New Research Says Mao's "Great Leap Forward" Killed 45 Million In 4 Years

Dear God.

Speaking at The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival, Frank Dikötter, a Hong Kong-based historian, said he found that during the time that Mao was enforcing the Great Leap Forward in 1958, in an effort to catch up with the economy of the Western world, he was responsible for overseeing "one of the worst catastrophes the world has ever known".

Mr Dikötter, who has been studying Chinese rural history from 1958 to 1962, when the nation was facing a famine, compared the systematic torture, brutality, starvation and killing of Chinese peasants to the Second World War in its magnitude. At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years; the worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55 million.

...Mr Dikötter said that he was once again examining the Party's archives for his next book, The Tragedy of Liberation, which will deal with the bloody advent of Communism in China from 1944 to 1957.

He said the archives were already illuminating the extent of the atrocities of the period; one piece of evidence revealed that 13,000 opponents of the new regime were killed in one region alone, in just three weeks. "We know the outline of what went on but I will be looking into precisely what happened in this period, how it happened, and the human experiences behind the history," he said.

Liberals always use the excuse that Communism has never failed because it's never really be done right. Well, if 45 million dead is a mistake, I'd hate to see what a success looks like.

This is why it's always dangerous when people claim they have the answer for society, it eventually requires increasing control and violence by the state. Always. It's also a reminder that Tom Freidman's constant dreams of turning the US into "China for a Day" are at once silly and morally disgusting.

Now, I'm not saying that a murderous tyrant beats within the heart of American Democrats, that would be ridiculous. I do think however we should keep in mind that there are leftists in America who wouldn't mind purging a few million Americans if they won't get with the program. (the link is to LGF, just for fun. If it goes down the memory hole, check this out instead).

Thanks to Lawyers, Guns and Money via John Noonan.

Added: D'oh! How could I forget this?

Thanks to several commenters for the reminder.

posted by DrewM. at 01:20 PM

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