Happy? Unhappy? Meh? What?
He'd probably be a bit smug about the PRC outliving the USSR
I can only imagine there may have been some sentiment of regret over the sino-soviet split. Not saying it was one or the other's fault but it was definitely a huge blow to international communism.
"It's gone? I'm glad we were able to get over our differences and merge into one unified front against capitalism."
Interesting question.
I honestly wish I could answer without feeling like I'm just talking out of my ass, it's hard to study Chinese history when most western sources will say "Mao came to power and then killed millions, then he killed millions, then he did some reforms, then he killed millions, etc etc."
Don't want to derail the thread but if anyone could recommend a Chinese history book written from a ML point of view I'd be super greatful.
It doesn't help that China didn't say a single fucking thing about it until the 1980's when Deng was revising Mao Zedong Thought.
the governance of china is translated into english and has audio books, xi goes into the history of china
guarantee 100% the exact same way that I feel about it no i will not elaborate
i can project my own subjective experience onto this, and therefore agree entirely.
This might be a cop-out but I'd estimate he'd be very happy about its industrialization, international standing, and improvements in the material conditions of the people while also wanting to push the socialism button harder, nationalizing more, restricting markets.
Deng said Mao was 70% right. The Gang of Four said he was 100% right.
As a true centrist, I say Mao was 85% right.
I mean, ok, I've been simultaneously deep diving into some Maoist (JMP) kind of thought, and trying to make sense of the form of the liberal hot takes about "genocide" during the GLF and PGCR. It seems obvious that Mao would heavily criticize the rapid liberalization, the selling out the environment for cheap, underethical heavy industry, the necessity of party authority to maintain a lid on rich bourgeoisie business elites as opposed to continuous popular class struggle. He'd likely admire though Xi Jinping crack downs on the rich and the corrupt. The investment in poverty reduction, I would hope. There is much good in Modern China. Mao got to be in charge for long enough to matter. The spirit, if not of revolution, then of socialism abounds. The anti-imperialist agenda alone is worth applauding.
oh yeah, uh :mao-aggro-shining: :mao-clap: :mao-wave: :mao-shining:
Mao got to be in charge for long enough to matter.
:lenin-sleeping: :stalin-gun-1::stalin-gun-2:
Tbh Lenin's premature death may have saved us from having to struggle sesh about his bad decisions in his later life
I'd be willing to at least throw out the idea that Stalin was good but was defeated by revisionists.
he'd probably be a bit amazed at the level of development but saddened by what deng did to vietnam. he'd probably be bewildered that deng came to power in the first place tbh
yall gotta remember he was born in 1893 and died in the 70s. a lot of tech progress happened outside of china during this time but china was thrown into a time chamber due to embargoes. their plans only started to come to fruition after the 70s really
I'm not exactly qualified but if I had to take a guess, it'd be something along the lines of "I don't know what the fuck Deng Xiaoping did to this place but damn, this country is better off than I expected"
Mao’s China and Xi’s China currently are completely different, as is the world. Dialectical/historical materialism and all that. I’m sure he would have criticisms and praises, as things like this can not be either good or bad, but a mixture of both.
