Did Mao Zedong good

Answer 1

This is a highly subjective question.

Many Chinese harbor a mix of both admiration and disdain for Mao Zedong, believing that he did the country a great deal of good by ending the corrupt rule of the Kuomintang, reforming the feudal system of land ownership, and ending the last vestiges of imperialist control over Mainland China. In this, he has become more of a figure of Chinese nationalism than one of international Socialist revolution. However, the catastrophes of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution can be laid at his feet.

As one ambivalent man once told me, "Mao was clearly a great man, as only a great man can make the sort of mistakes that he did!"

My personal judgment is that China today is, in some respects, slightly better off because of Mao and the CCP than it would be today if the KMT had won the civil war, and slightly worse off in others.

Answer 2

Mao Zedong was instrumental in battling the Japanese invasion of China during the 1930's. His counterpart Chiang Kai-shek was also engaged in fighting the Japanese. At this point in Chinese history certainly more good things can be said about Mao Zedong than bad things. After World War Two, however, Mao showed himself to be a hardliner communist. His goal was to bring communism to China whatever the cost. As a result, he led the Chinese Civil War against Chiang Kai-shek. Both leaders were ruthless against one another for sure. In the end, Mao was victorious. As with the leaders of the Russian Communist revolution, Mao was determined to suppress any opposition to communism. He was responsible for the execution of all who opposed his style of communism. As ruler of the Peoples Republic of China, only the communist party could rule. It was a one party system and it was a repressive regime, causing the deaths of millions of Chinese people.