[February 10, 2025] Of late, I’ve been listening to lectures by Sarah Paine, Ph.D. and historian, on the 20th century. One in particular talk interested me about Mao Zedong, where she discussed the death toll of his ride to power.
In October 1949, Mao proclaimed the victory of the Chinese Communist Party in their great and multilateral civil war. The country had been in chaos for many decades, and it was Mao who was going to save China and make it a powerful nation once again.
Mao brought a social revolution, different and more than a classic revolution that replaced the government. His social revolution would turn out to be the deadliest imposition of order ever conceived and carried out in human history.
The numbers of dead are staggering. Between 1945 to 1975, an estimated 62 million died from a combination of attacks on the civilian population and deliberate starvation. These decades were very ugly, at a level of evil hardly ever seen.
“For those of you who think the Chinese are all great long-term strategists, you need to ponder these numbers. How is it possible to kill so many of your own? That’s generally not a mark of good strategy.” — Dr. Sarah Paine
I remember when I was a young boy in the late 50s and early 60s, my dad encouraged me to eat my dinner because of “all the people starving in China.” He knew what was happening. This famine was the only one happening and not because of the weather but because of policies set in Beijing.
In the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962), Mao put all the peasants on communes. That meant the party was in control of the food supply. In addition, Mao decentralized industry. As a direct result of Mai’s policies, agricultural and industrial production collapses. But Mao keeps exporting food and goods because that’s how he gets the money to run the government.
As a result, 40 million Chinese starve to death, primarily in rural areas and disproportionately peasant girls, the least valued members of society.
“So, on the one hand, Mao is the military genius who puts Humpty Dumpty back together again when no one else could. On the other hand, he’s the psychopath incapable of running the economy in peacetime.”
Yet, despite all this, many Chinese revere him as a national hero. Why? Because in their minds, Mao made China a great power. And by unifying China under the banner of Communism and fighting the coalition of all the major capitalist powers to a stalemate in the Korean War – in their mind a victory – that ended the era of Chinese humiliations.
Mao is a hero at home and with most Western Leftists. We can say, however, that Mao Zedong is one of the most evil men, by any measure, ever to walk the face of this earth.
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Note: Dr. Sarah Paine is the Professor of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College.
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I’m a bit surprised at the number of deaths, and that doesn’t count those seriously injured or with gross birth defects and maladies caused by starvation. The impact of removing the Chinese culture is immense. And the Chinese Communist Party is now seeing what that means. It means a falling birthrate, a disregard for family values (which underpin any nationality and nation), and rejection of all religious beliefs (they have zero values except self-centeredness). I’d not want to live in China despite its beauty, because the culture is ugly.
Well, this does fit well into some earlier comments and articles posted here at Gen. Satterfield’s site.
“Why the Chinese are Not Welcome
https://www.theleadermaker.com/why-the-chinese-are-not-welcome/
It is amazing what a government can do to destroy a country’s history and culture. As long as you are willing to adopt communism, you are screwed, your family is screwed, and your children are now on a path to destruction just like is happening now in China as its population crashes and unemployment skyrockets.
That is so true, Tom. Thanks for reminding us of Gen. Satterfield’s earlier article on why the Chinese are not welcome.
I know that the Chinese Communist Party is against all religions, but there are Christians there, hidden away, and I pray for them and that their lives are better for it. 🙏
People in America have absolutely no clue how horrible and evil Mao Zedung was and also that his “legacy” of death continues to be celebrated publically by the Chinese (are they stupid?) and by political Leftists in the West (we know they are stupid). Anyone who knows anything at all about the twentieth century knows that Mao deliberately killed millions of his own people so they could become “modern” and “strong.” Well, how’d that work out? There is nothing like a little dictator who has an inferiority complex like the short, bald, nasty Mao to make sure he implements dumb policies that kill. Even evil Joe Biden couldn’t achieve this level of evil. Thanks for today’s article and for introducing Dr. Sarah Paine to us.
I think this is one of Gen. Satterfield’s main points, Jose. And so thanks for the emphasis. I hope we get to read more about what Dr. Paine has to say. I went to YouTube also, like so many others here, to watch some of her lectures and while I didn’t finish watching them, what little I did see was impressive.
“For those of you who think the Chinese are all great long-term strategists, you need to ponder these numbers. How is it possible to kill so many of your own? That’s generally not a mark of good strategy.” — Dr. Sarah Paine. The madam has this correct.
See Dwarkesh Patel’s interviews on YouTube.
https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/
“ My interview with Sarah last year convinced me that she had far more to share than could be captured in a single episode – she’s a true authority on the history of conflict and strategy, and has spent decades unearthing insights in archives all over the world, from China to the Soviet Union to Taiwan to Japan. When she offered to distill all of these insights into a lecture series, we had to make these events happen. It’s been a privilege working with Substack to bring the full scope of her expertise to a live audience.”
I just started watching this series. They are long but worth the time.
Gen. Satterfield also links to the video on YouTube about Mao Zedong, Lecture #2, I believe. What I like to do, is to read about and hear lectures on Mao – evil incarnate – to see how they view him, in particular how they see him in relation to other leaders of that era. What is called the “inter war years” of the 20th century, between 1918 and 1939 are often seen as an aberration but I think not and I do believe that Dr. Sarah Paine would agree.
“ The interwar years” we’re not really a time of no wars. https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-interwar-years
Dr. Sarah Paine doesn’t just focus on the last century. Here is the US Navy War College faculty site listing her publications.
https://usnwc.edu/Publications/Faculty-Publications?filter=Sarah%20Paine
Some great insights into a Chinese society and Mao Zedong, the most evil man to ever lead a country, even more evil than Hitler, and that says much about him. I heard Dr. Paine talk before and I like her no-nonsense approach to history of the 20th century.
Yes, and don’t forget Gen. Satterfield’s articles on Mao and his EVIL. What is so shocking to me is that despite all these millions of deaths Mao caused, he is seen as a hero by the Chinese peoples. This tells you something important about the lack of perspective of the Chinese who would rather die than lose face. This is no way to live a proper life. This is not that dissimilar to honor killings.
Exactly, thanks Liz. Maybe, we’ll hear more about Dr. Paine’s views on the Twentieth Century.