Mao Zedong Day 2

Today, we continued learning about Mao Zedong. After the Hundred Flowers Campaign, Mao moved on to the Great Leap Forward. The Great Leap Forward was a period of time when Mao attempted to control the Chinese economy with force. Mao issued an order that made many peasants attempt to produce steel. Because the peasants were not educated in the production of steel, the steel turned out so unrefined that it could not be used. After steel production, Mao ordered his nation to kill of any sparrows, so that they would not eat seeds and crops. With most of the sparrows gone, insects thrived. The insects ended up eating and damaging more crops than the previous sparrows had. This resulted in a three year famine of the Chinese people, killing about 48 million. After seeing the mistakes of their leader, some Chinese citizens began to criticize Mao. These people were severely punished by Mao; some were killed, many were hurt and imprisoned. At this point, Mao was around the age of 72. Many of his followers began to see him as old and frail. Mao began to feel like he was losing power over his people, so, in order to show his godliness, Mao swam ten miles in one hour in the Yangtze river. At the same time, Mao also had a parade, march in clothes, through the Yangtze river as a way to show the power of his nation. Some time passed, and Mao started the Great Cultural Revolution, a revolution that influenced the youth and punished authoritative figures. From the Great Cultural Revolution, a group of mostly youths, called the Red Guards was created. These Red Guards attacked and harassed any authoritative figures, such as teachers. Mao was able to greatly influence the youth which created the Red Guards because the youths, around the age of 20, had learned much about the greatness of Mao as part of their curriculum. The Red Guards reminded me much of the Hitler Youth. They both wore red sashes on their arms, consisted of youths, and attacked those deemed enemies of the people by their leaders. So far, compared dictators such as Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler, Mao Zedong seems like the leader who aimed most towards improving the lives of the majority of his people.