Mao Zedong: Savior or Dictator?

Mao Zedong: Savior or Dictator?
Introduction
Professor Nathan raised an important question regarding Mao Zedong: why people followed him? This question induced me to write this exploratory paper. As a Chinese resident, looking back on how Mao Zedong is seen in China, among colleagues and friends, I realize that people in China fervently followed him not only when he was alive but also even today. Furthermore, people not just in China, but around the world worship him. Maoist political and insurgency movements still exist in many parts of the world. Many remember him as a savior of the poor, a successful revolutionary and a good war and foreign policy strategist. In today’s China, plagued by rampant corruption, many miss Mao’s time when the people could question and beat officials. Others are concerned about the big gap between rich and poor and miss the greater degree of equality prevailing under Mao. But many just miss his populist appeal: in times without heroes, they miss the towering figure of Mao. Of course, there are dissenting views. Some share the prevailing view among many western scholars that Mao was a dictator like Hitler and Stalin. Others have mixed feelings about Mao. But the reality is that Mao Zedong enjoyed for decades –and continues to enjoy today-- the strong support of many in the Chinese population.
The question of why Mao Zedong was followed so ardently is an issue that permeates populist political science. Many others, from Peron to Fidel Castro, have received broad popular support. It is an important question to determine why they are followed, not only because populist leaders have influenced history, but because they will continue to emerge in politics, whether it is a Hugo Chavez or some other strongman elsewhere. But I like to find out why Mao Zedong was followed because of my own personal reasons. I am one of those confused Chinese people who have such complicated feelings on him. This is an essential topic for Chinese people, again not only involving history but also the present and future of China, because populism could make its way back into Chinese politics. This exploratory paper provides my own initial steps towards answering this question.
How to make judgments about continuing support for a leader? Often, people do not have a clear principle of how to judge leaders who have a complicated personality or have accomplished various deeds. But what should be that principle? I realize that our judgment should be based on a humanistic principle---the impact the leader has had on us as human beings. This impact can vary and be difficult to assess due to the many dimensions we have as individuals, relating to class: landlord, capitalists, workers and farmers; wealth: rich or poor; religion: atheist, Buddhist, etc.; regional: urban versus rural, or provincial; time: whether we focus on the past, present or future, and even psychologically and culturally, in terms of how we see authority figures. Each person makes an overall assessment of a political leader on the basis of how valuable the leader is to him or her. Therefore, to determine what moves someone to support a populist leader, one can examine his or her main political, economic, education, cultural, etc. positions and policies, and analyze how their implementation has influenced a person’s life. I will start this exploration by focusing on my own evaluation of Mao Zedong’s policies and deeds.
My evaluation of Mao Zedong
Period before 1949. This must be considered Mao’s most successful. It was a time when China’s old and traditional social system entered into a transition period when many people felt a duty to look for a new system to make China a stronger and modern country. In 1912, Sun Yet Sen had set up a government whose goal was to set up democracy in China, but the process was delayed by the warlord war and stopped by the Japanese invasion. Many saw Mao as a modernization alternative, one which would destroy the archaic, semi-feudal system in the country while strengthening the nation. Indeed, Mao was an ardent nationalist when he was young. He was ambitious, smart and wanted to help the country. He realized the importance of workers and peasants and wanted to alleviate their suffering. He also had strong leadership abilities, which allowed him to beat all his enemies inside the CCP (Wangming, Zhang Guotao, etc.) and outside it, including Qiang Kai sheik.
Of course, in reaching power, Mao led bloody movements which had substantial destructive power as well. But from the vantage point of 1949, one can understand why many people supported him and had great hopes for the future.
The political policy after 1949: Law must run a country, but as professor Nathan mentioned in class, there was essentially no legal system in China at all during Mao’s time. So there were no laws to protect people’s rights, no laws to regulate government performance, etc. As a result, Mao and his supporters had no boundaries in pursuing adversaries and imposing their will on anybody within the country. From the country’s Minister of Defense, Peng Dehuai, President Liu Shaoqi, to any landowners, capitalists, intellectuals, etc., could be persecuted, without any guidelines. There are political movements one by one, and many people have been persecuted. One recent scholarly account asserts that in rural China alone some 36 million people were persecuted, of whom between 750,000 and 1.5 million were killed, with roughly the same number permanently injured .
Mao had called for democracy on in his 1945 article “On the Combined Government.” But after he gained power, he reversed course and, on the contrary, he built a One Party Dictatorship, just as he had criticized in Qiang Kaisheik’s government. He cheated other parties, such as the Democratic Union, which originally supported the CCP, and fooled the whole Chinese people who had admired him so much. While his supporters and his political and military machinery ardently followed him, a significant fraction of the population was marginalized. Fears and hatred was promoted about populations within China, to gain the support of the masses. This approach was at its peak during the Cultural Revolution.
The Chinese communist system became Mao’s personal dictatorship. Mao said he would build the “Proletarian dictatorship and will take away all the bad people’s right of speech, but only give proletarian people the right of speech” . And he did it. He was successful in maintaining his political power, but this came at a substantial cost to the country, not only in terms of civil rights and the lack of personal freedom, but also economically.
Economic policy: Mao copied from the Soviet Union the planned economic system, totally giving up on markets. In the agricultural sector, after 1949, the land owned by landlords and peasants was taken away and redistributed to poor peasants, which was the policy Mao used to induce peasants to join his army (following other peasant rebellions of the past). But soon, Mao betrayed the peasants who had helped him. The peasants’ land, tools and animals were taken away when collective farms were created and later changed into communes. He also implemented the household policy that prohibited the mobility of peasants. The aim was to use cheap agriculture products to support the industrialization in cities. These policies seriously hurt the peasants’ quality of life and led to a loss of incentives for agricultural production.
Mao’s economic policies were also disastrous in the industrial sector, Mao tried to develop heavy industry quickly, as he wanted to enter into a communist society as fast as he could. He said China would surpass the steel production of the UK in 15 years. But due to a lack of technology and skilled labor, this Great Leap was never realized. On the contrary, the collapse of agriculture and the lack of industrial progress led to the death of 20 to 30 million people through 1959—1961 because of starvation. Liu Shaoqi made a speech in 1962 at Seven Thousand Man's Assembly criticizing that "The economic disaster was 30% fault of nature, 70% human error." Mao’s economic policies were abandoned after the Deng Xiaoping ‘s reforms, when China returned to a market economic system.
Culture and education policy: Education policy in China was dominated by communist ideology and shifted depending on Mao’s whims and those of the system he had implanted. Mao had an anti-intellectual side that emerged periodically in purges of intellectuals and cultural workers. The maximum expression of this was during the Cultural Revolution, when universities were closed, literature was forbidden, books burned and the Red Guards destroyed many ancient sites. Intellectuals were sent to labor camps between 1955 and the 1970s. Between 12 and 18 million youth were sent to countryside. They only received primary to high school education. Higher education was stopped. At the same time. 369 million of Mao’s Quotations and 1,214 million of his pictures were printed .
Conclusion. My own detailed personal assessment of Mao’s accomplishments is mixed, but definitely tilts towards a very negative assessment. His period before 1949 suggested a strong leader with great potential to improve the human condition in China. His personality and motivation were influenced by his family, the background of Chinese society at that time, Marxism, and ancient Chinese culture. As a Marxist and Qing Shihuang, Mao became in effect the last emperor during the long march of Chinese searching for a modern social system. He appeared at first as an idealist who wanted to build up a communism Utopian or Datong (Great Harmony) society. He had done good research on the past Chinese emperors and peasants uprisings, and he acquired power on the basis of strong strategic analysis of his enemies.
But the hopes that Mao represented in 1949 were never realized and the political and economic disasters during the 1949 to 1976 period dominate any assessment to be made of Mao as a leader. His self-absorbed and ambitious personality and desire to maintain power blinded any broader societal goals and, despite greater equality, led to poverty and dismal economic growth.
Given the evident political and economic disasters under Mao’s rule, one must rely on other factors to explain why Mao has had so much support. It is possible that nationalist and communist ideologies, deeply ingrained in education and society during Mao’s era, could have led to judgments that were not based on reality. This is especially the case in communist countries where indoctrination is part of the strategy to maintain support for a leader. This does not explain, however, why Mao has maintained so much prestige among various political movements outside the country. Misinformation, however, could explain this. The fact is that the CCP decided to provide a rosy picture of Mao and has provided the world with limited negative information about Mao. In addition, Mao damaged mostly people in his own country, inside China, and he did not do harm to other countries, such as Hitler did. This also limited negative attitudes towards him outside China.
This exploratory paper has served as my first step in the examination of the question of why Mao Zedong has been followed so ardently. I believe this is an important question that must be studied carefully. The influence of populist leaders on a country’s political system can run deep. Even today, within the CCP, there are still Mao’s shadows there: the authoritarian regime, the pragmatic foreign policies, the view that practice is the only way to test the truth, etc. In fact, the CCP’s documents and the style of writing of Chinese media and people still follow the style adopted under Mao. It is important, therefore, to understand Mao’s appeal.
Finally, I should conclude with some more general thoughts I have on my investigation of Mao’s life and his accomplishments (or lack of them). I find that the philosophy of politics of its leaders is very important to a country. Mao had a pragmatic view that justified any means to achieve a goal, including the most abject ignorance of life (through violence and war), and lack of humanity (as reflected in the excesses of the Cultural Revolution). As it turns out, an alternative political philosophy, one which could have been more successful, I believe would have been based on a humanistic idea, which involves an emphasis on human rights, negotiation, and tolerance with each other, instead of hate, war and violence. A political system based on these values is more likely to lead to long-term improvements in quality of life.
References:
Jin Zhong (Editor), Mao Zedong Pipan(Critisize), KeNing Public House, Taiwan, 1994
Chen Zhirang, Mao Zedong and Chinese Revolution, edited by the CCP’s Historical Document Rublish House,1963
Zhisui, Li, The Private Life of Chairman Mao--the Memoirs of Mao’s Peronal Physician, Translated by Professor Tai Hung-chao, with the editorial assistant of Anne F. Thurston, New York, Random House, 1994.
Terrill, Ross, Mao: A Biography, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000.
The Honesty Words (Zhiyan), Lirui’s worry and thinking during 60 years, Lirui. Today’s China Publish House

The Historical Judgment: Was Mao Zedong a Savior (Hero) or a Dictator (Emperor) of China?

A Book Review on:
The Private Life of Chairman Mao and The True Stories in History

Introduction
This review is about two books on Mao Zedong. The first one is: The Private Life of Chairman Mao, --the Memoirs of Mao’s Personal Physician. The book was written by Dr. Li Zhisui, Mao Zedong’s personal Physician. It was translated by Professor Tai Hung-chao, with the editorial assistance of Anne F. Thurston; with foreword by Professor Andrew J. Nathan. It was published by Random House in 1994. The book addressed the history of China under the ruling of Mao, told stories about Mao’s private life and the strategies he followed with his associates from 1954 until his death in 1976. In this book, through the eye’s of Doctor Li, Mao Zedong was described as an emperor, a dictator who had the absolute power to control everyone’s life and the country’s fate. The second book reviewed is: The True Stories in History—the Testimony of Mao Zedong’s Staff (Lishi De Zhenshi, Mao Zedong Shenbian Gongzuo Renyuan De Zhengyan), by Lin Ke, Xu Tao, Wu Xujun, the staff who worked close to Mao Zedong. The publisher is The CCP’s Central Documentary Publishing House. The authors were Doctor Li’s colleagues back in China at that time. Their book criticized Doctor Li’s book and Doctor Li’s personality. They gave their testimony to prove that Doctor Li was unreliable, that his book’s accounts were not true, and that, by contrast, Mao Zedong was a great leader, a hero, a savior of China.
This review will criticize both books, pointing out what I think are the weaknesses of both authors. The main question I believe should be answered is: what material can we use and how can we judge a person who has been very important in world history, who has influenced and still influences so many people in one big nation and around the world?
Assessing the world political leaders: The Role of Personal Memoirs
In assessing the life and work of major world political leaders, whether Joseph Stalin, John F. Kennedy, or Mao Zedong, should a number of standards be followed? Standard scholarly works have examined in detail the social, economic and political forces behind the rise to power and the policies implemented by these leaders. But a different approach has been followed by biographies and personal memoirs of the leaders, which focus on the details of the personal life of the person. These authors seek psychological insights into the thinking of the leaders. They scrutinize personal, biographical aspects that may explain their decision-making. They try to find secret, previously unknown personal strategies, negotiations or relationships between the leaders and others that may have deeply influenced a country.
As such, personal biographies or memoirs complement social science research in the understanding of the leaders and their life, especially those in authoritarian regimes where policy is often deeply influenced by the personal actions of a leader. As Professor Nathan states in the book’s Foreword, “Personal memoirs about great democratic leaders, ..tell us less about history than the biographies of dictators do, because democratic leaders have less room to impose their personalities on events. As for the Chinese tradition, the “basic annals” of each reign record the rituals, portents, alliances, memorials, and enfeoffments that made up emperor’s performance of his role, but they rarely reveal the personalities beneath the robes. ..The combination of access and insight makes the Private Life of Chairman Mao Unique.”
Dr. Li presents a life of “ultimate luxury, simplicity” as Prof. Nathan concluded, a troublesome personal life of Mao. The book asserts that Mao never brushed his teeth, never took a bath himself; worked, talked or called people anytime he needed them (most of the time was after midnight), served by many young people, had young girls as his secretaries and as dancing partners, with no family members staying with him, and was separated with a strange wife---Jiangqing-- who would suddenly appear in front of people and criticized anyone she wished; encircled by his blind loyal or crafty associates; even after he died, his cadaver has been maintained as a modern mummy until now..
Dr. Li’s book shows the fear, scrupulousness, conflicts, and tension in “Emperor Mao’s palace” (his words) where his staff ---the Dr. himself, nurses, bodyguards, cook and so on-- must be very careful of what they did and said, just like the description in the famous novel Dream of the Red Chamber, and also like the old Chinese saying: people who work close to the emperor are just like one is staying beside a tiger. It is a life between life and death, glory and horror.
Dr. Li also emphasized the personal aspects of Mao’s successful or failed strategies to maintain control over the political leadership of the CCP, his likes and dislikes of domestic and world leaders and the sometimes imperious nature of major policy changes he undertook. After reading the book, it is hard not to call Mao a “petty dictator.”
At the same time, there are several serious shortcomings of personal memoirs in providing a serious understanding of world leaders. First of all, there is a question of the reliability of the observer. In social science research, we seek to maintain an unbiased analysis of the subject. But in many biographies and certainly in memoirs, those providing the accounts are not unbiased since they themselves were deeply involved with those being examined. It is therefore difficult to assess the reliability of the information being provided since the point of view of the author can be biased in different ways.
The personal involvement of the author in this book is very clear. Professor Nathan describes the deep personal relationship of Dr. Li: “Nor has any other dictator been as intimately observed as Mao is in this memoir by the man who served as his personal physician for twenty-two years.” The author’s personal animosity, friendship, his lacking of politic knowledge and full information, as he himself described, may influence his observations.
These biases may not necessarily be intentional or conscious. But not only the personal views will influence a personal memoir, there may be influences from the political or ideological biases as well. His book is written from outside China and may be seen as a critique of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). And this is also the main problem with The True Stories in History book, which came out four years after Dr. Li’s book, in 1998. It is based on the testimony of Mao Zedong’s Staff, by Lin Ke (one of Mao’s secretaries), Xu Tao(Mao’s personal doctor from 1953--1957), and Wu Xujun (one of Mao’s nurses ). The authors remain in China and may be seen as responding to political bias or pressures from the party, to prove that Dr Li’s book was not true, that Mao was not a terrible dictator, but a great hero.
The difficulty in assessing the reliability of the conflicting personal accounts in these two books is made more complicated by the lack of transparency in China and the secrecy surrounding Mao and his era. Which of the two accounts presents the real Mao? Dr. Li, for example, presents a side of Mao that no one has seen. Though possibly true, the problem is that this picture is difficult to confirm or corroborate. There are some specific points of dispute in terms of the personal descriptions of Mao by Dr. Li and those by Mao’s staff, such as the semen test, Linke’s hiding document, the arrest of Jiangqing and the Gang of four, why Mao started the anti-Rightness movement and the Culture Revolution but these again are difficult to judge without any corroborating evidence.
Another limitation of personal memoirs in assessing world leaders is that the context within which the persons writing these memoirs operate may exaggerate the personal shortcomings of those being exposed. A personal memoir can focus on the sexual indiscretions of Presidents John F. Kennedy or President Bill Clinton, and this may lead to a view of those leaders as being personally, morally corrupt. Yet, it is also clear that an analysis of the policies undertaken by these same leaders –in their activities as government officials and leaders-- shows very committed, responsible and moral actions in their professional life. In the same vein, the focus of Dr. Li and the other Mao’s staff on his personal life may provide a distorted view of the professional and policy actions he undertook.
Conclusions
Was Mao a petty dictator or not? It is my conclusion that there are too many limitations for us to make a clear judgment right now on the basis of these two books. To judge one person, especially one who had such a tremendous impact on so many people’s fates must wait.
First of all, we must realize that the two books reviewed here are personal memoirs that just cannot be looked at historical documents. There are no corroborating sources and the discussion may be clouded by personal bias or political influences. We cannot judge someone by his private life, such as his sexual life or distasteful personal traits, unless one can document that those were directly connected to important professional decisions made in policy and government or those were an unnecessary waste of public resources. In assessing whether Mao was indeed a “petty dictator,” we would have to consider the broader social, economic and political context of his personal leadership. Where did his economic policies come from, what intellectual influences or ideologies made him adopt the Great Leap Forward, what were the political forces that made him sponsor the Cultural Revolution and so on? These issues are only touched by these books, and the statements made are based on personal recollections that cannot be confirmed.
Secondly, the documentation necessary to resolve some of the conflicting statements in the two books is not available yet. It will have to wait until that time when China becomes more open and transparent. Given the fact that The True Stories in History book does not really contest most of Dr. Li’s observations, we may presume that Dr. Li’s book is correct, but any confirmation must wait.
Having made these criticisms, I also want to emphasize that personal memoirs do have their role in social science analysis. I mentioned this in the introduction and I want to conclude with some thoughts on this. Given the lack of information on Mao’s internal circles, and the extensive propaganda spread by the CCP, Doctor Li’s book, just by portraying a different picture and raising doubts about official versions, makes a big contribution. I believe that in the future, Dr. Li’s accounts of the Mao era may also join other scholarly works in providing a broad perspective on Mao’s period in Chinese history.

References:
Li Zhisui, The Private Life of Chairman Mao--the Memoirs of Mao’s Personal Physician, Translated by Professor Tai Hung-chao, with the editorial assistant of Anne F. Thurston, New York, Random House, 1994.
Li Zhisui, The Memoirs of Mao’s Personal Physician, http://www.boxun.com/hero/mao/23_1.shtml.
Lin Ke, Xu Tao, Wu Xujun, The True Stories in History—the testimony of Mao Zedong’s Stuff, (LIshi De Zhenshi), Beijing, The CCP’s Central Documentary Publishing House,1998.
Andrew Nathan, Jade and Plastic, London review of books, 17 November 2005.

Andrew Nathan, The Bloody Enigma, The New Republic Nov.27 & Dec.4, 2006.

Ross Terrill, Mao: A Biography, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000.
Lirui, Speaking Bluntly (Zhiyan), Lirui’s worry and thinking during 60 years, China Today Publish House, 1998.
Richard Bernstein, The Tyrant Mao, as Told by His Doctor, The New York Times, October 2, 1994.