Mao Zedong's Three Stages

Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin are the two most notorious mass murderers in history, however, Mao Zedong murdered over twice as many people as Stalin. Zedong attempted to reform the Chinese government into a communist state. In order to accomplish this, he imprisoned, tortured, and starved tens of millions of people. Mao Zedong murdered over 50 million innocent people through these three stages: The Great Leap Forward, the Chinese Laogai, and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) was Zedong’s five-year economic growth plan and was also the first stage in which mass murder occurred. His goal was to have an economy that would rival that of the United States. To accomplish this, Zedong forced villagers into communes leaving their homes and …show more content…
He called for young adults to become politically active and many became members of the Red Guards, a paramilitary group. The Red Guards targeted the elderly and intellectual populations, especially teachers. Around 1.5 million people were murdered and millions more were imprisoned, tortured, and humiliated. China continues to feel the effects of Zedong’s attack due to many Chinese citizens’ lack of faith in the government (History.com Staff, 2009).
Mao Zendong imprisoned, tortured, and killed tens of millions of people while attempting to reform the Chinese government into a Communist state. He first attempted this through the Great Leap Forward plan which ultimately failed causing famine which killed millions of people. It also created Zedong’s paranoia and power rage which resulted in the Chinese Laogai and the Cultural Revolution. However, even though Mao Zedong killed over forty million people, the scariest part of this piece of history is that it is often forgotten risking the chance of being