Uploading in the interest of discussion.
In 1949 much of Chinese society was still medieval, maybe even worse than Afghanistan or Somalia today. There were massive drug abuse, cultural backwardness, unequal distribution of wealth and armed bandits roaming the countryside. In less than 20 years Mao and the CCP cleaned up the entire country. In the 1950s for example, the opium crisis was literally completely eradicated. Drug addicts were forced to attend rehab and dealers were outright executed.In 1949, Chinese literacy rate was less than 30%, In 1975, it was over 80%.Before 1949, China cannot even produce a bicycle, industry was very weak. In 1976, China had a growing aerospace industry, nuclear weapons, and rockets.
Mao made some mistakes in the late 50s and 60s, but nevertheless Mao's achievements cannot be overlooked.
Comments
(Old Spike)
German comedian OTTO Waalkes 1977.
In the end of the rhyme he mentions (Franz Josef) Strauss, somewhat controversial west german politician (CSU) from the era, and at the very end (Gerhard) Stoltenberg also a german politician (CDU) of the era
(Short Spike)
Are you fucking kidding me? The pseudo intellectualism here is BAD. Dude needs to spend some time in a library. He never even mentioned the 10million+ people Mao had killed in his purges. You arent a decent leader when you kill off whole percentage points of your population. Even that economic graph, it literally started accelerating upward AFTER Mao's death in 1976.
Before 1850 China had spend the last 1500 years running 50% of the ENTIRE worlds economic output. To think China was some backwater nation that he saved through reform is insane. China isnt suddently taking over the worlds economy, its returning to where it was after 100 years of horrible foreign influence.
(Short Spike)
That guy needs to spend some time away from the Red flag and talk about Deng Xiaoping.
(Old Spike)
I'm not sure where you get your figures from. China never controlled 50% of global GDP, it hovered around 25%-35% for around 1800 yrs before the 1st Opium War. And when Mao began his reign it'd been in decline for around 130 yrs & sat at round 5%. The 10 million figure is also an overreach from what I've read. It was still a feudal system with half the country addicted to opium & barely any healthcare or education. Without Mao's reforms, Deng wouldn't have been able to carry out his.
I don't think he's arguing that Mao was a good guy necessarily, more that he was effective & how quickly he was able to transform the country. In a nutshell I'd say Mao got the country back on their feet & healthy. Nobody serious argues that he didn't make mistakes. The Great Leap Forward being the obvious one. This is the first time I've heard someone argue in favour of the Cultural Revolution though, I think that's ballsy lol.
(Long Spike)
I love socialism because it always ends in genocide :)