MAO AND TERROR
MAO'S GLORIFICATION OF POLITICAL MASS MURDER
DOCUMENTARY QUOTATIONS
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Mao Tse-tung, the founding father of the People's Republic in China, was the greatest mass murderer of all time. Unlike other political mass murderers in the 20th century, such as Stalin and Hitler, Mao openly gloated about killing people. He ultimately caused the death of anywhere between 40 - 80 million people over the course of his regime (Twentieth Century Atlas - Death Tolls). He was a great admirer of Legalism as well as the harsh policies of China's first emperor. However, he vowed to surpass the death toll of the first emperor a hundred times over - which he succeeded in doing. The quotes below will give you more information about Mao's policies and world views.
The long term death toll from Mao's policies may be much higher in future years due to the disastrous environmental policies he set in motion.
MAO'S GLORIFICATION OF POLITICAL MASS MURDER
"He (Ch'in-Shih-huang, the first emperor of China) only buried alive 460 scholars, while we buried 46,000. In our suppression of the counterrevolutionaries, did we not kill some counterrevolutionary intellectuals? I once debated with the democratic people: You accuse us of acting like Ch'in-shih-huang, but you are wrong; we surpass him 100 times". (Mao's First Speech to the Party Congress, May 17, 1958)
“If we were to add up all the landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries, bad elements and rightists, their number would reach thirty million... Of our total population of six hundred million people, these thirty million are only one out of twenty. So what is there to be afraid of? ... We have so many people. We can afford to lose a few. What difference does it make?”
- Mao Zedong
(Li Zhisui, The Private Life of Chairman Mao [Random House, 1994], p. 217)
MAO'S VIEWS OF A NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST
A 66% DEATH TOLL "NOT A BAD THING"
"Do not be alarmed either if there should be war. It would merely mean getting people killed and we've seen people killed in war. Eliminating half of the population occurred several times in China's history. The 50 million population in the time of Emperor Wu in the Han Dynasty was reduced to 10 million by the time of the Three Kingdoms, the two Chin Dynasties and the North and South Dynasties. The war lasted for decades and intermittently for several hundred years, from the Three Kingdoms to the North and South Dynasties. The T'ang Dynasty began with a population of 20 million and did not reach 50 million until Emperor Hsuan. And Lu-shan staged a revolt and the country was divided into many states. It was not reunited until the Sung Dynasty, some 100 or 200 years later, with a population of just over 10 million.... Not very many people were killed in the two World Wars, 10 million in the first and 20 million in the second, but we had 40 million killed in one war. So, how destructive were the big swords! We have no experience in atomic war. So, how many will be killed cannot be known. The best outcome may be that only half of the population is left and the second best may be only one-third. When 900 million are left out of 2.9 billion, several five-year plans can be developed for the total elimination of capitalism and for permanent peace. It is not a bad thing". (Mao's Second Speech to the Party Congress, May 17, 1958)
“Let’s contemplate this, how many people would die if war breaks out. There are 2.7 billion people in the world. One-third could be lost; or, a little more, it could be half... I say that, taking the extreme situation, half dies, half lives, but imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist.”
- Mao Zedong
(Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story [Jonathan Cape, 2005], p. 428)
“We are prepared to sacrifice 300 million Chinese for the victory of the world revolution.”
- Mao Zedong
(Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story [Jonathan Cape, 2005], pp. 457-8)
“Don’t make a fuss about a world war. At most, people die... Half the population wiped out – this happened quite a few times in Chinese history... It’s best if half the population is left, next best one-third...”
- Mao Zedong
(Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story [Jonathan Cape, 2005], p. 458)
THE NECESSITY OF FAMINE:
“When there is not enough to eat people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.”
- Mao Zedong
(Frank Dikötter, Mao’s Great Famine [Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010], pp. 88, 134)
A CELEBRATION OF DEATH:
“There should be celebration rallies when people die... We believe in dialectics, and so we can’t not be in favor of death.”
- Mao Zedong
(Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story [Jonathan Cape, 2005], p. 457)
“Deaths have benefits. They can fertilise the ground.”
- Mao Zedong
(Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story [Jonathan Cape, 2005], p. 457)
TERROR AND CRUELTY AS INSTRUMENTS FOR REVOLUTION:
“Look at World War II, at Hitler’s cruelty. The more cruelty, the more enthusiasm for revolution.”
- Mao Zedong
(New York Times, August 31, 1990)
THE EXTERMINATION OF THE RICH:
“It is a very good thing, and a significant one too, to exterminate the bourgeoisie and capitalism in China.”
- Mao Zedong
(Philip Short, Mao: A Life [Henry Holt, 1999], p. 447)
REVOLUTION REQUIRES LESS MORAL CONSCIENCE:
“You’d better have less conscience. Some of our comrades have too much mercy, not enough brutality, which means that they are not so Marxist. On this matter, we indeed have no conscience! Marxism is that brutal.”
- Mao Zedong
(Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story [Jonathan Cape, 2005], p. 411)
GLORIFICATION OF POVERTY:
“People say that poverty is bad, but in fact poverty is good. The poorer people are, the more revolutionary they are. It is dreadful to imagine a time when everyone will be rich... From a surplus of calories people will have two heads and four legs.”
- Mao Zedong
(Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story [Jonathan Cape, 2005], p. 428)
SOCIALISM VERSUS CAPITALISM:
“The weeds of socialism are better than the crops of capitalism.”
- Mao Zedong
(Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story [Jonathan Cape, 2005], p. 643)
BOOKS ON POLITICAL MASS MURDER IN CHINA:
ABOUT MAO
Mao's Last Revolution, by Roderick MacFarquhar
Mao: The Untold Story, by Jung Chang
MORE ON POLITICAL MASS MURDER IN CHINA
The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957,by Frank Dikötter
Mao's Great Famine,by Frank Dikötter
Frank Dikötter's Home Page and More Frank Dikötter Books on Amazon
China's Bloody Century: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900, by R. J. Rummel
Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine, by Jasper Becker
Red Holocaust, by Steven Rosefielde
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, by Jean-Louis Panné
The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future, by Elizabeth C. Economy
Mao's War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China, by Judith Shapiro
MORE RESOURCES:
MORE OF MAO'S VIEWS
Mao Documentary Sources English
Mao Documentary English and Chinese
CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY
Chinese Communist Party on Mao, 1981 (In Chinese)
China's 60th Anniversary of Communist Conquest - Video
Totalitarian Revolution in Ancient China
MORE INFORMATION ON POLITICAL MASS MURDER