Talk:Mao Zedong

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Was Mao REALLY that bad?[edit]

This article presents a strictly anti-communist viewpoint without considering that even among pro-capitalist, sources, there is considerable disputes over his death toll. The 40 to 70 million figure is believed to come from The Black Book of Communism, which was clearly dishonest in a number of ways, including counting Nazis and other invading fascists as "victims of communism". Reading Mao's writings, he is clearly a man of the working class and peasantry and would never kill half of his country.

On the contrary, here are some things he did which are considered positive:

  • doubled China’s population from 542 million to 956 million
  • doubled life expectancy
  • doubled caloric intake
  • quintupled GDP
  • quadrupled literacy
  • increased grain production three hundred percent
  • increased gross industrial output forty-fold
  • increased heavy industry ninety-fold.
  • increased rail lineage 266 percent
  • increased passenger train traffic from 102,970,000 passengers to 814,910,000.
  • increased rail freight tonnage two thousand percent
  • increased the road network one thousand percent.
  • increased steel production from zero to thirty-five MMT/year
  • increased industry’s contribution to China’s net material product from twenty-three percent to fifty-four percent.

Source.

I hope the article can be rewritten to reflect the true nature of this great historical figure. Euria (talk) 00:51, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

tankies aren’t appreciated around these parts. just saying — Unsigned, by: 2607:fb90:39d5:c832:8068:dace:727d:d4de / talk / contribs
(EC) Sort answer: yes, he was.
Long answer. According to the Cambridge History of Communism vol. 2, The Great Leap Forward alone claimed 36 million lives. The Cultural Revolution, almost two million. If we're going to praise Mao because of China's development, we'll have to praise many others figures too. Chile is today the most prosperous nation in Latin America, but we laugh at those that believe that Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship and its 3 thousand deaths[1] were ok just because of this development. Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza right now, should we praise them for being the wealthiest country in the region? I agree that that you'll find contradictions in every country and every system, but you don't need a dictatorship, let alone millions of deaths, to achieve development, in fact it's pretty much otherwise, democracy does cause economic growth[2]. GeeJayKWhere all evil dwells Where every lie is true 01:15, 22 July 2025 (UTC)