Frank Dikotter's Mao's Great Famine was published in 2010 based on official Chinese documents. He estimates 42 million died in the famine. More importantly, he details the methods of death. It wasn't all accidental, there was widespread violence and intentional starvation of "disloyal" families. Wikipedia's page on the Great Leap Forward lists ten academic studies that estimate the deaths from 23 to 46 million, with the higher numbers coming more recently as more evidence becomes available.
The vast body of academic work on the Great Leap Forward shows there was mass death in the tens of millions and that a lot of the deaths were the result of government violence. Are you denying the mass deaths and government violence inflicted on farmers during the Great Leap Forward?
Taiwan under the KMT is a useful comparison with the PRC because the two governments followed radically different economic policies from 1949-1979. The PRC chose to eliminate private property and subjugate all economic activity to state control while the KMT strongly promoted private enterprise. As a result, the living standard in Taiwan rose much faster from 1949-1979 than it did in the PRC during that time period. As for the KMT being a "perpetual loser", tell that to Ma Ying-jeou. At least the KMT has the confidence to stand in competitive elections. It's easy to be a "winner" when you're the only player in the game.
I never want to get involve into the pissing contest but your contention is just too much As I said before most of the 30 million death is nothing but guesstimate at best product of faulty statistic to demonize the communist. A lot of this western liberal including professor has agenda to drive . They just pick and choose fact from history to support their agenda. Which is human right, democracy, etc
There is no doubt that there are atrocities committed by the communist . But both side commit atrocities. The Kuomintang open the gate of Zhoukou and flooded Anhui, Henan, Jaingsu killing 800,000 people or more .
To stop further Japanese advances into the western and southern part China, Chiang Kai-shek, at the suggestion of Chen Guofu, determined to open up the dikes on the Yellow River near Zhengzhou. The original plan was to destroy the dike at Zhaokou, but due to difficulties at that location the dike was destroyed on June 5 and June 7 at Huayuankou, on the south bank. Waters flooded into Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu. The floods covered and destroyed thousands of square kilometers of farmland and shifted the mouth of the Yellow River hundreds of miles to the south. Thousands of villages were inundated or destroyed and several million villagers driven from their homes and made refugees. An official Nationalist post-war commission estimated that 800,000 were drowned, which may be an underestimate.[2]
The number of casualties in the flood remains disputed and estimates have been revised by the Chinese government and other researchers in the decades after the event. There is no way of accurately assessing the casualties: much of the population, including officials had already fled, leaving no government control and no one to count the dead. In the shifting battles between bandits, Nationalists, Communists, and Japanese, counting casualties was not a high priority. The government, after initially claiming that the breach was caused by Japanese bombing, used the heavy casualties to demonstrate the scale of sacrifice required of the Chinese people. They claimed that 12 million people had been affected by the flood, and in 1948 it estimated the number of deaths at 800,000. A 1994 official history of the war put the dead in the flood at 900,000 and the refugees at nearly 10 million. Scholars exploring the archives now give much lower figures: 400,000–500,000 dead, 3 million refugees, and 5 million people affected (another estimate puts the number of dead at 500000, and the number of homeless at 500000). [3]
This is after all bitterly fought civil war and there is nothing pretty about civil war people get killed in the war . You of all people should know how many people on both sides get killed in American civil war
So I don't understand your obsession with Mao killing . Are you using it trying to undercut the legitimacy of PRC. As so many people here have answer your question eloquently.
The first generation of PRC are poorly educated people basically peasant . Their conviction was born in the bitterly fought civil war and they believe in mass movement Believing wrongly everything can be solved by mass movement . After all who could blame them . Against all odd they win the civil war and forced the mightiest army in the world to standstill in Korean war!. The PRC officially acknowledge their failing in GLF including Mao role in that disaster and most Chinese accept the fact and move on not dwelling on history that will not bring back the dead
But most Chinese in mainland and overseas believe that the communist are the only cohesive political entity that can bring change to China. History prove them to be right . The question whether Kuomintang will do better is academic. The record of Kuomintang in Taiwan cannot be used as gauge as so many people here already told you.
Under Kuomintang China might be bigger India or at best Brazil
Why not Singapore, she is even better comparison. Singapore is Chinese society that has the highest per capita income even higher than Taiwan. but We cannot use Singapore as yardstick for China . Singapore is a small island. Much more easier to control and lead!
I really don't understand what is your beef The Chinese has already make the choice and they stuck with it The Beijing spring die of natural cause nobody bother to attend it.Nobody in China is interested in regime change or revolution. Exactly because they know what is the consequence of upheaval from history. So live with it and no more revision history we have enough of it.
