“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do this.” This was said by communist philosopher Karl Marx. His words essentially mean that the past has no use, the only thing that matters is the present. This greatly shaped the revolutionary communist leader Mao Tse-Tung’s thought process. Mao Tse-Tung led China between 1945-1976. During his time in power, he implemented many changes, both economically and socially. Mao Tse-Tung is a controversial figure in China's past; hated by some, celebrated by many. Overall, Mao Tse-Tung was not beneficial to China because of the famines he caused, his destruction of chinese culture and the purges he carried out against his own people.
Mao Tse-Tung was born into a poor family of farmers in Shaoshan China on …show more content…
The purpose of this policy was to further implement the communist belief that agriculture should be given top priority. In an attempt to ensure the success of this initiative, Mao Tse-Tung instructed all citizens to over plant on their land, effectively rendering the soil infertile. This lack of understanding of agriculture led to a vast shortage of food. Professor Peng-Khuan Chong touches upon this throughout his writings “China produced only 150 million tons of grain in 1960… the lack of food was remedied with harsh rationing. This would cause malnutrition and illnesses that eventually killed more than thirty million people, mostly peasants between 1959 and 1961” (Chong) This exemplifies that even Mao’s harsh insistence that every inch of land be toiled did not prevent the inevitability of widespread starvation throughout china. This also shows that despite all the suffering the Chinese peasantry went through, Mao still took almost three years to discontinue the policy. Under Mao's direction china suffered
Mao Tse-Tung was born into a poor family of farmers in Shaoshan China on …show more content…
The purpose of this policy was to further implement the communist belief that agriculture should be given top priority. In an attempt to ensure the success of this initiative, Mao Tse-Tung instructed all citizens to over plant on their land, effectively rendering the soil infertile. This lack of understanding of agriculture led to a vast shortage of food. Professor Peng-Khuan Chong touches upon this throughout his writings “China produced only 150 million tons of grain in 1960… the lack of food was remedied with harsh rationing. This would cause malnutrition and illnesses that eventually killed more than thirty million people, mostly peasants between 1959 and 1961” (Chong) This exemplifies that even Mao’s harsh insistence that every inch of land be toiled did not prevent the inevitability of widespread starvation throughout china. This also shows that despite all the suffering the Chinese peasantry went through, Mao still took almost three years to discontinue the policy. Under Mao's direction china suffered