John Powell Review

My article, “Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?”, is mainly about the “attempts to undermine” Mao’s reputation in the People's Republic of China’s campaign; “ the great leap forward”. The campaign was led by Mao Zedong and focused on rapidly transforming the country. He wanted to turn the agrarian based economy into a socialist society with massive industrialization and collectivization. It is, however, by many considered to have played the main part in the “Great Chinese Famine.” The author the article, Joseph Ball, presents the idea that the idea that “Mao was responsible for genocide” has been used as a bandwagon statement to undermine the achievements of the Chinese in Mao’s rule. In my opinion the author presents a lot of important facts to back up his assumption of what I believe to be factual. The idea that “Mao was responsible for genocide” has been used as a backboard to dismantle everything that the Chinese have done under the rule of Mao. In my opinion I agree with this statement, such that it is accurate that many say Mao was the best and worst thing that happened during his rule. Much like the presidential election, the bandwagon is very real. Many authors and critics of that time, to the twenty-first century are, in my opinion, saw that even though the Chinese accomplished so much, it is all tarnished by the rule of Mao. Joseph Ball states, “It is true that he writes that agricultural production decreased in five years between 1949-1978 due to “natural calamities and mistakes in the work.” However he states that during 1949-1978 the per hectare yield of land sown with food crops increased by 145.9% and total food production rose 169.6%. During this period China’s population grew by 77.7%. On these figures, China’s per capita food production grew from 204 kilograms to 328 kilograms in the period in question.”(Joseph Ball). I have to agree with the author in the opinion that Mao Zedong was a strict but efficient ruler. The genocide, having,” 70 million killed by Mao, including 38 million in the Great Leap Forward.” The accomplishments of the Chinese under his rule are also vast. In my opinion even though many writers stress that Mao’s agricultural policies led to farming turmoil it is also fair to say while he was responsible for many deaths many were not his fault. It is still highly debated whether he was directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of seventy two million. To conclude I feel it is safe to say “Mao's forces removed the normal enemies of communism: landowners, rent seekers, some salesmen. employees and people of the old form of government. Ten years after forcefully coming to power, a failed policy of agricultural reform saw that millions die of starvation. A few years after this, Mao unleashed the ‘Red Guards’, mostly young people, to murder, denote,or even jail and remove power of most of the leaders who had made strides under communism.” (Joseph Ball)