In 2008, distinguished Chinese journalist Yang Jisheng published a book entitled, “Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962.” In their introduction to the book, Edward Friedman and Roderick MacFarquhar briefly summarized Yang’s thesis:
“’ Tombstone’ is about a hierarchical, authoritarian system of concentrated power in which every official is, as Yang puts it, a slave facing upward and a dictator facing downward. At the bottom of the system were the Chinese people, mostly farm households, who suffered under the murderous brutality of the lower-level officials, proving an iron law of bureaucracy: the pettier the bureaucrat, the harsher his rule.”
This is a perfect analysis of China under Mao Zedong. And I can tell you from experience it has not changed one iota under Xi Jinping. Except it isn’t just bureaucrats now who abuse those below them; it is anyone who thinks they can get away with it, especially if they have any authority over other people.
Mao’s “Great Famine” was the most murderous non-war event in human history, far worse than Hitler’s Holocaust or Stalin’s Great Terror. Yang estimated that at least 36 million people died during the famine. He might be lowballing. A demographic fact-finding study in the 1980s put the number at 42-43 million, and recently, historian Frank Dikötter (“Mao’s Great Famine”), after extensive archival research, reckoned 45 million deaths. Chinese people had to make horrendous choices during the famine, including keeping one child alive by starving others, eating relatives who recently died, or by digging up corpses from graves to consume. Some saved their lives by “informing on” innocent neighbors. This is communism in all its glory. Totalitarian atheistic power without one scintilla of conscience or godly respect for human life. We see it in America today (abortion), and it will get worse if Leftism ascends to the throne.
Mao Zedong is the greatest mass murderer in human history. Historians estimate his total number of innocent deaths as between 60-70 million from his accession to power in 1949 until his death in 1976. That is an average of over 6,000 people PER DAY that he killed. Yet Mao is China’s “god,” if you will, the “Great Leader.” His picture is on every Chinese yuan bill, and to speak against “Chairman Mao” is supreme blasphemy. Many Chinese people do know what he was. I’ve had Chinese friends talk to me (in private, of course) about the land that the communists stole from their family or their knowledge of the number of deaths Mao caused. But, the brainwashing in China is almost as bad as in Leftist America now. People in China are taught to adore Mao Zedong. And Xi Jinping.
As I have mentioned before, I lived ten years in China as a teacher. And I want to say upfront that there are many fine people in China. I have good friends there, decent folk, slaves of the system, the kind of people Yang Jisheng put at the bottom of the totem pole. And, materialistically, at least in the big cities, China is not the wrong place to live today. The countryside is a different matter, as I shall discuss in the future. All is not well in China; the country went into tremendous debt to build the massive skyscrapers and modern conveniences city-dwellers enjoy. They borrowed heavily and stole; they didn’t build their wealth based on a consumer-driven economy. And so Chinese debt is massive, and nobody, not even in China, knows how extensive it is. It might be the reason Xi Jinping hasn’t invaded Taiwan yet. Wars are expensive, and he is already hooked to the hilt. Socialism doesn’t work in more ways than one.
Back to the Yang Jisheng quote at the beginning of this article. During the first eight years I was in China, I worked for Western schools or companies and never had a complaint about how they treated me. The last two years I was there, I worked for Chinese companies and was robbed blind by my Chinese employers. When I asked the American embassy for help, they did nothing, of course, and when I sued my first boss for extortion, blackmail, and theft (easily provable), the Chinese judge rendered in his favor (that didn’t surprise me either). Such theft happens all over China—and not just to foreigners. I know more than one Chinese friend who had to leave his/her job because their boss wouldn’t pay them. One Chinese employer asked all his employees to continue to work long hours, even though he wouldn’t pay them anything. My best friend here in Thailand has a Chinese girlfriend whose boss, who drives a BMW, said she didn’t have the money to pay her employees. Anyone in China—not just bureaucrats—who have a sliver of power or authority thinks everyone below them is a slave who can be abused and exploited for the master’s benefit. Thieves exist everywhere, but it's endemic in China now.
That’s the Chinese system. That’s communism. That’s what Mao Zedong taught his people. And many Chinese have learned that lesson very well.
Another recent example. Not long ago, I was contacted by a former student who claimed she was sick and wanted to borrow 200 yuan. She said she would pay me back that afternoon. In order to test my “thieving Chinaman” theory, I sent her the money (less than $30). Of course she didn’t pay me back, and even lied to me a few days later, saying she had never borrowed the money in the first place. That is what young people are learning there.
Americans have no clue how wonderful their country has been to them—and how the Democratic Party is trying to take that away to give America a Chinese-style system. Believe me, when people get desperate, they will do anything—including eating grandpa or their own children. We are utterly deluded if we think it can’t happen in America.
Be warned.
“Wisdom from Our Founders' '—new oral podcast series (for paid subscribers) on my substack, mklewis929.substack.com. Listen to my current series on the Declaration of Independence. Sign up for free. Read my western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon. Follow me on Twitter: @thailandmkl. And rumble: lewandcou
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