Wide Angle 32 - Mao - Part 2

Back to Mr Mao or rather Chairman Mao. Well he got this sobriquet after he became the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by eliminating his rivals through terror, denunciations and executions. Last week charted his journey till he became the ruler of China, this week concludes the story with his conduct in power from 1949 till his death in 1976 at the ripe age of 82. Let us get to it then.

Tussle with Stalin:
Though Mao conquered China with Stalin’s help, he had ambitions far beyond being the junior protégé of the Master (Stalin). Though he acknowledged Stalin as the head of the Communist Camp in the world, he believed he too was a brand and over the 3 years till Stalin was alive, there was a blow hot-cold relation with Stalin. Finally, Stalin agreed to leave Asia for Mao to dominate. Towards the end, the Vietnam problem was delegated by Stalin to Mao to handle. Mao helped Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam with men and material and establish his base against the French. The bigger project he undertook with Stalin’s blessing was to start the Korean War.

Milking the Korean War (1950-53):
As we all know, Korea today is divided into two countries – North Korea which is an impoverished Communist country run by dictator Kim Il Sung, the South is a prosperous democracy. Korea was ruled by the Japanese before WW2 and then was divided along the 38th Parallel latitude with the North going to USSR and South under Americans. Kim took over power in the North and kept persuading Stalin to attack the South – Stalin was reluctant to do so since that would mean provoking a conflict with America. In stepped Mao – he assured Stalin that he had unlimited people to put into war with the West which he was ready to expend and this would actually help Stalin since it would mean unsustainable body count for US which will weaken it and also push it out of Korea. In return he wanted only one thing – to realize his dream of making China a superpower by getting access to latest arms industries, a modern army, navy air force and the ultimate – the Atom bomb.
Kim attacked the South and America intervened with UN backing and the war began. Mao sent waves after waves of Chinese “volunteers” to help Kim who bogged down the UN forces for years. Meanwhile, Stalin sent in experts to build China’s industries, armaments and its forces. The war lasted for 3 years post which an armistice was signed but Mao had achieved a lot of his needs with many projects kick started with Russian help. Close to 3 million Chinese men were put into Korea out of which at least 400000 died, a Russian document puts the figure at 1 million Chinese dead.

The Secret Superpower program (1953-57):
As described above, Mao’s ambition was to be a great world leader on the back of making China a superpower so he embarked on acquiring all the hardware he wanted from the Russians. The only was he could pay back was through food. The only way this could be achieved was by setting strict targets for food production which meant squeezing every grain out of the peasants. This led to terrible famines in the countryside with millions of people dying of hunger. Also, people in the village were not allowed to leave the village which meant the natural response to famine i.e. migration was thwarted and that meant more deaths.

The Great Leap (1958-61):
This was an extension of the Superpower program where Mao set a target of 3-5 years in which China would be a superpower – ambitions like building big ships to maintain control on Japan, Philippines and even landing them in San Francisco. For the Chinese population, this meant more food extracted. The targets were calculated on the basis of what was needed for the Program rather than what people could afford. This meant more famines, more deaths and a ravaged population. To gain influence in the Communist world, Mao freely helped other countries with non returnable loans, food consignments e.g. Hungary which was much more richer than China was given several millions in aid and food to help their “people”. All this was primarily to build brand Mao and portray him as alternative leader of the Communist camp.
Amongst the many silly things done during the Great Leap was the backyard furnaces mandated in every home to make steel. Steel output was Mao’s obsession since it was a measure of a country’s industrialization so it was incumbent on every citizen to help increase steel output. People were made to build furnaces in their homes and feed anything and everything including utensils, door latches etc. to produce the “quota” of steel. If you couldn’t do it, you were branded a “rightist” or a “capitalist agent” and of course denounced in front of your village and then killed. Naturally, the steel produced this way was of bad quality. Most of the Chinese products during this time were of shoddy quality. There were reports of Chinese built tanks going back instead of forward and planes falling off air. This program killed many people and there were stirrings of discontent in many quarters but especially at the top.

President’s ambush:
Mao had two very trusted lieutenants. One was Chou En Lai who was his Prime Minister and his charming face to the world. He sold the worst of Mao’s deeds to the world by turning them into virtuous ones because of his charm. The other was his President Liu Shao Chi. Liu was the number 2 in the cabinet. Liu was also of a poor peasant background and his conscience was pricking at the famine and the deaths caused by the Great Leap. He visited his ancestral village and was appalled at the condition of the people, this made him determined to reverse these atrocious policies of Mao. At a party congress where 7000 delegates were present (hence called Conference of 7000), Liu openly attacked these policies and called for their reversal. Most of the delegates supported him which came as a surprise to Mao. To prevent further rebellion, Mao set up a group under Liu to study the policies and change course.
Liu along with Chou en Lai and a rising star Deng Xiao-Ping (who became the ruler of China after Mao and opened it up so spectacularly to make it what it is today) quickly slowed down the industrialization programs and relived the burden of the populace in terms of food extraction. Spending on arms was scaled down and help to agriculture and consumer industries was increased. In a year, people’s lives improved and deaths from hunger stopped. Mao reluctantly went along but was seething inside and waiting for a chance to get rid of Liu. That chance was soon to come in the form of the “Cultural Revolution”.

Getting the A-bomb:
Stalin was dead in 1953 and Khruschev who succeeded him quickly denounced whatever Stalin did. However, he was more gullible than Stalin and Mao tricked him into helping China get the bomb. Mao provoked a war with Taiwan which was protected by America and this would mean American intervention. Mao built up the fear of a nuclear attack due to this by America and in a quid-pro-quo, Russian help arrived to build the bomb for China. Mao’s dream was now complete.

The Cultural Revolution (1966-70):
Mao was waiting for his chance to get back at those whom he hated primarily Liu. Liu had grown in stature because of his courage in repealing the torturous programs and his photographs were now placed alongside Mao’s at every place. He was also immensely liked and respected. To destroy him, Mao needed the army on his side, he got this in the form of Lin Biao who was his long time confidant and head of the army and also shared Mao’s bloodlust and cruelty. With his help and that of Mao’s fourth wife Madame Mao, the “cultural revolution” was launched. The basic concept of this was that the ancient Chinese culture was regressive and was anti-people. Whatever being taught traditionally in schools and all forms of art, theatre was a problem which led to the regression of China. Therefore all those who stood for “culture” had to be punished and mostly liquidated.
This started with a small group set up by Mme Mao called the Cultural Revolution Small Group. This was then extended to have branches in every town and was mostly staffed by young students who were ideologically “pure” and brutally violent. Teachers were beaten to death, artists were rounded up and tortured, anyone suspected being associated with “culture” was killed. There is an instance of a woman teacher who was made to cross from one end of a hall to the other and beaten with shoes by her students simply because she was suspected of being a “rightist”.
The final victim was of course Liu. Liu and his wife were arrested and tortured to death by denying them medicines and proper food. Both remained proud till the end and refused to apologize to Mao. The death toll in this “Revolution” led to only a few million deaths. One of the prime victims of this was Deng who had to spend years in jail. It was this experience that showed him the evils of the regime Mao had created and this led him to change everything once he came to power.

Patch up with America (1970-73):
Having berated America for all his life, Mao needed their support since his relations with Soviets had turned sour and he always feared them attacking China or removing him. His led to the famous thaw with Nixon-Kissinger where Mao and Chou ran circles around the Americans and got access to the latest technologies from the US.

Fallout and mistreatment of close confidants:
Mao felt Lin Biao was getting too powerful so he had him cut to size. Lin fearing for his life tried fleeing to Russia in a plane along with his family. However, his daughter who was brainwashed and loyal to the “Party” informed the guards and they tried preventing Lin from leaving. Lin’s plane did not stack up enough fuel and thus crash landed while leaving China killing him and his family. Chou en Lai was always loyal to Mao and had helped build his image in the world by his suave charm. He was a couple of years younger than Mao and this always made Mao insecure since he did not want to die before Chou. Chou was diagnosed with cancer of the bladder in 1972 which was treatable. However, Mao denied him cancer treatment for a year during which he also overworked Liu who kept dousing diplomatic fires. Finally, Chou got surgery done but this left him bitter and weakened. Chou got Deng back and they formed a group against Mao’s policy.

Last years and death:
Mao became very enfeebled in his last years till 1976 when he died. He could barely see and was mostly in bed. This emboldened Deng and Chou to reverse many of his policies and get a lot of people who were purged reinstated. Chou died soon and his death sparked lot of protests across China. This indicated the unpopularity of Mao and increased Deng’s power. The end was quite insignificant, Mao died in his bed, towards his end he was obsessed with fallen rulers like Nixon, Bhutto and also Chiang Kai Shek who he had run out of China. Till his death, the only thing that motivated him was power.

Post script:
Deng succeeded Mao by outwitting the Gang of Four who were Mao’s favorites – one of them being Mme Mao. As is well known, Deng opened up the economy, almost turning China capitalist and changed the fortunes of China.

Something on Maoism:
If you have read till here, you would have seen that there is nothing spectacularly noble about Maoism. What the Maoists in the world generally believe is that power flows from the barrel of the gun. They also tend to follow the Maoist pattern of capturing power by first dominating the countryside, mobilizing the population and then taking over the cities. This is what happened in Nepal if you have read it. They tend to use the poor, farmers and tribals (as in the case of Naxalites in India) as cannon fodder – the idea is to arm lots of people and send them over as waves for fighting. The other side is wary of losing people, Maoists are not. They believe that any order that is “unjust” has to be first destroyed and then remade so that the people can rule. The leadership of Maoists is always the well educated, intelligent people (the leader of the Maoists in India is Koteshwar Rao aka Kishenji) who are driven by ideology but also by lust for power. This leads them to getting support from intellectuals who are generally left leaning – the Maoists always have a worthwhile cause – that of the poor so that makes their criminal face look just.
What happens after the Maoists come to power – there are various degrees of outcomes. The extreme example if of course Mao’s rule that I just described. Another example is of the Khmer Rouge that came to power in Cambodia in early 1970. They simply arrested all “intellectuals” which meant doctors, engineer, lawyers etc. (sometimes anyone wearing spectacles) and made them work on community farms under very bad circumstances. Needless to say, millions died. One thing that definitely happens in Maoist/Communist regimes is that the leadership lives in luxury, while the “people” whom they claim to represent suffer and mostly die. This is true of all dictatorial regimes of course but we have seen almost every Maoist/Communist regime ending up being dictatorial (harks back to Animal Farm).
If anyone has read about Prachanda, the leader of the Maoists in Nepal, he behaves quite like the aristocrat wearing Rado watches and drinking expensive whisky.
Why I wrote all this is because there is nothing great about Maoists and all their claims of taking up arms for the “dispossessed” are only that – claims. They will end up being like any other ruler but mostly more violent and generally contemptuous and casual about human life. Therefore, we cannot allow the Maoists in India to win because their declared aim is to overthrow the democratic system of India through an armed revolution. That in itself is a problem but more than that, look at the template regimes across the world in history and the present and what you will see is something that is scary, not beneficial. Next time you see an intellectual pontificating on television in the “Big Fight” or “We the People” in favor of the Maoists, think twice and hard.
Hope this did not bore you. My interest in history stems from the fact that it often repeats itself and it is not very well taught in India which creates a revulsion for it. Hope I have been able to shed some light on this controversial but little known man of the twentieth century