause to be for the prosperity of the nation as a whole. He was a firm advocate of the notion "the ends justify the means". The main questions for most Chinese, however, is whether Mao Zedong did obtain tangible results, and whether the sacrifices made by the people for the state was worthwhile.