Rise of Communist Mao Tse-Tung

One of the things about Mao is that they they suppress all the bad news. So all the all the bad stuff he did is suppressed. You can't find it on the internet to in China. It's not available. So the Chinese don't know, particularly young Chinese don't know the horrors of what happened. And you know they the mosa is right there in red in in in the middle of of um gene square and I I remember being there and it's creepy because long lines of people are waiting to go in and pay respects to uh to Mao and you think do do you know what Mao did to your parents and grandparents and and and and you know what he inflicted on your country but many of them don't. So, so many of them uh have no clue. I've talked to Chinese and in China you have to be very careful because uh if you're Chinese, you you get negative social points if um if you talk negatively about Mao. So, uh in China, they just don't know. And it's interesting when the Chinese come to the US, for some of them, it's a shock and you know, those who are honest and willing to engage with it. others just pretend that it's, you know, Western propaganda. So, we're going to give you the straight shoot. If there are any Chinese out there listening to the to the Nico show, uh, let us know. I'm I'm curious uh about a kind of a Chinese perspective in terms of what you know, what you were taught, what is discussed in China, what what is not about now. Um, of course, you know, there's still a lot of people who attribute China's current success to its communist to the communist party to communism. Uh, we're not going to talk much about kind of postm China. We'll talk a little bit but not much about postm China. uh but uh I think what we'll talk about given Mao should dispel any idea that there is anything and I emphasize anything positive about uh Maung's rule uh in uh in China. So and what we'll say is not just secondary sources. How many people in the west have this? This is the little red book. This is a version from the 1960s. So the okay I'm not the original but this is this has probably been the most read book in the world after the Bible simply because hundreds of millions of Chinese had to read it and it was called the little red book because it was the size that it could fit in the pocket of workers and soldiers. So >> and it's a short book and an easy read because it's mostly sayings, right? >> Yes. It's a it's little quotes but we we'll get to that when the >> Yeah. But I I I'll just say I I remember a time because I was alive back then, you know, in the in the 70s Ma was huge. I mean >> Oh yeah. Yeah. No question. And we we also have here evidence on how huge he was among western intellectuals that are celebrated as intellectual giants and as intellectual celebrities. And we have all the proof here and all the evidence here. >> All right. But let's let's start indeed at the beginning and and um let's talk I I mean I can say a few things or or or you can about China where China is at the beginning of the 20th century. >> Yes. So >> it's important in what type of world Mao grows up. So he's born in 1893 in a ruler rural area towards the south and he's part of the one or two generations that experience the decline of China from an empire to a punching bag basically. So his early years of Mao coincide with the decline under theQin dynasty. So theqin dynasty for almost 250 years led China to some expansions and yet at the end of the 19th century it leads to disasters. We have famines funny enough actually not funny enough but interestingly enough famines related to the El Nino effect. So we're going to hear this year oh the elino climate change actually it used to impact countries already from back then but most importantly international humiliation international patronage at the hands of Japan they have a military defeat by Japan they lose Taiwan they lose the Korean peninsula and also they have patronage by western powers and this will be very important because Mao grows up with this image of his mind that we are we used to be a great country a great empire and now we are humiliated and now we are at the mercy of imperialists at the mercy of alien forces >> I mean it's it's important to note I mean look China actually did have a a very impressive history if you go back to the pre- 18th century arguably China for 200 years was more advanced than the west it it it really is only probably the 18th and 19th century where the west advances faster than China. If you think about many of the technologies that the west embraced, the printing press maybe most dramatically, gunpowder, silk uh and um uh and many other things were came from China. China was this mysterious place on the other side. So they came from a tradition where they believed that they were like the rulers. they they you know they had ruled the world and then come the 19th century and they're humiliated in the in by Great Britain uh by by other European n uh powers and I think it's Shanghai Shanghai during the late 19th century divided into four quarters in which each one controlled by you know by one by Japan one by Britain I can't remember who the other two are but um you know these are foreigner foreigners who are controll cooling major parts of uh uh China and and and they clearly the other thing is that's clear to them is they've fallen behind technologically they've fallen behind economically to the west you know in spite of the fact that they used to be superior to them. >> Exactly. And in 1911, the last emperor or the last emperor of theQing dynasty falls and there is quote a republic declared. Now it's actually chaos in the country. The country is ruled by different warlords. Picture something like Syria after the fall of Assad. At the same time though, what is the big news that happened in the world? The revolution in Soviet Union. So 1919 we have the establishment of the communist international. 1920 the communist international led by Moscow controlled by Moscow they send some emissaries in China to find people who can form a communist party they're not yet communist in China so they're looking for intellectually curious people who could be persuaded that there is this theory which is called Marxism something might come out of this so in 1921 they formed the party and in the first meeting of Chinese Communist Party. There are 13 people, one from Soviet Union, one from Netherlands and 13 Chinese. So 15 in total, smaller than a meetup. And one of the Chinese people who was present there was a guy called Mao Jon. Within five years, it gets to some tens of thousands of members. But we need to remember China is a country at that point of half a billion people. So when the Chinese communist start making some noise, occupying some areas, fighting the different warlords, the different authorities, fighting the nationalists under Sanka who tries to unite the country, they are 0.1 of the population, but they are supported by Soviet Union. Soviet Union who at the same time though prompts the nationalists of Quomang that's the nationalist organization. >> Now why does the Soviet Union help the nationalist and the communists? Because they have in their mind the number one priority is to kick out the imperialists to kick out the westerners and the Japanese and then we'll see what we'll do. >> Mhm. So, Sanka who is the leader of the nationalist does this fatal mistake that he trusts the Soviets and the Soviets actually they make him feel important. There are Mayday parades in the late 20s in Soviet Union where you have the posters of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Shanka >> and he does not understand that the Soviets use him as a tool against Western and Japanese imperialism and soon he will understand that this was this will be a tragic mistake. So, so at what point did the do the do the Russians take a side or do they take a side? >> They don't take a side, but what they do is they help and they save the communists every time they are about to be destroyed by the nationalist. >> So the nationalists and the communist they are not relatably in power. The nationalists are multitudes of times more important and more powerful than the communists and that's why every now and then they destroy the communists they slaughter them but every time they slaughter them Soviet Union intervenes and says up to continue our aid to you you have to become friends again and the same they say to the communist yes you know maybe there has been some misunderstandings they've slaughtered some thousands of you but you have to unite because this is what the interest of the world proletariat actually requires. >> Yeah. >> Now in this early days, Mao is not even the official leader of the Communist Party, but he and and usually he goes from area to area in the mountain. He captures some remote areas in the mountain. He forms something like a Soviet people's republic which is actually a realm of violence. Mostly he prompts envy. So he tells to the poor farmers, you are poor because of these land owners. There are mass atrocities against the land owners. And this is how he appeases the the farmers. But also he gives them some land. But he's very good in a thing that most communists actually most in every movement they're not good at. Mao understands that people don't understand abstractions. So he speaks in very simple slogans. He knows that I'm dealing with illiterate peasants and he uses a language that they can understand. So it's mostly in this simple dichotoies, peasant versus landlord, the halves versus the have nots. And he does this other thing where he takes popular songs, traditional Chinese songs, he takes the lyrics and he makes them communist anthems. And this becomes very catchy in China. So people who have never heard anything about Marx or Lenin, they have heard of this guy called Maadong. They have heard of these people who come with red flags and they bring with them land or they bring with them the promise of some liberation. And the other thing that he distinguishes himself in is an understanding of guerrilla warfare. Mao is the model that later the Vietnamese will follow which means our guerilla army when we occupy a land becomes a regular army. How did the the the Vietnamese they had in the North Vietnam the proper people's army in the South Vietnam the Vietkong >> now has this very vol very very flexible guerrilla tactics a combination of guerrilla tactical army infiltrating an area establishing a base then moving this base somewhere else so he paves the way for all future communist guerrillas armies as we saw in in East Asia So this is how he makes a name for himself. This doesn't mean though that he does not experience huge defeats. In 1934, the nationalists for once more crash the communist and then you have the long march. So Mao takes his army from picture south China and he makes a semicircle towards the north. This is a this is a long march which is the equivalent of the distance Los Angeles to New York back to Los Angeles >> and now does this in one year and it completely destroys his army. >> So how many people start the march? >> I think something like so 8,000 end the march 8,000 >> I know something between 80 to 90,000 started. >> Yes I know that 90% perish. You are good in maths. If eight 80 if 8,000 are left at the end >> y >> and 90% perish how many began it >> 80,000 >> so of course ma actually and the Chinese propaganda the long march is seen as a military genius maneuver it is seen as something which is a a particularly heroic endeavor actually it was almost the complete destruction of the Chinese the Only reason they were not completely destroyed is again because of Soviet intervention and some basically he's very lucky. We see this time and again with the worst people in history. We see it with Hitler. We see it with Mao there with Lenny. There are these small moments where they could be destroyed and then you think how different history would be. Anyway, the other important >> just to note he he he loses people in battle. He loses people for disease >> and for disaster. >> They cross rivers, people drown. I mean, it's a it's a logistics and military disaster. Um, and uh, but he somehow ends it stronger within the Communist Party than he began it. >> Well, there not that many left high officials in the party. Again, he's lucky the leader of the party dies of natural causes. The other important thing that happens in the 30 though is the Japanese invasion. So 1931 the Japanese inventing Manuria. People are going to hear a lot today the term Manuria. Manuria is northeast China. It's just it's just it's a part of China with a border with North Korea. So it's it's it's it's an extension of North Korea into of the Korean Peninsula into the mainland. >> I should have brought the the map anyway. And also below, >> you can draw a map of China on your whiteboard. >> I'm so bad at drawing. I should have done this already. Anyway, it's below Russia and beside Korea. This is going to become important later. And in 1937, China, Japan attacks the rest of China. So here we have the very weird thing. The nationalists are fighting the Chinese, sorry, the Japanese. The nationalist under Changai are fighting the Japanese. The communists have won battle with the Japanese. They are obviously obliterated and then they say we're going to sit that out. Let the nationalists kill the J each other with the Japanese. We're going to stay somewhere there in the mountains towards also Mongolia towards we we are more we're safer there close to Soviet Union and we'll wait to see how this played out. This will prove to be very important. Remember also Soviet Union has a pact with Japan. Our ally in World War II has a pack with Japan. And be and they're so eager so eager after where do they have the pack? After 41. They're so eager not to alienate the Japanese that as we said in a previous episode when American pilots find themselves in Soviet soil, the Soviets put them in P camps and this is the time when the United States are so generously helping the Soviet Union and the help the thank you of Soviet Union is actually to do everything not to offend the Japanese including telling Mao keep keep it quiet. Let the nationalists do the fighting do the fighting with the Japanese. Shall we say also something about how Mao becomes famous in the west at that time because it is due to an American to an American journalist. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> So there's a guy called Edward Snow who travels to China. He meets Mao and he writes a book in 1937 called a red star over China and he portrays the Chinese communist as this freedom fighters and this is this is something if Mao had written that book it wouldn't be much different from the from the final version but the but the tragedy is that this book because no is a good writer becomes very popular in England very popular in the United States. So when the Americans will hear again the name Mao Zedong in 1945, the images that will come to their mind is oh it is this guy who we've read about some years ago and he was presented as agrarian reformer. The big line by snow is that these are not dangerous radical communists. These are agrarian reformers. And this term became so prominent that rant captured it and used it sarcastically whenever she wanted to to to portray how idiots in the west misunderstood communists and particularly Asian communists. Quote agrarian agrarian reformers. So what was what did the communist party before it gained power? So during these years, what did it actually stand for? What was Maung preaching? And and how did it how did they constantly other than Soviet aid? I mean they must have been able to convince people to come to their side. How did they constantly reconstitute themselves and gain support? >> Yes. So already at that time what today in our mind we have as maoism the thought of ma zong is already there. So what is the essence of ma of maoism so ma tries to translate Marxism in a Chinese situation and the Chinese situation is that less than 1% of the population is the proletariat urban workers. So if you hope that workers are going to be your revolutionary potential, you're going to have to wait for long. So Mao transforms Marxism to a set of principles that elevate the farmers, the peasants actually the poor peasants as the revolutionary subject. So they are the poor masses but also very important they are unccorrupted by the urban capitalist decadence. Mao fuels all the time these envious feelings of the peasants not only against the rich peasants. So this is why he becomes popular not just because of violence but because he takes he murders the rich peasants and he gives the land to the poor peasants. Of course as we're going to see soon he's going to take that land away. But in the first years if you are a poor peasant and you know you you're not particularly thoughtful this sounds like a good deal. But also it tells them you are the pure people. These people in the city are corrupted and they are also corrupted because they're too intellectual. So Mao had this idea that reading too much corrupts your mind, which is weird because Mao made a living selling books in his early life. So he said it's if you read more than 12 books, you don't need to read more than 12 books. 12 books he said is the proper amount a book that you should read. And of course later later the number fall to one book. This book was was enough. >> So he boosted let's say the status. He made the farmers feel import the peasants feel important. And another essence of his idea was that manual labor is a purifying factor that it's it's work with your hands. So this is was again something that he took from Markx and he created something of his own that it is through working with your hands that you get access to the truth. And this is a scary foreshadowing of horrible things that will come in future decades in ma China where for example if you are a doctor who is taught by books versus if you are a proletarian who wants who has the will to be a good doctor. The proletarian is to be trusted more because he has worked the land and through this work he has he has gotten this better contact with reality how to put it. So there's something >> I don't know if >> it's amazing how these materialists are such mystics right uh and and they really are. I mean there's these Marxist materialists are complete mystics. Uh and and this is a great example of of exactly that. >> Oh, and we're going to see. And you know, bad ideas don't just make you stupid. These bad ideas later are going to cost tens of millions of life. This this this mysticism. We're going to see we're going to see more of that. >> So the war ends in 1945. >> 1945. Yes. >> And Japan withdraws from China. Whatever. And so what happens when Japan withdraw was >> first of all while Japan is on China let's remember one of the worst occupations we have the rape of Nanjing unit 731 don't google it people before you go to sleep and also overall the death toll in China from the Japanese occupation was 15 to 20 million if I remember well so we're talking about a horrendous so China is as the end of World War II find China destroyed. Now the most important thing about the future of China happens actually very far away from China. Happens in the meetings between Roosevelt and Stalini and Churchill who at that point is like a sidekick. God knows why or actually we can cut him some slack and think why, but Roosevelt tries to persuade Stalin to get involved in the Pacific front and Stalin conveniently decides to get involved literally in the last two days of the war. >> Yeah, >> we have the bomb falls in Hiroshima. Stalin intervenes in the war. He the radi army attacks Manuria the north of China and kicks the Japanese pushes the Japanese away from there. Next day we have the bomb in Nagasaki. Few days later the war is over. So Stalin funded by the west by mechanized units funded by the land lease kicks the Japanese away from Buria and then hands over initially to Changa. Remember at that point Changa the national leader is the proper leader of China but he keeps the weapons and he gives both Japanese weapons and Soviet weapons to Mao. So slowly slowly slowly the Soviets after they loot Manuria in the same way they loot Eastern Europe they hand in parts to Mao and they very generously support Mao while Stalin supports Mao what does the west do with Changa again the legitimate government of China >> they under >> legitimate in what sense I mean was there were elections >> no that's a story. That's a good question. No, there were not elections. I think the only elections took place in 1913, the only elections in the history of China. But he was the one who unified the country. He was the one with whom the allies were discussing. So he was the he was the one who could claim I have some so he was the one who fought the Japanese important. So after the war in every country you tried to found someone who he you had some common understanding of what tomorrow will bring and someone who could show some control over territory. But Shanka has more and more trouble in controlling territory because Mao helped by the Soviets is getting more control particularly on the on the north and the Americans decide that Sanka is not to be trusted. They believe Stalin. So think about what type of people we're talking about. They go to Stalin and they the the foreign ministry people and they ask him what do you think about the Chinese communists and Stalin tells them they're not communists they are Chinese republicans they're Chinese nationalists but don't worry they're not communists and the Americans say oh okay then maybe we can trust them and then they push to cooperate with the nationalists and when San Kaisk reacts, Americans say, "Okay, then we're not going to give you any more support." So there is a boycott. I think between some point late 46 to early 47, there is a boycott in giving weapons to Changai that he had already that he had already ordered. And this gives Mao a a boost to keep going further and further and further towards the south. At this point, there's practically a civil war in China. And Mao has a momentum and he's pushing and pushing and pushing Chanka. By the way, I hear a a a faint echo. Maybe our audience can tell us if they hear it as well. I hopefully hopefully not. >> Can you guys hear an echo? >> I can hear my voice from >> Unfortunately. Unfortunately, there are people in the chat who are there's somebody in the chat who keeps um I keep blocking and he keeps showing up again. Um God. >> Anyway, >> they say they do have a Did Did Have you guys heard an echo the whole time or just now? >> Uh no echo. Very faint echo. Is it just now or the whole time? Well, very faint echo is not. >> Okay, that's weird. >> Okay, now I don't hear it. Oh, no. Now I hear it again. Also, we should we should tell people we're testing a new software today. This is why we are trying to make sure it works. >> Yeah, Linda says it was just now just slightly. Gail says no. It sounds like it's not huge, but let's um Can you hear it again? Okay, I'll keep talking and I'll tell you if I can hear it again. Oh, I think it disappeared. Anyway, so even when aid reaches the nationalists, it is just a fraction, a very small fraction of what the United States gives to the Europeans. So it's something like 2% of what the Marshall plan gave to Europe. Only 2% reaches China, reaches the national. So to cut a long story for to a long story short, Mao actually prevails in China. Now it's important how he prevails because the reason the main reason he manages to defeat the nationalists is because he's willing to do things that even the nationalists who are not doves even they cannot do. And I will give the example of how the communist occupied the town of Chang Changun which is in Manuria. It used to be the capital of Manuria. I don't know if it is still today. So in 1948 they set a perimeter around the city and their solution is we're going to starve the city. There is a nationalist garrison in the city and civilians are not allowed to escape and tens of thousands of civilians are caught in a no man's land. There's constant artillery bombarding in the city and 150,000 civilians, I repeat, 150,000 civilians perish. And this is how the city falls in the hands of communist. So the comm say we don't care if every person every civilian in the cities that we try to occupy dies. What we want is to take control of the cities and after after that more actually Sankai I think falls in a few days. >> So now there's a lesson somewhere >> in the immortal words of James Tagard. I couldn't help it. >> That's right. Okay. So, but it it was a perfect timing because it was just when Mao was coming to power. So, now we can see how it looked like with China under Mao, China becoming communist. So, October 1949 in the most official way in the Tianaan men square he declares the people's republic of China. >> Yep. And uh Chenashek escapes to what is today Taiwan. Taiwan and establishes his republic over there. Um so what are the ally what are the allies? What is the US once Mao declares uh the government of China? Do they recognize him? What what do they do at that point? >> Well, remember very soon there's going to be the war in Korea. So it's reality will hit them very very very very soon. So the first country that recognize him is obviously Soviet Union. It will take some time for the Americans to recognize him. So by 47 they resume their aid to Changek. But now it is too late. It becomes clear that Mao is is taking over.