Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 238 - Mao Zedong: Father of Communist China and Worst Mass Murderer of All Time?

Episode Date: April 5, 2021

Mao Zedong's name is associated with one of the heinous totalitarian regimes of the 20th century - if not one of the most heinous regimes in the history of the world. Due to famines brought about directly by his brutal policies and political "purges" he authorized, roughly 45 million Chinese citizens died. Possibly tens of millions more. Chairman Mao is responsible for more noncombatant deaths than Hitler and Stalin combined. So doesn't that make him the worst mass murderer of all time? We take a look at China in today's big episode - it's history, it's culture, and how the communist came to power in the wake of WW2 with the son of a farmer as their leader. We explore Mao's life and the rise of communism in what was long an imperial nation, in today's true crime, why didn't he brush his death, yes he really tried to have all the sparrows killed, insane, tyrannical edition of Timesuck. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate at least $12,500 this month to The Saint Bernard Project. The SBP will be helping those in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from winter storm Uri. To find out more, go to https://sbpusa.org/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DfBh-Q7_hfM Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

Mao is a dong, a man whose name is synonymous to many with one of the most heinous regimes of the 20th century, if not one of the most heinous regimes in world history. Communist China. Life under Mao, not the best. If you valued free speech, freedom of expression, hearing multiple opinions, owning your own land, not starving, not being beaten, not being sent to a labor camp to be reeducated for having an opinion that different from Mao's, the Chinese Communist Party headed by Chairman Mao, they thought they knew how to make a better world Dayton not being sent to a labor camp to be reeducated for having an opinion that different from mouse. The Chinese Communist Party headed by Chairman Mao, they thought they knew how to make a better world for China and they were willing to purge anyone who thought differently.

They ended up making life a living hell for tens of millions of Chinese people for decades. Mouse two major hallmark initiatives, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution did arguably way way more damage than they ever did good. The Great Leap Forward was designed to turn China into an industrial powerhouse by setting very ambitious goals for production. Goals that people literally could not meet. While trying to please Mao, they lived on communes

where their food was strictly rationed, ration sometimes not enough to live on. They were worked sometimes for several days in a row without giving any time for sleep. And if they complained or quit, they were beaten or killed. And you thought your boss was a dick. When the grape leap forward failed, Mao instigated the cultural revolution to paralyze his political opponents and throw the country into further chaos. He mobilized thousands of students to fight against the quote, old ways,

which included violently destroying temples, beating teachers, brutalizing anyone, anything, not deemed revolutionary enough to his irrational liking. Teachers, elders, grandparents, all brutalized in the name of Mao's revolution. Many, many people died as the result of the great leap forward and the cultural revolution. The most agreed upon number seems to be around 45 million. 45 million people died under one man's rule and not through war, through tyranny and an aptitude.

And the Communist Party of China would take no responsibility for any of this. Nothing was Mao's fault. Not even millions of people starving because he commanded his citizen to kill, citizens, excuse me to kill all of China's sparrows not realizing these birds ate locusts and without them those locusts went buck wild on China's crops causing a massive famine Instead of taking responsibility for causing the famine now punish the farmers further

imposing even more insane Expectations on them for crop production to make up for the crop losses he caused which led to further tyranny and starvation. Mao was the Communist Party and the Communist Party ruled China with an iron fist. They still ruled China. Mao was lauded as an icon and his quotations were printed in books that were distributed by the hundreds of millions to Chinese citizens for mandatory reading. Cult, cult, cult. Mao was a master brainwasher, trained in propaganda who is still thought of today by many as a patriot.

Lots of suck today. In a redis fuck, purge your enemy's true communism just doesn't seem to ever work in the real world edition of Time Suck. time suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to time suck. You're listening to time suck. Happy Monday, meat sacks. Get in here. Put on your robe, enter the compound. Welcome to the cult of the curious.

Ready for the incantations. Um, Dan Cummins, suck master regular bather, dude, not covered in pig shit and pig blood. Those last couple of references only make sense if you heard last week's episode. And you are listening to Time Suck. Hail Nimrod, Lucifina, Glory Beat, a triple M and Bojangles. Whoa. His hackles are raised. He's uneasy about today's topic. Recording again to the suck dungeon,

Cordelaine Idaho Winter has returned, but spring, it's almost here. I can feel it. I can feel sunny days. Coming back again. Ed Geens playhouse in the store, a t-shirt called Ed Geens playhouse in the store, this week at BadMagicMarch.com.

It's insane. P.B. Herman parody with former suck subject Ed Geen, the butcher of Plainfield, dude who danced in the moonlight wearing a suit made out of other people's skin and now you know we have a funny t-shirt about that. It's absurd and wonderful. Hope to like this show. Don't know how much we're given this month yet to our bad magic productions charity the month recorded this in advance, but we do know what charity we're given to this month. We're donating to a nonprofit. We've donated to before the St. Bernard project, aka the S.B.P.

Thanks, your support will be donating over $12,500 to help those in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from the winter storm, Yuri, the S.B.P. The most fun, the more funds they receive, the more they'll be able to assist in helping low income homeowners would generally have the least amount of access to resources. SBP volunteers are on the ground right now in Houston, Southwest Louisiana, repairing damage caused by so many burst pipes for those impacted by the storm, providing mucking, gutting, mold remediation services, replacing drywall, repairing damaged pipes, so much more. Thank you to our Patreon Space Lensers for letting us give more and more every month to great causes.

Now let's get into Communist China. Officially called the People's Republic of China and Sak Mao as a dong and his tragic cultural revolution, and the Great Leap Forward. A sector of life of a man, some still worship, almost like a god is the father of modern China and China's greatest leader ever. A man, many others think was worse overall when it comes to the totality of human death and suffering he directly caused, than Hitler and Stalin combined.

[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Today's episode is a trick you once. Got me stressed out a little bit, such a massive topic. Hard to choose what information to focus on for a couple hours. I'm going to lay down some Chinese history first, lay out the basics of Chinese culture to set the stage for a timeline of Mao's life and rule. So we will start with a little bit of that today. Also need to go over the basics of communism as well to understand what kind of change

his Mao was making in China. What he was trying to do, how to Mao interpret the ideas of Marxism, how to implement those ideas to create communist China. Then we'll walk through a timeline of Mao's life covering most of the key moments along the way. I'll be definitely judging the hell out of his choices as I lay them out. To do my best to judge them fairly within their historical context. Some of them objectively pretty terrible. So much to look into today.

Why did China become a communist nation in the mid-20th century? How did Mao rise to power? Then once in power, why would the Communist Party of China subject its own people to such brutality and oppression? Why did he brush his teeth? Why did he take baths? Why did he have his teeth? Why didn't he take baths? Why did he have his wife helping poop? How did we end up covering another dude who was so dirty, literally dirty after last week's pick farmer killer suck?

Mao truly was filthy. I wasn't just nonsense, I was saying. We'll get into that. Mao's reign led to a lot of misery and death. Is that what he set out to do? It doesn't seem to have been too often with revolutions like with the Bolsheviks and Russia, like Pol Pot and Cambodia. The oppressed who rise up and overthrow their masters end up becoming more oppressive and

more ruthless than the previous masters. I had to grasp sure as shit isn't always greener on the other side of a revolution. You can get to the other side of the revolution, you can win, quote, unquote, and then things can be much worse. They can go from bad to worse. Imagine that. And imagine you have fed up with how shitty your life is, you join a revolution, you risk your life to overthrow the existing government. You watch many of your, you know, co-revolutionaries, friends and family die in the fighting, then you win. You're like, fuck yeah, bro. No, I. You're celebrating. And then the government, you help put in power, even shittier. And the government, you help destroy, like,

ah, god damn, whoops. Too late to say JK, too late to go back to the way things were before. How depressing would that be? That's certainly happened in China for many. Early on, Mao and his cohorts truly believed they would raise many of China's people out of poverty, eliminate class struggle.

They had a lot of fans. Early on, they actually did make life better for a lot of people. And then they didn't. Then they made things so much worse. As Mal rose to power, as a true cult of personality developed around him, and the nearly absolute power he will did seem to corrupt him, he became corrupted almost absolutely. Right? Isn't that the, what's the saying?

Absolute power corrupts absolute power. Cr almost absolutely. I just need to let's just say absolute power corrupts, absolute power, corrupts absolutely. He became paranoid like so many tyrannical ruthless rulers do. So afraid that someone would try and take his precious throne from him. He was no longer a man of the people. He was a man above the people who lashed out purged people.

He felt were potential threats. Purged them ruthlessly. Mao would enact many brutal measures to make sure he retained his precious power. Almost all of them based in some interpretation of communist ideals, Mao is a big fan of Karl Marx. And his infamous political and philosophical work, the communist manifesto.

We'll examine Marx's ideas. After we do an overview of Chinese history, we'll look at the fundamental flaw of a single party political system like he stated, Mao's communist China of a single party political system like he instated, you know, Mao's communist China was a single party Political system today. There are numerous political parties, but only the Communist Party has any real power The other seem to exist only to provide the illusion of a more evolved system of government in China the illusion of diverse options diverse opinions

We've covered some very communism centric sucks before here, time suck, the Cambodia, Polpatsok, the Stalin suck, the KGB suck, North Korea suck, touched on, you know, many of these subjects, or you know, touched on communism, excuse me, and many of these subjects to the consternation of both jangles. And today of course, we'll have to dive back in. Let's start with a look at the history of China.

Geographically, China is a very interesting place. It's home to the highest point in the world, Mount Everest, which clocks in at 8,848 meters or 29,000, 29 feet tall. Did you know that Mount Everest was in China? I did not or forgot. I was here about in a poll when it comes to climbing Mount Everest because Mount Everest is also in Nepal. The peak of Mount Everest actually lies directly on the Nepal China border. So you can start your Everest climb in Tibet and many do. The Northern base camp in Tibet, actually the first base camp set up by climbers in 1920. The Chinese government approves ever expedition, you know, all the time.

China is also home to the third lowest depression in the world the turpin depression which sinks down Negative 154 meters or negative 505 feet into the ground and it's not some small pit It covers 19,000 square miles a lot of energy in geography in China and get very hot in this depression While temperatures on Everest can drop to below 40 degrees Fahrenheit without wind chill. Temperatures in the turpent depression can soar. In turpent city, July is the hottest month. It was a 24 hour average temperature of about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The record highs 118 degrees. That's pretty hot. Shaking hot in turpent. The climate in China varies greatly because of its size. It's huge. China borders 14 different countries, Russia, Mongolia, so many stands, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,

Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, North Korea, and poor people of Myanmar, dealing with their own tyranny right now. Top, I can't tragedy for another day. Hope they over throw their military oppressors soon. Anyway, there are so many different climates in China because, yeah, again, it's a massive country. Fourth largest in the world right behind the US. The US and China, thanks to Alaska, about the same size. The US is 3.718 million square miles.

China, just a little bit less, 3.75 million square miles, a 705, just 13,000 square miles a difference. And much like there's a big difference between living in Florida and North Dakota in the States, a few more white sand beaches, string bikinis in Florida, Heliosafina. There's a big difference between living in northern and southern China as well. Generally speaking, the North is colder, drier than the south, and the west is drier than the east. Now, let me throw some quick demographics at you.

Realize we're just skimming things. Fourth and total size, China is number one in population in the world. The most populous nation on earth for now at least. 1.439 billion inhabitants. What a crazy number that is. Nearly 1.439 billion inhabitants. What a crazy number that is. Nearly one and a half billion people, roughly 60 million more than India.

The US is third biggest, big drop, down to 328 million. I found that surprising, the difference there. Over four times as many people in China as in the US. China's also home to a lot of different kinds of people, different types of people. I think in America this gets lost. We tend to lump them all together and just think in the US. China is also home to a lot of different kinds of people, different types of people. I think in America this gets lost. We tend to lump them all together and just think of the Chinese.

Now, there's a lot of ethnic diversity within China. China is home to 56 different ethnic groups, the largest group by far the Han people. They compose roughly 91% of the entire population. China also linguistically, a lot more diverse than many in America seem to understand. They don't just speak Chinese. 302 different languages spoken in China. 13 of them spoken by large numbers of people who are residents. Most of China's population roughly 70% speak Mandarin, the official language. Cantonese and other popular Chinese dialect are approximately 60 million Chinese speak it. it is the most common dialect spoken in Hong Kong

I will get to the very interesting relationship between China and Hong Kong I'll at least touch on it a little bit later in this episode China also very urban very modern nation when Mao is born China was very rural and agrarian nation And then his communist to industrialization policies would shift the nation in an urban direction And now it's the most urban centric country in the world China has 113 cities with over one million residents each no other nation has anywhere near that many major cities India is second with 42 such cities the US has 14 how crazy is that in the US? We have 14 major cities of at least a million people China has 99 more than that

So much traffic as I think of, so much traffic. Shanghai, China's biggest city, third biggest in the world, has 26.3 million people. The world's biggest city, Tokyo, 37.4 million people. That's so many fucking people in one city. The entire state of Idaho has less than 1.8 million people.

165,000 people total live in the county. I live in Cootney County, less than 17,000 people live in the county where I grew up. Idaho County, which is geographically the largest county in Idaho, geographically way bigger than the geographic area of Tokyo, and there's 17,000 people compared to 37.4 million. Let's move on down to a bit of Chinese history. Going into the full history of China, would obviously take multiple episodes. It could be an entire multiple season long podcast of its own. Just going to skim the surface here, like the surface of the surface. China's history vast partially because China is one of the world's oldest civilizations.

The written history of China dates back to the Chong dynasty over 3,000 years ago started around 1600 BCE Pre 1600 BCE China's history is charted mainly by oral legends and prehistoric evidence Chinese civilization began along the Yellow River in the Chong era The yellow rivers the second longest river in China. It just under 3,400 miles out of the Chongera comes the earliest form of Chinese riding oracle bones or inscriptions on animal bones, not creepy, with rough pictographic characters, later traditional Chinese philosophies such as Confucianism and Taoism also known as Taoism developed in the feudal Joe dynasty era as China expanded in territory and population. This era lasted from 1046 to 256 BCE. Confucius believed to have lived from 551 BCE to 479. That dude, Socrates of the East, so much eternal wisdom. The teacher politician of philosopher

was raised in poverty by his mother would go on to become the most influential thinker in Chinese history. Confucius teachings encourage everybody to pursue self-cultivation as a means to moral perfection. Self-cultivation does not mean masturbation. It means trying to better yourself intellectually, spiritually. The goal of this cultivation is to become a Jun Z, translated as gentleman or superior person,

become a superior person, meet sack, hail Nimrod. Confucius believes that a Junzi is sincere. Trustworthy, compassionate, humble, and righteous. And that a Junzi can also inspire others to improve themselves, starting a chain of moral development that eventually leads to social harmony. I love it. Walk the walk, show others the path of the righteous, enough people do that, maybe just maybe the whole world walks together, or almost the whole world. You know, I'm gonna inevitably be a few Dommers,

Camper's Ted Mondays, Albert Fish is showing up. Just gonna have to push them off a cliff, as you walk along the path and just keep heading down the trail. The idea of anyone being able to become a superior person was actually a very radical idea when Confucius proposed it. He was suggesting it in a feudal society, you know, where previous to him, people didn't think that a peasant could become some noble, morally superior person. That was, you know, only the nobility had that option. Confucius strongly pushed self improvement

and the never ending seeking of knowledge to learn as a way of life. One of his quotes to learn something and rehearse it constantly, is this indeed not a pleasure? I love that. He didn't preach to learn for the sake of just having a lot of information in your head.

He stressed that the only point of gaining knowledge was to apply it to the world around you, make the world better. He said to be fond of learning is to be near to knowledge, to practice with vigor, is to be near to magnumity. Magnumity, there we go. Which means in this context, generous, forgiving to those less fortunate than yourself.

Use knowledge to help others rise up, not to further oppress others. That's what he said. Hail Nimrod. Confucius also preached the power of family. He believed that a virtuous life started at home. He said, surely proper behavior towards parents and elder brothers is the trunk of goodness.

And he said, a lot of other good shit. Like so much, it deserves his own suck someday for sure. I think we could all probably learn a lot from the teachings of Confucius. His ideas would become central to Chinese culture. Over time and endorsed by the government,, Zedong, many centuries later, will be born into a world based largely on Confucius teachings.

And then Mao and the Cultural Revolution would see these teachings as outdated. Mao is like, I know a lot of you guys like Confucius, but you know what, fuck that guy. He saw his ideas as incompatible with the China he wanted to make. Not surprised that Mao didn't like Confucius. Confucius preached continual learning in intellectualism

and Mao, like so many other communist leaders throughout history, did not want you getting too smart. Easy on the books, buddy. He didn't like academics in general, most of his life, which is, we bit of a red flag. Now, he persecuted academics and intellectuals. He encouraged his citizens not to read too many books. One of his most infamous quotes is, to read too many books. One of his most infamous quotes is to read too many books is harmful. Always be wary of

the leader or the God that wants to keep you dumb. Any belief system worth believing in is okay with inspection and dissection. If it's not, it's because it's worried about what you'll find because it knows that it is core. It's not great. Ancient China eventually fractured into several warring kingdoms who battled over control of China for decades. The nation's reunification in 221 BCE marked the start of China's imperial age. Imperial air lasted from 2021 BCE all the way to 1912 CE from China's unification under Qin rule until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912. With the cyclical rise and fall of dynasties,

Chinese civilization was cultivated and prospered in times of peace, and reformed after rebellions and conquests, much like Europe and elsewhere. Between 221 BCE, 206 BCE, the chin dynasty reigned, the chin standardized regional written scripts into a single national one establishing an imperial academy to oversee the translated text. The chin dynasty also created the first super highway on the Asian continent, the 500 mile straight road along the Zewu mountain range. It did a lot to unify the people of China. 125 BC during the Han dynasty, Zhang chin returned from travel abroad with the map

of the area he'd covered which reached as far as Afghanistan. His maps would lead to the super famous and historically very important international trade route known as the Silk Road. Trade with the East would go on to become so important to the West that they would discover the new world of North and South America while trying to establish a tabler. What, how, how did that word come in my brain for establish? They were trying to establish some things. Guys, listen to me. I've clearly put a lot of work into this. No, they were trying to establish faster trade routes.

Right, to the east, the China, in 868 CE during the Tang Dynasty, the earliest known printed book that we know of showed up, the Diamond Sutra, an important Buddhist text made using block printing. In 1206, former subject, Genghis Khan, unified all the tribes Mongolia, founded the Mongol Khanate,

and conquered an unprecedented swath of Asia, and then jumping ahead to 1260 CE, his grandson, Hubei Khan, conquered the Song Dynasty, and established a Yuan, but Yuan, Yuan Dynasty. Unifying China and bringing Mongolia, Siberian parts of the Middle East and even Europe into the Chinese Empire. Hubei Khan introduced paper money,

met with Marco Polo, brought the first Muslims to the country even attempted to conquer Japan. In 1557, the Ming Dynasty expanded China's maritime trade to export silk and porcelain wares. Chinese merchants now immigrated to locations outside the realm for the first time. Now this fast forward all the way to Mao's time. The Republican Revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yatsen ends the rule of the Qing Dynasty. Mao is 17 when this happens. Now he's born at the right time to witness revolution. The revolution ends over 2,000 years of imperial rule in China.

Why did it happen? It happened for the reason almost all revolutions happened. A lot of citizens were very unhappy. On October 10th, 1911, revolutionaries in Wuchong launched an anti-manchu insurrection. This was one of many attempts to overthrow the Qing Dynasty between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. All revolts had so far failed, and no one expected at first that this uprising would be any different. That it would create a domino effect, and that province after province and city after city, then soon the whole of China would declare its independence from the central government in Beijing. Why were people so sick of the monarchy?

Because for one thing, China had been getting its fucking ass kicked over and over by foreigners in one battle after another for decades, and losing war after war tends not to bring prosperity to the people. The failure of the Qing Dynasty to protect China from foreign aggression and to carry out extensive economic and political reforms had convinced a large number of intellectuals and members of the upper classes that the Chinese people needed to get rid of the monarchy if they wanted to create a new, stronger, more modern, better to live in China. China had lost two opium wars in the mid-19th century to Western powers led by great Britain

resulting in the loss of Hong Kong and the forced opening of treaty ports international trade, and in large foreign concessions happened to be made in major cities. China then lost the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 and 1895 to Japan, with Imperial China being forced to relinquish control over still more territory. They lost Taiwan and parts of Manchuria. They lost control of Korea, a puppet state. The conclusion of the Arusso Japanese War of 1904, 1905, firmly established Japanese claims to former Chinese territory.

It further weakened Qing rule. All these territorial losses combined with increasing imperialist demands from both Japan and the West. Frustration with the government seen as foreign in the sense, since they were ethnically manchew minority in China and not of the majority haun people and the desire to see a stronger more internationally respected China fed a growing nationalism that spurred on revolutionary ideas that did then lead to a successful revolution. The Republic of China this era would last from 1912 until 1949 and era marked by a lot of internal battles, lot of of fighting, a lot of instability before Mao took over.

We'll cover a lot of that in the timeline. And again, this is a super brief overview. China has gone to many interesting periods, both of war and stability, innovation and expansion. Now before we dip into communist philosophy, let's see what Mao's China turned into. Let's look at modern China, its economics and its culture. China has been the world's fastest growing economy for the last 30 years. It's the world's largest manufacturer,

merchandise trader, and holder of foreign exchange reserves. It's the largest producer of things many of us use every day. For example, steel, fertilizer, clothing, and toys. Clothing sticks out to me. We take it for granted. But you have to really think about how crazy it is, how much of our clothing comes from China,

so much of what we wear here in America, so much made in China, so many people who will never visit China ever in their lives will wear primarily Chinese clothes for the entirety of their lives, kind of a wild thought. Since opening up to foreign trade and investment and implementing free market reforms in 1979, China's annual GDP growth, gross domestic product growth, average 9.5% per year until 2019,

pace described by the World Bank as the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history. All of that really fast expansion, by the way, happens after Mao Dais. So I think once we get into this suck, you're gonna not be surprised by that. China has done a lot of great things,

most of which have happened after Mao Dais. And China is on pace to quickly replace America as the world's most powerful nation if it hasn't done so already. This explosive growth has enabled China on average to double this GDP every eight years. It's helped raise an estimated 800 million people out of poverty. This in turn has made China a major commercial partner for the US. China is the largest US merchandise trading partner, biggest source of imports and third

largest US export market. In short, fucking up our relationship with China, not gonna be good. Ha ha. Uh, some people out there have that attitude of like, ah, fuck them. Ah, maybe not so fast. Maybe do some more homework before you take on that tone. China also, the largest foreign holder of US Treasury Secretaries, or secretaries, US Treasury Securities,

which helps fund the federal debt, keep US interest rates low. Does that make you nervous that they have so much control when it comes to our national debt? It makes me nervous. It's trying to really want it to throw down for whatever reason. Fuck, they could wreak havoc on our lives. The relationship between the US and China is very interesting.

Currently, US and China have mutual political economic and security interests, such as the proliferation of nuclear weapons. But there are unresolved concerns relating to the role of China's government and human rights issues. US-China relations has deteriorated sharply in recent years. I know Biden doesn't seem to be a huge fan in certain ways. Trump wasn't a huge fan. 2018, the US Department of Justice initiated a China initiative to combat economic espionage.

It subsequently launched a trade war against China under President Trump banned US companies from selling equipment to a Huawei, that massive Chinese tech company, increased visa restrictions on Chinese nationality students and scholars, and China has been designated a currency manipulator. And China, not surprisingly, has not enjoyed the bans and the accusations. This has led some scholars and policy experts to say that we might be headed into a second cold war, a US versus China showdown, which is gonna suck! I can't rush on China fight, instead of the US and China. All right, China is a very formidable opponent. Not gonna lie, this can scare me a little bit. Back to the Chinese economy. China's economy on steroids has worked its way into Chinese culture.

Chinese citizens are the biggest travel spenders in the world. They spend $260 billion US dollars every year twice the spending that American travelers do. Let's have way more people, okay? Per person, I do want to point out that America still buys more shitty souvenirs abroad than anyone else. You, S, A, you, S, A. person, I do want to point out that America still buys more shitty souvenirs of broad than

anyone else. You, S, A, you, S, A, no one spends like we do. Now, what about culture? Who are the Chinese? As I mentioned, there are many ethnic groups in China, each with their own traditions and culture. Even within the majority, Han, ethnic group, there are smaller subgroups, each with their own distinct linguistic and regional cultural traditions.

But don't have time to get deep into the minutia of all these groups. You're going to have to paint in broad strokes here. In terms of religion, Confucianism and Taoism, later joined by Buddhism, constitute the three teachings that have shaped Chinese culture more than any other teachings. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasty, the theory of universality, universality,ies a theory of universality universality. Oh my god universality Emerged consisting of an allegiance to the shin a character that signifies a variety of gods and immortals Who can be deities of the natural environment personifications of cultural values cultural heroes the Chinese zodiac is derived from the four pillars

Which traces its roots back to the Han dynasty is derived from the four pillars, which traces its roots back to the Han Dynasty, back in the 3rd century BCE, still frequently used in Feng Shui astrology. Chinese writing falls into four columns, each column relates to the year, month, day, and hour of birth. The first column refers to the year animal and the element, the second to the month animal and element, the third to the day one, you know, the last one to the hour one. You get it. The year animal is popularly called the Chinese zodiac, where each year is named after one of 12 animals, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Pigs again, after last week. 2020 was the year of the Ratch 2021 is the Oxby and Oxmeats Acts. Be honest and earnest. Be low key. Do not look for praise or be the

center of attention. Eat a lot of grass as you graze in the pasture. Maybe don't do the last part. The year of the Oxpust will be a good year. So it's to bring a career advancement. Success in business, prosperity, wellness for all zodiac sign so ox up mother fuckers ox up uh boys born this year gonna be reliable and trustworthy they will feel great responsibility towards their families It will be confident almost to the point of arrogance but not quite Let me just confident just the right amount of confidence Uh girls born this year the outlook doesn't look as good According to the zodiac calendar girls born this year are gonna be fucking trash look as good. According to the Zodiac calendar, girls born this year

are going to be fucking trash. They're going to be manipulative and sleazy. They're not going to give two shits about anyone other than themselves. They're going to kick in the dick and act like it's your fault that their foot hurt. Fred Hertz, girls born this year should be immediately thrown into a dumpster.

And if you're mad, don't be mad at me. All right, don't shoot the messenger. You be mad at the Chinese Zodiac. Okay, come on, gosh dang, that's too much. No, girls born in the year of ox, uh, going to be calm and gentle. They will also be stubborn and independent and never surrender to fate. I love that, um, just, you know, like zodiac stuff in general is always just so positive. Like, like I was looking through other years and it's always like, okay, there gets to be strong leadership. And it's going to be, uh, great athleticism and, uh, like, okay, there gets to be strong leadership. And it's gonna be a great athleticism

and always positive attributes. It's never like one year is like, oh, people gonna fuck and suck this year. Gonna be a bunch of liars born in the year of the snake. Gonna be a bunch of weasels born in the year of the weasel. In traditional Chinese culture, it's believed that different people born under each animal science

supposedly have different personalities and practitioners of Chinese astrology consult such traditional details and compatibilities to offer guidance in life or for love or marriage. Astrology way more popular in China than it is in the US or the Western general. A recent surveys from around 2019 estimate that some 80% of Han Chinese practice

some kind of Chinese folk religion and Taoism, 10 to 16% of Buddhist, 3 to 4% of Christians, 1 to 2% of Muslims. Surprised to hear about religion in China? Me too. While China is home to many religions, it's officially a secular nation. A religion today tolerated much more in China than it was in Mao's time. Officially, five religions are allowed in China today. Buddhism, Catholicism, Taoism, Islam, and Protestantism. Scientology can, according to the Chinese government, quote, suck our fucking dicks. Feels aggressive, but I don't hate it.

And of course, they don't say that, but they don't allow it. Even though it's not officially recognized, they do tolerate the practice of traditional Chinese beliefs. Mao would think the commies in China have gotten soft in recent years. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao would sick his red guards after anyone practicing these old faiths.

Got brutal. As you've learned in previous sucks on communism, authoritarian leaders don't want anyone, practicing anything but continued devotion to the state. The Chinese New Year holidays, China's most important cultural and religious holiday. National holiday lasts 15 days. It is usually celebrated in January or February, not only in mainland China,

but in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines. And in many of Chinese home and neighborhood across the world, people decorate with red, not to recognize the Communist Party, but because it's, you know, in traditional Chinese culture, it symbolizes happiness good fortune and joy It's a time to gather together to honor ones deities and ancestors Folk medicine also an important part of Chinese culture Chinese folk medicine today is built on a foundation of more than 2500 years of Chinese medical practice

Chinese folk medicine includes various forms of herbal medicine acupuncture massage exercise and dietary therapy Man Chinese massage on my favorite parts of living in LA, somebody just quality, solid massage parlors, like Chinese massage. Lindsay and I would go to a Chinese foot massage parlor, Bows massage on Beverly Drive, whenever we could. Lindsay, now I don't agree with this, so don't get mad at me, Lindsay would often pay a little bit extra to get jerked off at the end of her massage. I didn't, didn't feel right.

I know a lot about the sex trafficking and stuff, and it's just, I had moral problems with it. I don't always agree with her choices. I don't always like what my wife does with her penis. No, it wasn't a place like that at all. We would not go to a place like that. Pretty sure my wife doesn't have a penis, you know? I'd say 99% sure.

It was a foot massage place, and they were so nice there there and they worked so hard. I hope they're doing well. I hope they're doing well. A lot of Chinese folk medicine rooted in philosophy based on ying yangism, the relationship between ying and yang, or balance within a person. I love ys in philosophy. I was later absorbed by Taoism and general disease is perceived as disharmony or imbalance

in the functions or interactions of Yin, Yang between the human body and the environment. Today, traditional Chinese medicine is widely used in China and has become increasingly popular in prevalent in Europe and North America. And then there's the food. God, I love good Chinese food. I don't even understand how someone could not like Chinese food. But there's a lot of different kinds of Chinese food. Most of the Chinese food we get in America has been heavily Americanized. It's, you know, much more diverse in China. The eight cuisines of China are bear with me.

I have pronunciation guides for all these. And I have practiced them quite a bit. But still my confident on we Cantonese, Fuyu-jian, Hunan, Zhangxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Zhangjiang, all different cuisines. All styles that have grown historically from the different availability of resources, varying climates and lifestyles of again a giant country. For example, Zhangxi, cuisine, mostly employs cooking techniques like braising and stewing while Sich szechuan cuisine involves more baking. Harry crab meat currently a sought after delicacy in Shanghai and many places around China comes from lakes around and rivers around Shanghai. And yes, I did not just uh, flub that. It actually is

Harry crab. Goofy looking a little dude with furry claws like mittens. Eating his sweet meat all the rage right now in many parts of China. A lot of those hairy crabs all over rivers and lakes over there. Sounds like a veneer of disease, hairy crabs. Right, it's a weird looking little animal. You okay?

You didn't want to scratch it over there. Ah, sorry, my crutches on fire. Pick those hairy crabs. Last weekend, my balls look like a war torn battlefield right now. Just plum, covered in hairy like a war-torn battlefield right now. Just plum, covered in Harry Krabs. Keep dipping them in a bucket of bleach, trying to hit them with a stick,

but they are very hard to get rid of. I just got a little doctor. Get some cream or something. Oh, yeah, that's a good call. That's probably better than my bleach bucket. Probably hurt less than a stick. God, I wish I could talk to somebody and that's how you get rid of some kind of veneerals.

Oh, you got pubic lice? Oh, no, you just get a stick and you just fucking smack your balls a bunch of times. That'll get rid of them. Chinese cuisine has been a huge hit in the States for a long time. Not sure, Harry Krabs have shown up on a lot of American menus yet, but a lot of other dishes have been around for well over century. According to the Chinese American Restaurant Association, the US is currently home to more than 40,000 Chinese restaurants.

That is more than all the McDonald's KFCs, Pizza Hut, Taco Bells, and Wendy's in America combined. Why so many? The historical reason, pretty interesting. When the US government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, fucked up, explicitly barring Chinese laborers from immigrating or becoming US citizens, one of the only ways for Chinese immigrants to enter various states, including California, was to get merchant status by opening up a restaurant. That merchant status allowed Chinese business owners to travel to China, and then come back to America,

bringing back employees with them, and eventually it led to over 40,000 restaurants. So interesting bit of trivia there. Tiny bit more about Chinese culture before we learn a bit about communism, then hit the timeline. Within Chinese families and in Chinese society, elder generations are revered and seen

as important sources of wisdom and stability. Elders seem to be much more respected in Chinese culture than an American culture. Younger generations are expected to take care of their aging family members, and that doesn't mean sending them to a home. That means caring for them in your home. China actually passed a very progressive elderly rights law in 2013.

This law legally mandates that adult children provide culturally expected support to their parents 60 years or older. Thank God we don't have that law here. I love my mom, but I don't, I don't wanna live with her. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, man. If we had that law here, I'd be forced to, you know, have my dad move with me. How safe would that be? For me, Lindsey, the kids, you get it.

If you don't, don't even worry about it. This is seen as a sign of success. Actually, if you have your elderly parents live with you in China, it's a sign of success to have multiple generations live under your roof. It's a symbol that you're wealthy enough to care for your elders. This tradition does not come from Mao Zedong.

Oh, no, it does not. Mao Zedong did not respect his elders during his cultural revolution. Everything old was attacked by masses of students and workers, including senior citizens. Okay, history and culture less and over now. So how did a great country, one of the oldest continuous civilizations on earth tolerate a government that murdered tens of millions of its own people? Well, in short, they were tricked. They got bamboozled and they get in behind

a one party political system. And then those who were like, hey, wait a minute, I don't know this is a good idea. Those people were eliminated. They were perched. That's what one party systems across history tend to do. Eliminate any and all opposing schools of thought and or dissent. Running a country with a single political party might just be one of the worst ideas meat

sacks have ever come up with from the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1991 to Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 to Italy under Benito Mussolini from 1922 to 1943 to Pol Pot and the Camille Rouge to various Eastern block states, various Central and South American states, Cuba, and single party systems. A lot of people seem to end up always getting beat, murdered, starved, otherwise brutalized. Unless you're a high ranking member of that party, right, they tend to not be the most fun states to live in. And even if you are high ranking, high ranking party member, you most likely live in a constant state of paranoia, right?

To pray that your leader will have you purged for being a treasonous dissident at some point. Maybe you get too popular. Maybe other party members like you too much. Now you're threat, right? It's now you get purged. Maybe you're not popular enough. You're seen as not being loyal enough. You get purged for not being loyal enough, right? Maybe you don't laugh at the leader's shitty joke. Hard enough. Then you get purged for not being loyal enough, right? Maybe you don't laugh at the leader's shitty joke hard enough. Then you get purged for that. Maybe you don't clap along enough. At the end of one of his boring stupid speeches,

or maybe the leader will just read like a treasonous glint in your eye. They don't care for. Then it's the sun version of off with your head. I think a King Jopri from Game of Thrones, when I think of a ruthless totalitarian leader. Would you want to live under Jaffrey's rules? No. Now, when you probably wouldn't want to live under some communist state head, their rule either.

And even the leader themselves, they can't really enjoy this system of government. And that's one party government, right? Because they're always worried about getting assassinated. It's just an all around shitty system. That only works in theory. Because only in theory, you all meet Sachs agree to all buy into the same system of government and then not question leadership and not care that no matter how hard they work, the state will reward them equally, equally, equally, it's a neighbors.

It's all just so fucking unreasonable. China under mal, like so many nations before and after, suffered greatly because of this ideology. So why even consider it in the first place? Well, there are some pros if you squint real hard to find them. Proponents of communism, other benevolent mind and one party systems have argued that multiple parties, either overtly represent or eventually

dissolve into division along class lines. Fans of a single party system will state that, you know, they encourage national unity. Right, if there's only one party, then everyone in the nation has common ground. Ideally, this one party would be a vanguard of leaders that protect the nation theoretically. This one party could control the economy from a centralized position, possibly ending income and equality in class struggle, with no other parties to stand in their way.

The government could get a lot of things done, ending bureaucratic red tape and checks and balances in theory. If the rulers of that party were benevolent, minor deities or something, as opposed to humans, who historically are naturally inclined to crave power, wealth, be jealous, be greedy, prone to exploit others to get what they want if there is no laws or any rival party to keep them in check. Communism doesn't work in reality in my opinion, for the same reason that anarchy doesn't work in reality. All right, as a whole, humans do not act their best

when there are no other humans or laws to effectively keep them in check. I used to have a mag that on my fridge that read something to the effect of fear of prison keeps me from doing so many things. It's true. Would have definitely stole more in my youth than I did if I wasn't worried about the law.

Would have driven a lot faster, would be driving a lot faster now What if I'm being totally honest when I was younger would have driven drunk more shitty but true But wasn't worried about arrest and recent years there are at least a few faces. I would have definitely Fucking punched so hard if I was not worried about legal repercussions Not great again, but you know be honest And understanding of legal consequences. This kept me in check at various moments in my life. Checks and balances can be very, very

good. Rival political parties can be really good when it keeps, you know, and it comes to keeping governmental power and check. In the US, we have checks and balances, a safeguard putting in place any one governing body from becoming too powerful and running shit down the tubes. And while sometimes the way two parties slow down legislation is super annoying, I'd rather be annoyed than living a system where there's nothing to check extremism. There are so many obvious cons to communism,

a one party system like communism. China would see a lot of them in Mao's time. First of all, if you're a person doesn't much like to be told what to do, the system not fun to live in. One party means one stream of ideals, one dog, one set of moral priorities, one unchecked body of leadership, one central overall plan. They own everything, they are the law. If you disagree, well, tough shit. We better keep your fucking Mao's shut trader. If you vocally disagree, you might find yourself in prison and or killed by those in power.

And by might, I mean, almost certainly. by those in power, it usually means one person elected to the head of the party, like Bonito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler. They become in charge of everyone else, and because no human is perfect. And some of them are downright, sadistic and cruel mother, peanut butter, right? They often make people suffer or excuse suffering, or excuse suffering in the name of the country and the party. Single party states can become hot beds of corruption with high positions in the party, going to personal favorites of whoever's in charge, whoever kisses the ring, whoever bends the knee with the most gusto, not whoever's most qualified.

One party means no representation of government for those who don't agree with the party's ideals. It means if you're not down with the current plan, well, you have no one to fight for your interests. As you remember from the recent Hellfire that was the Armenian Genocide suck, one of the first steps of the young Turks and their genocidal plan was to seize power and stop Armenian officials from being elected. They removed any representation those people had in the government and a lot of horror

followed. Mao's cultural revolution only gave a voice to communism. No opposing ideas were tolerated. Well, they were initially, but then Mao changed his mind, decided to send, was bad for China, IE, it was bad for him, and to send him voices were silenced. Well, look, we'll go over how he silenced them here

soon in the timeline. First, a little more communism to discuss. Easy boat jangles. Good God, good boy boat jangles. Just lifts it up a leg and pissed on the desk. It's worked up talking about this. Let's reintroduce ourselves to the ideas of Karl Marx and his co-writer, Frederick Engles. It may be hard for us to believe that a lot of people were once really excited about communism. We have the benefit of

seeing how this political theory has played out in reality multiple times. People who live before us, especially in the early 19th century when Marx and Engels were writing, they didn't have that benefit. They only knew of communism as a theory. And on paper, if you ignore the crueler aspects of human nature, it does sound like it could lead to a utopia.

Who was Karl Marx? Well, in his 20s and 30s, he owned and ran a popular Berlin roller rink. After working in the rink business as a DJ for several years, check out this old archival audio footage of him working through a roller rink. Hello and howdy! This is DJ Evan saying it's fine! AKA Karl Marxja!

Put on your skates and grab some partner! Factoring like a factory owner! It's making no difference to me! You'll see here in Oscar juice, hot new track, but also bougie. To like it. So much fun. Of course, it's nonsense. When I said DJ, how many of you expected to hear this button? It's so big.

Yeah, that's just the tip. DJ iceberg. Yeah, yeah, that's just the tip. DJ iceberg. I prefer. No, of course, Carl Marx was never a roller ring DJ. I wish. It was German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, socialist, revolutionary.

He would change the world with his ideas for better or for worse. I think worse. You may think better. Karl Marx was born in Trier Prussia in 1818, the son of a Jewish lawyer who converted to Lutheranism. He studied law and philosophy at the universities of Berlin and Jenna. In 1842, Marx became editor of the not confident about how to say this. Rhinches Zaitung, a liberal democratic newspaper in Cologne.

The newspaper grew considerably under his guidance. But then in 1843, Prussian authorities shut it down for him being too outspoken. So Marx moved to Paris to co-edit a new, much more political publication. In Paris, Marx befriended Frederick Ingalls, a fellow former roller-rink DJ. No, a fellow Prussian who shared his views and who has become a lifelong collaborator. In 1845, Marx was expelled from France, settled in Brussels, where he renounced his Prussian nationality and was joined by Engels. And there they would write their most famous work, The Communist Manifesto.

I love how generally when you hear about their work, you often only hear about Karl Marx, right? Not Frederick Engels. It's like Engels was the art garfunkel of Simon and Garfunkel, the John Oates of Holland Oates. Actually, while the two of them did work together, a lot on Communist philosophy for this specific book, even Ingalls said marks that all the heavy lifting, and that the core of the books, main tenets, come from marks. Marks' main idea was to take power from the rich and give it to the masses over the course of a revolution. The revolution would bring about a new political, economic, and social system that eliminated

class struggle and inequality once and for all. Mark summarizes his approach in the first line of chapter one of the Communist Manifesto published in February, 1848. The history of all, Heathrow, existing society is the history of class struggles. And he's not wrong. The rich versus the poor, the haves versus the have-nots. That's always been the heart of class struggles. And he's not wrong. The rich versus the poor, the halves versus the have-nots. That's always been the heart of human struggle. And in general, governments have leaned

on protecting the halves more than the have-nots. But has there really been another way to do it? Like a better way to do it. If you're some monarch trying to launch an invasion or protect your borders from other invaders, for example, you need funds to raise an army, to arm an army. Who are you going to get those funds from? The halves of the have-nots.

Kings consulted the nobility and the wealthy on matters because kings needed their money to keep their kingdoms going. That system may not seem fair if you're one of the have-nots. It simply just might not be fair, but that doesn't mean it's not the most effective way to do it. The Communist manifesto would go on to become one of the most influential books of all time. Marks argue that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, would inevitably produce internal tensions that would lead to its destruction.

Just as capitalism replaced feudalism, he believed socialism would in turn replace capitalism and lead to a stateless, classless society, called pure communism. He wrote this as what emerged after a transitional period called the dictatorship of the proletariat, a period sometimes referred to as the worker state or worker's democracy. Marked argued that the means of production and of exchange, basically the money and how money is generated, belonged to the bourgeoisie, which held on to deep class structures rooted in the feudal system. They struggled with the working class or the proletariat, which was the true source of

all this money. Basically, he thought that the person that did the work, i.e. the factory worker, deserved to see the money more than the factory owner, i.e. the bourgeoisie, which basically only had money because they were lucky enough to be born on the right side of the remnants of the feudal system. Q, many of today's small business owners hearing this rolling their eyes and thinking about how many hours they have to work to launch a small business and keep it afloat and how much risk they have to take.

Things have changed a bit since Marx's time. We're not all in the herders of the feudal system anymore. Marx believed that society shouldn't would be run by the people who make the goods and do the services, not by the people who profit off the labor of others. And I don't feel like Marx had a real good understanding of how upper management works. Like how in a factory, for example, it doesn't matter how many goods are being made, if deals haven't been put in place to sell those goods for profitable rates, not taking anything away from the labor of the worker on the assembly line, but there is a bit more to business than just making the ship.

Marx wrote a scathing three volume critique of capitalism called dust capital in September of 1867. He did not think a communist revolution would be easy, but he did think that it needed to happen and that it would be violent. Communism not just Marx's brand, but in many of its different iterations is based on the ideas of common ownership and the absence of social classes, money in the state. Remember, according to Marx, after the means of production have been appropriately distributed, there's no need for a state anymore.

People can just chill out. And again, I get the appeal of this theory, right? We all pull our money together. We build the business that we need, then we all share equally in the fruits of our collective labor. But the problem is not everyone's labor is equal. build the business that we need, then we all share equally and the fruits of our collective laborers. But the problem is not everyone's labor is equal. If you're Communist worker A and you're busting your fucking ass, picking and peeling some potatoes or whatever, and then Communist worker B is picking and peeling about, I don't

know, 20% of the taters, you know, that you're working on. And then say they're always complaining about something. The feed always hurt, right? Their boobs are sweaty. I don't know, they have gas again. They feel a little off. Can you help pick up my slack again? And then day after day, you know, week after week,

month after month, they get the same food rations you do. They get the same clothes to wear. They sleep in the same bed. They live in the exact same apartment layout. After years of that, are you really gonna think, this is fucking great! God, this feels fair! Or are you gonna start to despise worker B?

Or are you gonna start slackin' too? Now, because why should you bust your ass today? If you don't get any more in life, you know, then there's other person, not bus in their ass. Ah, this stuff annoys me. Marks annoys me so much, admittedly. I'll shut up now about communism,

just trying to get to the timeline. So heart for me to be objective, and not constantly editorialize. I admittedly think the Karl Marx was a very well-read, very intelligent, fucking fool. These ideas of Marx's grew quite a fanbase, including many notable intellectuals of the day, many still around today. It seemed like a scientific approach to organizing society that would ultimately create in a egalitarian society, one of a quality of opportunity, a quality of outcomes. One of the most famous slogans for communism is from each according to his ability to

each according to his needs. And that comes from Karl Marx, it is 1875, critique of the Gotha program. Another aspect of Marxism, who would especially appeal to Mao, Zedong, is a, you know, revolution. The revolution is necessary. It's a revolution brought about by the workers. Revolution would, of course, be centered around a single party and tell the eventual dissolution of the state and Marxist theory, and then the single party wouldn't listen to any opposition. The revolution would be led by enlightened leaders known as the vanguard of the proletariat.

Mao thought he was one of these who understood the class structure of society, who would unite the working class by raising awareness and clash consciousness. Mao would unite the working class. Ultimately, Marx thought communism? How would unite the working class? Ultimately, Mark sought communism would spread to become a global movement. The entire planet governed by one party that would lead to it becoming a utopia. Welcome to the new world order. The real illuminati. This one world government idea was scared. The shit out of capitalist government scares a lot of people still today, right?

an idea was scare the shit out of capitalist government. It scares a lot of people still today, right? I would lead to the US military industrial complex, large you being built at a fear of the red spread that the Cold War was based on. This utopia of Marxist would have no place for a lot of things, particularly no place for religion. So that doesn't make it feel like a utopia in a lot of people's minds. Marxism at least expressed by Karl Marx, not a fan of religion. He didn't think religious faith was particularly useful

as an institution in his system of revolution. Fierce about communism throughout the Cold War would stoke the fires of the modern evangelical movement in the US. The early days of communism creating a state without a religion was just as exciting as abolishing private property and abolishing class hierarchies. The Bolsheviks, who paved the way for communism in Russia

during the Russian Revolution of 1917, super excited about it. Under Lenin and Stalin, new atheist organizations like a League of the militant godless, wage war and religious institutions, although churches and monasteries were technically legal, officials found ways of shutting them down early in the Soviet Union, they transformed some of them

into cathedrals of atheism. In 1931, Moscow's Christ, the Savior Cathedral, was blown up in a public display for all the world to see. Stalin basically just completely got rid of religion in the Soviet Union. They took it pretty far. Marx has a famous quote in which he calls religion the opium of the people. He meant that religion was essentially a drug that distracts the masses from their immediate suffering, giving them illusions about the future

that give them just enough strength to keep toiling for their rich oppressors. Now this is one of the few areas where Marx and I agree somewhat. I don't think in opium of the people notion necessarily invalidates religion though. I don't think it disproves religion. I don't think all of the world's religious use religion as a type of spiritual opiate, but I do think certain unscrupulous people absolutely enslave others in religion and then use it as a whip to beat them with and keep them some servant. And that anger's me and Nimrod greatly. Look at you, Benny Hinn. Look at you, Pastor Kenny Copeland. You fucking con artists. Keeping your flocks tied up

in fear and poverty while you travel around in the lear jet. You fuckers. Mouser interpretation marks his view on religion would change China in a uniquely terrifying way. poverty while you travel around in the lear jet, you fuckers. Mousen interpretation marks his view on religion with change, China in a uniquely terrifying way. We'll get to that in the timeline. Let's wrap up communism now. Just as there are of every other imperfect human system, there are many criticisms of communism and people who fight back those criticisms with their own pro communist theories.

Love or hate it, communism has a particularly bloody record. It's hard to rationalize though. Those who do try to rationalize all the bloodshed and death away usually point to this idea that countries like the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia have not practiced true communism. Critics think the death tolls just speak for themselves. In 2017, the Wall Street Journal ran an article titled 100 years of communism, 100 million dead. They totaled numbers ranging from 65 to 95 million deaths due to various communist regimes,

malevolence and or ineptitude. And that's not counting communist killed in action, fighting in wars against other nation. That's almost 100 million dead due to communist policies of either direct elimination or elimination via ineptitude. Right, they've led to like mass starvation and other tragedies. Okay, before we jump into the timeline now, know the communism socialism are not one of the same, not at all. I think that's a big misnomer. Today's socialist countries do not participate in a revolution every time they want to change something. Instead, socialist reform takes place within the existing social and political structures. Also, modern socialist nations allow for a lot

more economic diversity and freedom than communism does. Scandinavian countries aren't totally socialist per se, but they do have a lot of socialist institutions. They have an extremely well-developed model of social democracy with a generous social safety net, high quality public services, strong regulations on private business to protect both individuals and the community, which I think is pretty beautiful. People are free to practice whatever religion they want, to work and live where they want, they can build wealth, they do build wealth,

and they enjoy consistently the highest standards of living in the world, right? Because they're not constantly worried about losing everything if they get sick, or, you know, mortgaging their future to pay for their education. Many in America still here, still hear the word socialism and cringe. Damn Marx and people like Stalin and Mao Zedong, they just put so much stank on it. Don't believe the hype. Socialized medical system, a higher education system, would not send us on a path of us all end up ending up wearing the same uniforms, hailing the same chairman of some peoples republic.

Okay, enough. Kami pontification now. Now that we have China and communism, fresh in our mind muscles, it gets no mouth. I don't think you're gonna like it. It gets no sum of what made China right for Mao's blend of Soviet informed communism. Time to jump into this week's bloody time suck timeline, right after today's sponsor break. Thanks for listening MeetSax. Now it's time for

Mao. Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a time, suck time, line. On December 26, 1893, Mao Zedong is born in the small village of Shahalshan in Hunan province a mountainous region in southern China He's born into a middle-class family Although he would later describe his father as a rich peasant his family clearly had to work hard for living His father was a farmer a grain dealer his mother ran the household He would have two brothers who would follow him into communism one two years younger another 11 years younger and two sisters who would die in Infancy Mao was a voracious reader as a child beginning at the age of eight one two years younger another 11 years younger and two sisters who would die in infancy

Mao was a voracious reader as a child beginning at the age of eight Mao attended his native village's primary school where he acquired a basic knowledge of the confusion classic texts Young Mao is a mama's boy who disliked his father whom he considered to be overly authoritarian and bullying Huh, this father contains millions of people killed and killed those who disobeyed him Huh, this father get tens of millions of people killed and killed those who disobeyed him. Funny he would make those complaints. Mao would say that acting meekly did little to relieve his father's rage, so he soon stopped being meek and engaged his father's anger with his own. He began to stand up to his father early on, not common in a culture that placed such a high value on respecting and being obedient towards your parents, especially your father.

He began to lean towards rebellion early on. He also began to lean towards rebellion early on. He also began to read about rebellions. Now, like popular historical novels about rebellion, starring unconventional military heroes, he was a born dissident, or this is a lot of propaganda. A lot of information about Miles' childhood comes from Mal, or from people who would be put to death

if they didn't write good things about Mal. As a youth, he was expelled from several schools and even ran away from home for a few days. Rebel, Rebel. He also didn't get good things about Mal. As youth, he was expelled from several schools and even ran away from home for a few days. Rebel, rebel. He also didn't belong with his teachers. He was young. Sounds like he just didn't care for authority in general. I get it.

His feelings towards the teachers would lead to a lifelong disregard for intellectuals, many of whom he would later purge from Chinese society. At the age of 13, five years after education in the local primary school, he leaves school, returns to the family farm. Backing up a bit to 1894, five years after education in the local primary school, he leaves school, returns to the family farm. Back in up a bit to 1894, the year after Mao's birth, the Qing Dynasty clashes with Japan over Korea.

Korea had long been China's most important puppet and client state. In a strategic location, opposite the Japanese islands and its abundant natural resources of coal and iron had long attracted Japanese interest. This would lead to the first Sino-Japanese war declared on August 1st, 1894. The Japanese fresh off a modernization campaign were better equipped and prepared for this war. In March of 1895, the Japanese successfully invaded Shandong Province and Manchuria. The Chinese then pleaded with them for peace.

And the Japanese were like, you can have your peace after you give us a lot of your shit. And the Chinese were like, you can have your peace. After you give us a lot of your shit. And the Chinese were like, God, I fucking hate you guys. But okay, fine, take some of our shit. But can we please keep the rest of our shit? And Japan was like, all right, cool, for now bitches. And the treaty of Shimoniskiya, or I'm sorry, Shima Naseki, Naseki.

I don't know where they all got that first word. Shima Naseki, China recognized the independence of Korea and ceded Taiwan. The adjoining peskadaris, a small group of islands in the Taiwan strait, and the Lao Dwang peninsula and Manchuria to Japan. They have to give a lot of their stuff to Japan. China's lost, marked the emergence of Japan as the major world power and demonstrated to the rest of the world the recent weakness of the once mighty Chinese empire. It was an embarrassing defeat for China. A blow to national pride in morale. One blow of many that would sow the seeds of revolution against the Qing Dynasty.

In 1900, the boxer rebellion takes place. Boxers was a name that foreigners gave to a Chinese secret society known as the righteous and harmonious fists. That's a badass band name. They'd be a cool band name, right? They'd be a cool album name. The boxers were called this dude, a public display, they would put on a fighting skill.

The group practiced boxing and calisthenic rituals in the belief that this made them invulnerable to attack. They couldn't be shot. The original aim of this group was the destruction of the Qing dynasty and also of the Westerners who were showing up in more Chinese cities to trade with China. Westerners who spheres of influence were growing because the Chinese government was powerless

to stop them. They appeased them because if they didn't, they'd be destroyed by them. A further example of how comparatively weak China had become. More continual blows to national pride. Despite the group's opposition to the Qing dynasty, the same dynasty would end up basically supporting them because they came to believe that boxer rituals did actually make the boxers impervious to bullets. Huh. Seems like they could have figured out that this was definitely not true pretty easily by putting on just one little target practice

demonstration, right? Just some boxers out there. You cannot shoot us and then queue several royal soldiers immediately and easily shooting the shit out of them. Damn it! Must have done our dance moves wrong. Please allow us who are still alive to go back to our choreography board and troubleshoot this. Government officials figured that the boxers could do the military's dirty work form. Beat back foreign invaders. Despite a protest by Western powers who understandably did not like seen militant groups like the

boxers who were openly hostile to their presence, put not in public demonstrations of fighting skills, imperial officials, along with Empress Chi Chi, the ruling Empress Dowager continued to encourage the group. By late 1899, the boxers were openly attacking Chinese Christians and Western missionaries. And then Western governments were like, uh, not cool. What the fuck? Really not cool. Are you guys just going to keep looking the other way? Well, that shit happens. And then western governments were like, uh, not cool. What the fuck? Really not cool. Are you guys just gonna keep looking the other way? Well, that shit happens. And then Imperial China was like, when, uh, when what happens? I didn't know what you're talking about. By May of 1900, boxer bands were actually roaming the countryside

around the capital of Beijing in bloodthirsty mobs. This is like one of the purge movies. Doing as they pleased with Westerners. In Beijing, the boxer's burned churches, burned foreign residences, killed suspected suspected Christians Chinese Christians on site. And then the foreign powers like are come on. Are you fucking kidding me? You're really not going to punish them. You're not going to stop this. And Imperial China was like, who what are you talking about punish you? And the foreign powers like those people right behind you setting that church

on fire right there. And then Imperial China was like, um, not, not, I'd looks to me like they're trying to put that fire out and foreign powers like, dude, they're holding the torches. And Imperial China was like, ah, maybe, maybe, I don't know, maybe fighting with fire. I don't know. Imperial China loved the boxers. Right. They were doing what they would like to do to foreign powers. The group was given almost blanket permission to do

what they wanted. And then the group was officially endorsed by the crown. And they kind of fucked up here. On June 18th, the emperor's dowager ordered that all foreigners be killed. The German minister was murdered. Other foreign ministers and their families and staff together with hundreds of Chinese Christians were besieged in their location and their legation quarters and in the Roman Catholic cathedral in Beijing and then the Empress who endorsed all this violence quickly Regreted that endorsement payback was now guaranteed foreign powers were like oh, you done did it you done rattle the horness Why do you want to touch mother fuggers now we're gonna come knock some heads And an international force of some 19,000 troops is assembled most of the soldiers coming from Japan and Russia also from Britain the US

troops is assembled. Most of the soldiers coming from Japan and Russia, also from Britain, the US, France, Austria, Hungary, or Austro, Hungary, and Italy. On August 14th, 1900, that force captures Beijing killing around 3,000 boxers. Yes, they were not bulletproof after all. And they relieved the foreigners and Christians who had been besieged there since June 20th. After extensive discussions and protocols were signed in September of 1901, ending the hostilities and providing for reparations to be made to the foreign powers. During the Boxer Rebellion as a whole, a total of 136 Protestant missionaries and 53 children are killed. 47 Catholic priests and nuns, 30,000 Chinese Catholics, 2,000 Chinese Protestants, and

2 to 400 of these 700 Russian Orthodox Christians in Beijing estimated to have been killed. The sanctions permanently weaken now the Qing Dynasty's rule. The Emperor's Dowager, her court, they flee westward to Cheyenne in Shanshi province. Imperial China grows weaker, brings further shame to China. Whisperers of a revolution begin. If the Emperor isn't strong enough to stand up to western powers in Japan, well then maybe someone else should be running shit. In 1907 Mao's father arranges a marriage for him. Mao is only 14. Some sources say 13. His bride to be is 20. And in another fit of teenage rebellion, Mao refuses to acknowledge his bride, even after she moves into the family home. This is the big disrespect

to that awkward for the bride to be. Hello husband. Nope out of my room, which get out here. Uh, Mao wants off the farm. He wants to return to school. Two years later, the age of 16, he leaves home to attend school in the Hunanese capital of Sheng Xia. Uh, I was here that Mao would begin to experience the powerful revolutionary waves spreading through Chinese society. And Sheng Xia Mao reads the works of nationalist reformers such as Kong Yue, as he watches the Qing Dynasty crumble. He is enamored with admiration for strong emperors from early periods of Chinese history. And he's disgusted by recent leadership, weak sauce. He's a member of a generation who grew up reading stories about how mighty China once

was while simultaneously watching China get their asses kicked continually. The Shanghai revolution of 1911, next big event in the timeline, fueled by Western educated revolutionary Sun Yat Sen, are they overthrow the Qing dynasty, bringing it in to two millennia of royal rule and theoretically establishing a Republican government. Despite overthrowing the government, the revolution is far from over, really it had just begun, decades of fighting and fracturing in Sue. As the dynasty crumbles, rebellion breaks out in a Shang-Sah Mao enlists in Sunyat Sen's army, but not as a soldier. He would spend six months in the Shang-Sah Library, absorbing Chinese translations of Western classics. You know, for a guy who would later openly persecute academics

and encourage others not to read too much, He spends a lot of time around books. At some point, he must have read enough to understand that if others read as much as he did and learned what he'd learned, they would not accept a lot of his bullshit ideas. Sunyat Sen officially takes control in 1912 announcing the Republic of China, and many will challenge his rule. Really glossing over his life, by the way, we can do a full suck on Sunyat Sen. A powerful general would declare himself emperor in 1915 in a failed attempt to overthrow Yat Sen. Another general would attempt another abortive restoration of the Imperial Manchu Court in 1917.

1913 Mao enters a teaching, a teacher training college in Changshan, where he establishes several student organizations. Over the next couple of years, touring Hunan province on foot, he becomes highly critical of China's past governance. The way forward he believes will involve combining aspects of both Western and Chinese thought. Soon, he will be introduced to communist ideals, and then those will become the only thoughts that matter. September of 1915 marks a big turning point for China. The new culture movement begins. It starts when Shendushou, a Chinese revolutionary socialist educator and philosopher,

and later a co-founder of the Communist Party of China, launches the magazine Youth in Shanghai, inspired by the magazine, a group of young activists attacked traditional confusion ideas and exalt Western ideas, particularly science and democracy. They want to sweep away, quote, the old, in particular, the old thoughts, old morality, and old culture of Confucianism, and replace it with a new or Western-inspired culture. To win this battle, new culture movement intellectuals raised the twin banners of democracy and science, which they affectionately dub, Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science. Not kidding.

Jen, one of the movement's most influential leaders lays out the stakes of the struggle in no uncertain terms, saying we now firmly believe that only these two mistresses can cure all the darkness in Chinese politics, morality, academia, and ideology. In support of these two mistresses, we will endure any governmental oppression,

the attacks, derision and taunt of society, even unto death. Mao is now surrounded by revolutionaries filling the air and his head with new ideas and possibilities. Also, is it funny to you? Like it's funny to me that they call the Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science. I mean, I know it's affectionately,

but it still just seems so goofy. It gives like a puppet show vibe to me, for some reason, to like their protest and demonstrations. Like I pictured Chen with Mr. Democracy on one hand, like two sock puppets, and then Mr. Science on the other. Just hurry Mr. Democracy! They wanna live by the old ways in the longer? No, I sure don't, Mr. Science.

I wanna live the Western way. Me too, Mr. democracy. So let's get Western cowboy hats, six shooters and trust his D. D. Doma. I'm not sure that's a, I'm not sure that's what we were thinking regarding Western ways, Mr. Science. A great disagree, Mr. Democracy. I'm cowboying up. I'm a cowboy, I'm still horse I'll ride, and I'm warning, warning, did all I lie, are you feeling okay Mr. Science, I feel great, it's got a lot of songs in my heart, my mom's don't let your babies fall up to be cowboys. Don't let them pick guitars or drive them old trucks. Let them be doctors and lawyers in search. I don't know, I don't know what's going on tomorrow. Mr. Sass. Oh, sorry, I got a little too into that.

Like I do that for a long time. Sorry, that was a lot like Woody. And also, Mama Pichten, I know, is the only high voice I have. Chen loves the core principles of Confucian thought, particularly the a lot like Woody. And also, Mama Pichten, I know, is the only high voice I have. Chen loads the core principles of Confucian thought, particularly the three cardinal guides, rulers guides, subjects, fathers guides, sons, and husbands guide wives.

And the five constant virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge, and sincerity. Dismissing these as indicative of so-called slave morality and man eating ethics, Chen argues they're incompatible with republicanism. We don't need righteousness and benevolence. Get the fuck out of here. Knowledge, stupid.

Led by Chan and American educated scholar, who she, the new culture movement, intellectuals, proposed a new naturalistic vernacular writing style replacing the difficult 2000 year old classical style. Their interest span liberalism, pragmatism, nationalism, anarchism, socialism, all with the purpose of criticizing traditional Chinese philosophy, religion, and politics, out with the old, in with the new vibes, given people tired of the shame brought, you know, brought upon China by the old regime, hope for better days ahead.

Around this time Mao is introduced to the ideas of Marx. He likes those ideas. He likes him a whole bunch He's a strong Marx boner. Just gets some rock hard communism would 1917 the new culture movement picks up steam when Chau Yuen Pei is appointed president of peaking university Chau had passed the highest level of his civil service examination in 1890 became became one of the youngest successful candidates in the history of the imperial examination system. Smart academic 1904, he'd helped organize and became the first president of the restore restoration society, a revolutionary group dedicated to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty. So he's a real revolutionary from 1913 to 1916.

He'd organized a work study program in which more than 2,000 Chinese students and labors traveled to France to study in the schools there and work in the factories. Many future Chinese leaders were trained in this program, including Zhao and Lai, who helped organize one of the first Chinese Communist cells while in Paris. And now, Zhao was in charge of peaking university.

The most prestigious school in China, corrupting China's best and brightest minds with new ideas, sowing the seeds of further revolution in the nation's future leaders. As President of the University, Chao vowed to follow the principle of freedom of thought and incorporate the attitude of learning from diverse sources. So, what's this like? Communism. He threw up in peaking universities gates to intellectuals of all stripes, recruited renowned

and iconoclastic figures, as well as conservative thinkers to join the school's, excuse me, faculty. Most of the future leaders of China, including the young Mao, whose employed as a clerk in the library, were associated in some way with the university and Chao's ideas during this period. Chengdu show, the old puppet master, now brings his magazine by that point renamed New Youth with him debaug debasing where it quickly gathers popularity among the staff and students. Political instability brings even more converts to the new culture movement. As over the next decade, warlords carve up the country in their own quest for power in the ashes of imperial China.

As the country de-unifies and fractures into pieces, Chinese intellectuals quickly realize they would need to bring about a cultural and ideological awakening to a Humpty Dumpty everything back together, put all the pieces back together. As Chan put it, in order to consolidate the Republic, all the old anti-Republican ideas in the National Mine must be first swept away one by one. Mao Zedong's taken notes, forget rid of everything, noted. All ideas currently fucking suck, noted. Kill everyone who still thinks today's ideas are good noted later 1917 the Russian revolution begins now now we'll get to see the beginnings of communism action put on

the world stage for all to watch the Bolshevik revolution will easily be one of the most explosive political events of the 20th century on November 6th and 7th 1917 leftist revolutionaries led by a Bolshevik party leader Vladimir Lenin launched a nearly bloodless coup against the Duma's provisional government. The Bolsheviks will, of course, later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the world's first Communist nation. Lenin calls for a Soviet government that will be ruled directly by councils of soldiers, peasants, and workers, and that will kind of happen but not really. A council will form, Lenin will emerge asants, and workers. And that will kind of happen, but not really.

A council will form, Lenin will emerge as leader, Elin dying seven years, and three years later, Joseph fuck that guy Stalin will emerge from a power struggle as a new communist leader, and soon millions of the Russian soldiers, peasants, and workers, the party fought to empower, will endure horrific oppression and di-horrible deaths. We covered more of the Russian revolution

on our suck on Rasputin and also-horrible deaths. We covered more of the Russian Revolution on our suck on Rasputin and also in the suck stall. With the success of the Bolshevik Revolution, suddenly communism is no longer a theory. Mao follows the revolution and the wheels begin to turn towards really trying to bring communism to China. In 1918, Mao graduates from the fourth normal school of Changshan.

I love the phrase normal school. It actually just means a state university for teachers, where you just, you know, you get a teaching degree. Just an example of kind of a, doesn't quite translate correctly to English. Makes it sound the English like Mao had to be reformed, right? Like he was sent to some a long school type place

from that suck a few weeks ago. Some place where Mao was broken down and rebuilt into whatever they considered to be normal. People screaming at him, what the fuck you doing, Mao? You have normal pizza, shit. You're weirdo. You have a bunch of terrible abnormal ideas floating around your shitty brain.

Why didn't you marry that 20 year old, right? When you're 14, like a normal boy, like a father want you fucking freak. Confucius says he hates your weak guts, Mao. Anyway, Mao qualifies to become a teacher. Just thinking what my neighbors would think right now, if they heard that rant, that's a very odd rant here out of context. He qualifies to become a teacher, but instead of remaining in Changshan, he decides to head to the city of Beijing.

The big city. In Beijing, Mao will get caught up in the big May 4th movement. May 4th, 1919, very important day in Chinese history. A very important day, both for Mao and Chinese culture as a whole. Today, sometimes referred to as the start of modern Chinese history. The day was the peak of the broad cultural and ideological current that saw the political awakening of China's young, growing student population. A population that wanted to mount an intellectual attack on the foundations of traditional Chinese

culture. On the afternoon of May 4, 1919, over 3,000 students from universities and colleges near Beijing, assemble in front of Tiananmen, a monumental gate just north of the now-infamous Tiananmen Square in the central part of the city. They're protesting a recent development in international politics. In 1919, the Versailles are at the Versailles Peace Conference, after World War I. The Allied powers announced that they had no plans of returning lost territory to China, as some had expected, and they handed over German possessions to Shandong Province, or in Shandong Province, to the Japanese instead of to the Chinese. They did this even though an estimated 3,000 Chinese labors who served on the Western Front with Allied forces in World War I had died before returning home.

And as many as 30,000 died, serving on the Eastern Front, China's contribution to an allied victory is then just ignored. The US, Britain and France ignore the Chinese delegations protests and transferred Germany's colonial concessions in China, including the Eastern port city of Qingdao and the surrounding province of Shandong to Japan.

Another tough blow to national pride in China. Many of China's residents, including students, are furious. The imperialists are out, but China is still getting shit on. Anti-forn and resentment grows after this decision is announced. Crowns of students start gathering. They come brandishing posters, shouting slogans like protect China's sovereignty, return Qingdao. The students demand their government refuse to sign the peace treaty and punish the three officials involved delegates who attended the preside

peace conference for having betrayed in their eyes China's national interests. The students were so enraged they burned the house of the minister of communications, they assaulted China's minister to Japan, both you know like a pro-Japanese official. Over the weeks, following weeks, demonstrations occur throughout China, several students die or are wounded in these incidents, more than a thousand are arrested, and big city strikes and boycotts against Japanese goods are begun by students. They last for several months for an entire week, beginning on June 5th, merchants and workers in Shanghai, and many other cities go on strike and support the students, faced with a growing tide of activism,

the government acquiesces to the protests and three pro-Japanese officials are dismissed and China refuses to sign a peace treaty with Germany. They also release some protesters, they have in custody some student protesters, the new culture movement, aka the May 4th movement, has its first real victory. Caught up in some exciting and productive student activism,

Mal gravitates now more towards Marxism. In September of 1920, Mao returned to Changshan becomes the principal of a primary school there. And the following month in October, he organizes a branch of the socialist youth league there. That winter, he marries a young Kauai, the daughter of his former ethics teacher, and they get it on sexual intercourse penis and vagina

giving each other handshakes between the sheets if you know what I mean. All right, I don't know why I'm doing this. From July 23rd to August 2nd 1921 the first national congress of the Chinese Communist Party is held in Shanghai and in Joshin Mao is one of the 12 delegates early a doctor one of the first communist leaders in China. At this conference, the Communist Party in China is officially formed. It sees itself as both a political party and as a revolutionary movement.

And it ties itself to that May 4th movement we just talked about. Among the revolutionaries who found the CCP is old Chen Du Shou, president of Peaking University. Chen was very inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1917. Mao works with the show and these two commies set up the Changshaw branch of the newly formed Chinese Communist Party, the following year he becomes General Secretary for Hunan for that province.

At this time, the national membership of the CCP is less than 60 people. I'm throwing out a lot of cool titles, but there's only about 60 people. 28 years later, organized and indoctrinated by Mao, the Chinese Communist Party will conquer the largest nation on earth. And took a long time for them, right? This revolution took a lot longer than the one in Russia. In the turmoil of 1920s China, CCP members, including Mao Zedong, began organizing labor unions in the cities. Then the CCP joins with the nationalist party in 1923, slightly different ideologies, strengthen numbers, and the alliance proves enormously successful at first.

They're both at that time, my son, Kyiv, and his degrees. I think they're both communist organizations. The Kwame Tung, KMT, was a nationalist revolutionary party that has been supported by the Soviet Union. It was organized on Leninist communist principles. The KMT many years later, we'll flee into exile and become the ruling party of Taiwan. The KMT I should note, they do not define themselves as being communist.

They're not now, they're very socialists, but not communist. They define themselves in a lot of ways over the years, such as socialist with Marxist principles. It gets really complicated. And frankly, boring, unless you're a political scientist for you. To oversimplify their beliefs greatly, they despised for enterprise and thought the state

should take care of its citizens. They did not like capitalism. To me, they both groups are communist. They just disagreed on some philosophical minutia. Mao is one of the first communists to also join the national party and to work with them. During the first half of 1924, he lives mostly with his wife and two infant sons in Shanghai. He'll end up having a total of 10 kids. In Shanghai, he'd become a leading member of the nationalist executive bureau.

He's into all kinds of communists. Any group that is very communist at this point, he's like, I want in. I like it. And so he's a member essentially of two communist parties. In the winter of 1924, 1925, Mao returns to his native village of Shaoshan for arrest. There after witnessing demonstrations by peasants stirred into political consciousness

by the shooting of several dozen Chinese by foreign police in Shanghai, Mao becomes aware of all the potential that lays within Chinese or China's peasant population. He realizes he can rally the peasants who make up the majority of Chinese or of China's population by far he can rule China. He imagines how powerful the peasants could be if it became organized and inspired. Although born in a peasant household, he had during the course of his student years adopted

the Chinese intellectuals' traditional view of the workers and peasants as being ignorant dirty, and how he turns back to the rural world of his youth as the source of China's regeneration, the people that would lead it into the revolution in the new era. Following the example of other communist working within the National East Nationalist Party, Mao wants to channel the spontaneous protests of the Hunan peasants into a network of peasant communist associations. But this doesn't sit well with a lot of people. First and foremost, doesn't sit well with the military governor of Hunan, who definitely

doesn't want the peasants organizing for a revolution. Since, you know, that would mean they would be revolting against him. Makes sense. Hard to get behind a revolution. They want to take you down. Mao is forced to flee rather than risk being imprisoned or killed by this governor. He goes to the city of Guangzhou, the main power base of the nationalists. There he becomes acting head of the propaganda department of the nationalist party, in which

capacity he edits its leading organ, the political weekly. He also serves as the, he serves at the peasant movement training institute, which was an indoctrination center for communist ideals. In charge of propaganda, perfect training to become a dictator. Learn how to effectively manipulate the media, how to spend stories, to inspire others to join your cause and serve you, and he would become a spin master. By Bay of 1916, the alliance between the CCP and the nationalists began to sour. Chang Kai-shek had become the leader of the nationalists after the death of Sun Yat-sen

in March of 1925, and he doesn't want there to be two Communist parties anymore. He's the leader of the KMT, and he wants CCP members gone. Revolutionaries with different revolutionary ideals, even if they're just slightly different, they don't make for the best partners. Right, if you're willing to sacrifice your life for a revolution, you're probably not gonna be real big on compromise. Chang expels most CCP communists

from the Responsible Post and the National Party in May of 1926. In November, Mao once more returns to Hunan. In January and February 1927, Mao can't stop thinking about the power of the peasantry. He concludes that in a very short time, several hundred million peasants in China will rise like a tornado or tempest. A four-source extraordinarily swift and violent that no power, however great,

will be able to suppress it. This won't exactly happen. It'll take a lot longer than he thought. But he's, you know, he's real pumped up about the power of the peasantry, but he can't sell KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek on this idea. Chiang was not of the peasantry, but he can't sell KMT leader Chang Kai Shek on this idea. Chang was not into a peasant revolution. He was into the cities. His focus and the KMT's focus going forward would be on, you know, urban, urban workers. And in the rural area, it would be on the landowners, not the peasants. He also now really wants the CCP gone, not just out of his party, but out of the country.

In April of 1927, he actually has some CCP Shanghai workers killed. Shanghai Shack turns violently against the Communist. Massaccharine hundreds of them. CCP is driven underground now. This will inadvertently create the Communist Red Army that will laser rise against Chang. Many of the CCP Mao included now abandon their revolutionary activities among China's urban, and the head of the countryside. They double down on aligning themselves with poor country folk.

In the country, they plan and scheme regarding how to fight the nationalists who are currently much more powerful than they are. And who are beating various warlords in battle and quickly unifying the country. That's something this episode was already too big. I'll just mention it real quick here. What the nationalists do for the next several years is after, you know, uh, Imperial China collapses in many parts of the former Empire of China, warlords just are in control of little, you know, fife dummies all over the place and making life,

you know, real shitty for the peasants beneath them. And then nationalists go around and unify all these various areas of China. It takes some years and years and years and years, kicking this warlords ass, kicking this warlords ass, I mean, on and on and on. Mao would ultimately spend 22 years in the wilderness fighting against the nationalists. Not a fan of what this dude was gonna create but respect his education to the cause. China certainly was not handed to Mao,

took him decades to get it. For the first three years Mao and Zhudu, Zhudu, the commander-in-chief of his army, successfully developed guerrilla warfare tactics from base areas in the countryside. For the first three years Mao and Zhudai, the commander-in-chief of his army successfully developed guerilla warfare tactics from base areas in the countryside. In the summer of 1930 Mao and the Red Army attempt to occupy several major cities in South Central China. The CCP hopes their occupation of these cities will spark a worker's revolution, but

it does not. Mao disobeys orders a ban in the battle to return to the royal base in southern Yang Xi. Also, that year Mao's wife is executed by the nationalists. They don't get him, but they do get her and they kill her. And he is pissed about it. And he is kind of sad, but not like that sad. He immediately remarries.

But to he, Xi Jinping, who he'd been living with since 1928. Now, you gotta move on. Sometimes it takes years, sometimes it takes a couple days. to Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, It's constantly going to be in flux. They're always fighting for a little scrap of land out there. While he won't become the official and disputed leader until the long march a few years later, really he's the leader now. He will remain in charge of the CCP until his death over 40 years later.

Despite the name, this new nation was not a Soviet satellite country, but they were influenced and mentored by the Soviets. The Soviet back regime soon came to control a population of several million people. The Red Army now boasts somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 troops. And they easily defeat some larger forces of inferior KMT troops led by Chen Kai-shek and the first of four campaigns between the armies. But then the KMT, they comes back at the CCP a fifth time and they finally win. They just had more troops, right?

They could just keep coming and come in and come in. and they kill half of Mao's men in this fifth campaign. And then Mao and the remainder of his troops, now they have to flee and their escape will be called the Long March, big deal in communist history. The Long March takes place in 1934 and 1935. The Chinese Communist Party, its Red Army, will make a trek to relocate their base 3700 miles from South Eastern Changxi to Northwestern Shanxi. And they'd have to walk most of that distance and keep fighting KMT forces along the way. Mao sets off with his pregnant wife in October of 1934. And in addition to being a long march, it's a real bloody march.

By some estimates, 80,000 commies started the march and only about 10,000 finishes. Numbers vary pretty wildly from source to source. The gist remains the same. No, a lot of people started the March and somewhere less than 25% finish it. During this massive retreat to CCP, Comedy has encountered dangerous terrain, perilous climates, starvation, disease,

harassment from fucking warlords. Always those fucking warlords out there. God chaps my ass. I'm trying to get somewhere and there's, I fucking goddamn warlord. It's supposed to take us, you know, a couple hours to get to Mizzula, but we ran into three warlords. There's a full-day strip So glad we don't have to deal with warlords now Here in this country at least, but yeah, you know harassment from hostile tribes

There's frequent engagements with the Nationalist Army the communist troops cross 18 mountain ranges 20 rivers to reach the Northwestern province of Shanchi mountain ranges, 20 rivers to reach the northwestern province of Shaunchi, losing 75 to 90% of the Red Army by some estimates, seems like a pretty major defeat to me, but CCP propaganda would somehow spin all this into a victory. They portray all this not as a tale of getting their ass kicked month after month, but instead of refusing to surrender, persevering against all odds. They weren't losers. No, they were tenacious winners.

They were courageous escapers who kept living to fight other days. And who is portrayed as the hero and brilliant, brilliant military commander of this long march? The courageous leader who'd lost up to 9% of his troops and got his ass kicked basically the entire time. Mao Jedong, the real winner. Heavily exaggerated tales of his heroism and military brilliance are spun into a type

of let's make China great again propaganda that inspires many young Chinese to join the CCP during the late 30s and early 1940s. Recruitment also goes well because they focus on the gand of peasants, not the urban workers. That's where the KMT really fucked up in the long run. In the long run prior to World War II and China, there were just so many more farmers than the were shopkeepers and factory workers. And Mao knew that and he focused on it. Recruitment between the KMT and the CCP

was a war of numbers. The numbers were working out Mao's favor. 1936 begins the Yanan period. Though Mao himself wouldn't move to Yanan, a city in the northern Shaanxi province, until December of 1936. The Yanan province or period, excuse me, was characterized by two things,

a renewed fight against the nationalists for power over China and Mao's unchallenged rise to true supremacy in the party. After the long march, the Yanan period would begin, which was the crucible of the communist revolution in China. The Yanan became the CCP's base, or Yanan, excuse me, became the CCP's base in headquarters from 1936 to 1948. A lot of things happened in the Inan period that are too complicated to get into now.

The 1936 Zhian incident, the second Sino-Japanese war, the rectification movement, contact with foreign visitors, the civil war with the Nationalists. This period would end up being a formative period for the later ethos of the cultural revolution with propaganda referring to the Ynan spirit. Ynan spirit was a combination of determination, commitment and optimism for the communist cause. Right, a big red. Mao's ideas from this period would later evolve into a broader political philosophy known as Mao Jedong thought.

Mao argued that Marxist-Leninist theory must be adapted to suit Chinese conditions. He didn't want to repeat what had been done either in the Soviet Union or in liberalized Western countries. And a book, Problems of Strategy in Gorilla War, published in 1938, Mao wrote, China's Revolutionary War is waged in the specific environment of China. And so it has its own specific circumstances in nature. We must value more the experience of China's revolutionary war because there are many factors specific

to the Chinese revolution and the Chinese Red Army. He also developed some new ideas about how China would be led in his 1940 essay on new democracy. I love how often when communist ideologists use words like democracy and democratic. It's not at all. Mao outlines his plans for a dictatorship of and democratic. That's not it all. Mao outlines his plans for a dictatorship of the people. That's hilarious.

That's not exactly a dictatorship. It's a dictatorship of the people. It's a totalitarian regime of the people. He called it democratic dictatorship. In this system, the people were involved in grassroots democratic processes, but the party maintained total control at the higher levels. Oh, nice, right?

He's given recruits the illusion of having a real say in the party, but retaining the right to make all the important decisions. It's that kind of democracy. Similarly, Mao's theory of the mass line, which argues that the party should listen attentively to the voice of the masses, sound in democratic and theory, but was authoritarian in practice.

They just used all these democratic words to be a totalitarian regime. It's just all a fucking game. There was never any real power to the people ethos amongst the communist. It was always power to the party. And the party was really mal. Settling in Yanan, or yeah, Yanan, mal CCP members lived in small caves, a traditional dwelling in part of northern China. The Shanxi region was very poor, but survivors at a long march for four of them, life in the Yanan caves was an improvement. Living in such poor conditions

bonded CCP officials and red army soldiers. It also improved the CCP's relationship to the peasants living in the area as Mao encouraged CCP party leaders and intellectuals to embrace living and working with the peasants. Also, before moving on, they were not living in the area as Mao encouraged CCP party leaders and intellectuals to embrace living and working with the peasants Also before moving on they were not living in the caves the way you might think This was written in a Chinese source and it's written like they were just you know really rough on it Just like like fucking resting their heads up against this lagtight No, it's just like a modern dwelling built into a cave. It looks very nice. They lived in nice houses. They happened to be built in some caverns.

1937, the second Sino-Japanese war begins. Known in China as the war of Chinese people's resistance against Japanese aggression, this will be a catastrophic conflict for the Chinese people, causing up to 20 million casualties. It also has serious political repercussions for both the nationalists and the CCP. Full scale war between China and Japan begins in July 1937 following an incident, following

an incident near the Marco Polo Bridge, Narebejane. The nationalists and the CCP forage a shaky alliance, dubbed the second United Front. They both realize their squabbles aren't going to fucking matter if Japan just kicks the shit out of both of them and takes their country away from them. The first phase of the war is a blitzkrieg of Japanese victories as their forces move swiftly along China's east coast. Japanese man, no fucking joke. At this point in history when it comes to fighting.

In late 1937, the nationalist government is forced to retreat from its capital, non-Jing, to Chong, to Chong, Xing, and Western China. Japanese occupiers would brutalize territory taken from the Chinese. The occupation of non-jing that began in 1937 would become referred to by historians as the rape of non-jing. This shit is brutal. The rape of non-jing could be its own sucks subject, maybe we'll be someday. Estimated to the Japanese mass occurred 300,000 people in and around this city, many of them civilians in six weeks. That is ridiculous. According to contemporary accounts, thousands of civilians were buried alive, a machine

gunned and mass, or many of them literally used for bayonet practice. For practice. Think about how disensitized you have to be. To use an unarmed human being, many of them women, children, the elderly, for bayonet practice. Women and young girls taken and forced into labor as comfort women, sex slaves, for Japanese officers and soldiers. This is some ancient Viking rape and pillage ship, except it happening in 1937. In June 1938, the nationalist KMT government orders the dikes of the Yellow River Dam to

be blown, a desperate attempt to slow down the advance to the Japanese invasion. This is not good. This makes things a lot worse. Now in addition to many peasants being killed or raped, sometimes used for bayonet practice, now many of the survivors, the farmers can't water their crops because the dam is gone. This results in food shortages, famine, human suffering. You know, it just contributes to a rising peasant hatred of the nationalist regime now.

They're not protecting them, right? The imperialists didn't protect them earlier. Now, the KMT, they can't protect them. By 1940, the Japanese controls the entire North Eastern coast, areas up to 400 miles inland in China. They install a puppet government in Nanjing Under Wang Jingwei a former nationalist and one of Chang's political rivals Foreign assistance for the Chinese finally comes after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 As the US is drawn to World War II China becomes an important area in the war against the Japanese

During this war with the Japanese the CCP managed to consolidate their base in Yanan or Yanan while the Red Army Later reorganized as the eighth round army and the new fourth army defend inland areas of the Northwest The eighth round army had only 30,000 men in 1937 by 1940 has 400,000 Mao and so good at recruiting and rebuilding really takes advantage if one were two hadn't have happened I don't know that he would have ever you know power. Whatever would have ever been able to take control. But it was just a nice way of getting other countries involved to help with Japan, that allowed him to focus again, fighting the Nationalists, and really kind of make some progress. In 1941, Mao initiates the rectification movement, which lasts for around three years.

Beginning as a program for study and discussion of Mao's writings, rectification soon involves self-criticism or quote-unquote struggle sessions where comrades are expected to publicly announce their own failings. Cult, cult, cult. All right, he's taken advantage of the war going on to do a little, you know, kind of, polishing up of his party. Make sure everybody's real dedicated to him with the help of Mao's chief of security, Kang Shang, this odd

former group therapy turns into a sweeping purge of party members, many of whom are tortured and prison and executed. So fucked up, members are encouraged to announce their own failings, which often will come out as criticisms of Mao in the party, and then they are killed for expressing those criticisms. This is not group therapy. This is just a way to get rid of those not loyal to Mao. The first of many of these type of purges, right? Weed out to scent. Show other party members what happens if you express dissent.

All in all around 10,000 people thought to have been killed on Mao's orders during this rectification period. 10,000 people who disagreed, people who replaced with those loyal to Mao and his ideas. Mao's cult of personality, cult, cult, cult, really begins to develop now. Late in the rectification movement, Mao is confronted by a backlash to his purchase. Maybe, you know, killed too many people

and he risked an uprising, and he admits to excesses. Doesn't say I'm sorry, he's like, okay, I may have been a little excessive with my killing of people who disagreed with me. How nice of him. I'm sure the families of those he tortured and killed appreciated him admitting that he was taking things too far. The CCP will later downplay the brutality of rectification and label it part of embracing

the Yanon spirit. Sorry, everybody. We didn't mean any harm by killing dissidents. We were just so excited about communism. And it just kind of happened. By the end of the war, Mao's communists claimed to have fought 19,000 engagements of varying sizes during which they inflicted a million casualties.

Dead wounded and captured, of which almost all of their 150,000 prisoners were Chinese puppet soldiers collaborating with the Japanese. Are any of those numbers real? Hard to say. Almost impossible to separate fact from propaganda when talking about CCP victories. Because of the success of the communist fighting forces

against the Japanese, or at least perceived success, popular support for the CCP does grow. The second Sino-Japanese war comes to an end in August of 1945 after the US drops atomic bombs and hear Ashima and Nagasaki. Right, well, we're two ends. The Sino-Japanese war ends. Following Japan's surrender Taiwan August of 1945 after the US drops atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Right? World War II ends.

The Sino-Japanese war ends. Following Japan's surrender Taiwan is now returned to Chinese control. Now the stage is set in China for even more war, so much more war, so much war in the suck. The decades-long civil war in China between the KMT nationalists and the CCP can now fully resume. Fun. The nationalist government of Chang Kai-shek

receives US support during this battle because the US does not want Communist control of China. The KMT compared to, right, the CCP is like communism light. It's also confusing. Like if Mao was like the Papst blue ribbon of communism, KMT would be like the Mikalobe Ultra, something like that. KMT also changes their principles a lot over the years, right? They were far left socialists

but also bigger fans of certain western ideas and more pro-America less swinging on Russia's nuts than the CCP that's why America backed them. They consider them to be the lesser of two evils. In 1945 Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong leaders of the respective parties meet for a series of talks on the formation of a post-war Chinese government. They decide after all this to arm wrestle for control. Mao has the idea first to turn his hat around and that's how he gets the power to win. No, there's no arm wrestling.

I wish. Both agree on the importance of democracy, at least as what they say, unified military, equality for all Chinese political parties. Again, that's what they say. Either one of these motherfuckers had any interest in democracy or equality. Their truce is tenuous. By 1946, they're back to fighting all out Civil War. They've been fighting since 1927 now. Jesus Christ. As the Civil War ramps up between 1947 to 1949, now they've been fighting for over 20 years. A victory for the CCP finally seems likely, although the CCP

does not hold any major cities, they do hold the country. Still, you know, they're controlling the peasants and China mostly populated by the peasants. CCP also had by 1949 a better, more organized military, higher morale, larger stocks of weapons, seized from Japanese supplies of Manchuria. Things are going well for the Red Army. In report to the CCP's Central Committee in December 1947, an optimistic Mao observes the Chinese People's Revolutionary War has now reached a turning point. The main forces of the People's Liberation Army have carried the fight into the Quamantang area. This is a turning point in history.

By early 1948, the KMT Nationalist Military Position is not good. They're retreating. Red Army steadily is pushing them out of Manchuria, out of northern China. CCP held territory, increases from about one tenth of China in early 1946 to one third and late 1948, an area of some one million square miles, containing more than 200 million people. They now get complete control of Manchuria about half of Inner Mongolia, large portions of seven other provinces. On September 1, 1948, the Commis proclaim the North China People's Government. This is a four-runner to a People's Republic that will encompass all of China.

The KMT still alive, but barely. They keep losing more and more territory, more troops, more popular support. The Nationalists have been financing much of their recent war efforts by simply printing more money and had in the process have been financing much of their recent war efforts by simply printing more money and had in the process destroyed the purchasing power of their currency that you on. Some nine million you on in circulation in late 1946, then by August 1948, that number increased to 700 trillion.

Holy shit, just tossing around monopoly money. What a weird thing nations can do, sometimes try to do when they're broke and need more money. Just print a whole bunch more, right? Just shit, right of money. Oh God, are we out of paper? No, I think we still have more paper. Oh good, do we have ink?

Yeah, yeah, no, I think we still have some ink. Then we've got more money. Just far off the press, just make a whole bunch more money. I could have into the complexities of inflation and currency devaluation here, but this suck already has plenty of info crammed into it. Let's move on. Professionals and middle class workers in the nationalist heartland see their savings wiped out

because their money is not worth fucking anything anymore. What a terrifying possibility. And it seems to them like the KMT nationalist government doesn't care, it isn't helping. And then it's their fault, not good for morale, not at all. Strike, student demonstrations, labor unrest, becomes commonplace, black market traffic dramatically increases, KMT-controlled areas of China are devolving into anarchy.

They're on their last legs. The two decades-plus-long struggle for China between the Nationalists and the CCP, the Communist ends in 1949. Throughout 1949, peace talks between the Nationalists and Communists take place as the Red Army steadily gains more control of the country. Then in October 1st, 1949, Mao Zedong addresses the crowd in Tiananmen Square, establishes the People's Republic of China governing a population of around 540 million people. He did it.

He finally did it. He unified the nation into one gigantic communist state. I would applaud him if he wasn't such a piece of shit. Within days, the Soviet Union and the communist bloc recognized the PRC as legitimate. Of course he do. Stalin, Stalin's love in this. More red spread, a new strong ally in oppressing the poor workers. You've sold in liberation. Two months later, two million soldiers followed Chiang Kai's check into exile in Taiwan, where he sets up a provisional government that claims to be the legitimate ruling body of not only Taiwan, but all of China, but they're not. They lost. And Taiwan, the KMT would set up a democratic Republican system of government in theory. They were very much, they were very much a fake republic for so long. They would declare martial law after setting up a democracy and maintain martial law for 38 straight years. Those pieces of shit.

and maintain martial law for 38 straight years. Those pieces of shit. They use this as a way to suppress dissonant thought. This period was known as the white terror, and 140,000 were unjustly imprisoned and or executed for expressing pro CCP leanings. They're still mad about. Listen China, most of the people were the islands intellectuals. So under the guise of being anti-communists,

these motherfuckers are doing the exact same thing. Now Taiwan is more of a true democratic republic kind of. They, they, yeah, they still control themselves. It's, it's confusing. Taiwan is confusing. They think they have one government, they kind of do China things they control them, they kind of do. They really do. Back to 1949, Mao Zedong, the long time ahead of the CCP is leading China, and he heads to Russia to celebrate, and he's not welcomed like he was hoped hoping for. When Mao makes his first visit to Moscow, after winning, control in China for taking two decades to get it, he expects to be treated with special favor, expects to fucking parade,

the red carpet. Nope, he's just one guest among many who would come to celebrate Stalin's 70th birthday. He gets a very brief meeting with a Soviet leader and then he has to spend the next couple weeks pounding in some little shitty shack whereas sole recreational facilities have broken tennis table, broken table tennis table, poor baby. Also, weirdly enough, according to a former Soviet agent,

Stalin requests that Chairman Mao's feces his shit be sent for analysis to a secret laboratory. Finally, a good, weird detail for me to grab onto. The leader of the Soviet Union wants to see what chemicals and compounds are present in the chairman's feces. To quote, develop a better psychological profile on him. God, I hope that that happened exactly

as it's written in the source, how weird. Stalin checking in with some scientist about mouse poop, right, going over a poop report to see what kind of psychological profile he is. So tell me what do we think about this mal guy? What does poop tell us? Is he liar or does he tell truth? What does poop say?

Do he like pasta? What kind of car he like drive? Who he favored author? Do he like to watch I love Lucy or no? What do poop say? Do he want to overthrow my Zorosh or play nice? What you mean you not know? Do you study poop or not? Did he like lending more than me or no?

You don't know what I pay you to study poop for you not give answers I want the mystery take poop doctor to Gula Gintorcher If he want to know how to get out of Gula Gintor I could not die give him some of my poop He can find answer my poop if he look hard enough. So fucking absurd. These people are so crazy. While relations with Soviet Union, the Soviet Union start off kind of, you know, shay, you get it. They will soon blossom. On February 14th, 1950, China and the Soviet Union signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, commies, friends, unified in peasant and intellectual oppression.

The two nations worked together to keep peace in the East and to not let those fuckers in Japan ever kick China's ass again. And they linked to economies. And then the new Chinese government under Mao would get busy. And June 1950 the CCP starts with the Chinese land reform movement. Land belonging to landlords and wealthy farmers is rapidly, quote, redistributed to millions of peasants, sort of the land of stolen from the people who owned it and is put under collective ownership, which results in the creation of

agricultural, productive cooperatives. So the land was less redistributed and more just taken and not given to the peasants, but instead owned by the state. We're the previous owners of this land happy about this redistribution. No, they were not. They were definitely not and many of them very quickly would find themselves dead. Estimates of their deaths range from hundreds of thousands to millions. Mao Zedong himself estimates are estimated as many as two to three million landowners were

killed, targeted specifically on the basis of their social class. Power to the people, Viva, the revolution. The CCP would later report that 15% of China's 50 million landlords and wealthier peasants were executed. And another 25% sent to labor camps to be reeducated. Also in 1950, the marriage law in China is put into effect, providing people with the freedom to marry in divorce freely, which was new and it's good, got a hand into Mao here. Previously, many marriages arranged and peasant women often essentially sold to landowners.

Now people get to marry based on love, which leads to a lot more fucking, not kidding. And this combined with more modern medicine and a better initial distribution of resources under Mao leads to a lot more kids, which is what led to China's massive population. Mao preached in the 50s and 60s that the Chinese needed to be fruitful and multiply

and they listened to him and did. And now China has the world's largest population. By 1952 Mao's land reforms are completed after a five-year campaign. All land deeds are destroyed, the government. I mean the people own everything and around two million landlords have been executed. Fun. 1953. China inaugurates its first five-year plan, modeling Stalin's Soviet model of industrial

development. While Mao had previously concentrated his energy on China's peasant population, he's now focusing on developing China into a modern industrial power. Propaganda told China's citizens that rapid industrialization was the only way to guarantee true economic independence That would allow China to fight imperialism and not totally wrong. Right? Had they not industrialized they would have been you know conquered much more easily Well, I mean they weren't conquered, but you know they could have been conquered Uh, this plan sets ambitious goals for industries and areas of production deemed priorities by Mao like steel coal and petrochemicals And you had to go along with this plan. Yay, one party system who controls everything.

Anything short of total acceptance of this plan was deemed counter-revolutionary. And if you were deemed counter-revolutionary, well, you were dead. The USSR gave China advice, logistics, even material support to help this plan move along. Several thousand Soviet engineers, scientists, technicians, and planners traveled to China. The first five-year plan would achieve its stated goals, increasing heavy industry, and stimulating the economy, but it came at a price. Like in the Soviet Union industrial development

came at the expense of agriculture. Grain output struggled to keep pace with population growth, jeopardizing food supplies. However, Chinese cities did flourish under this five-year plan. Urban populations increased from 57 million to 100 million, and life expectancy did rise from 36 to 57 years. Urban income has increased by 40%. Life early on with Mao did for sure improve for some. For many. Workplaces were organized on socialist principles. Urban industrial workers subsidized housing, medical care, educational facilities. Life for urban Chinese was tightly regimented by way of

Don Way, though, or work units. The Don Way provided the basic structure for labor and controlled many aspects of everyday life, including accommodation, education, and social services. Soon, people even had to consult their Don Way about marriage, about having kids, or about taking vacations. Alright, so as life improves initially for some, freedom starts to slip away, and the state expands its influence over citizens. In 1954, in 1955, the PRC writes its constitution, steps up the collectivation of agriculture. By 1956, economic reforms increased centralized state control in urban areas, private ownership has now become virtually impossible anywhere in China.

Approximately two-thirds of industrial enterprises are now state-owned. The remainder jointly owned between citizens in the state. Fun. Also, rigid central planning and national demands result in local needs being neglected, especially in the countryside. 84% of the population lived in rural areas, but 88% of the government's money is now going towards industrialization in cities. The same peasants, Mao had sworn the CCP would protect.

The peasants who had put Mao in power, now they're getting fucked again. This time by the communist instead of the landlords. Agricultural output plummets. Cities keep getting bigger. This is not a good recipe. Some people start to worry about the struggling countryside's ability to feed rapidly expanding cities and Mao is like, shut the fuck up! Things are fine!

Everything is fine! China is now facing regional food shortages and occasional famines. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to see here. There's a few people starving off to the side a little bit. Chinese government could have embraced new technologies and farming techniques, but they were being used, that were being used successfully elsewhere in Asia, but they choose not to. That wasn't part of the five year plan.

If, you know, if Moutin think of it, it wasn't a good idea. So Stalin's dead. Let me mention that. Yeah, he's totally dead now. He died a few years ago, so he's super dead. 1957, Nikita Khrushchev is running shit in Russia now. In 1957, in the wake of Kruchev's denunciation of Stalin and political explosions and Poland and Hungary, Mao calls for a hundred flowers movement to improve the relationship

between the CCP and the Chinese people. He doesn't want the Chinese people to turn on him for being a ruthless tyrant like the Russian people turned on Stalin after he died. Leaving Chinese intellectuals are invited to share their criticism of Mao's reforms. Can Marxism be criticized? Mao would ask. Certainly it can. Marxism is scientific truth and fears no criticism. If it did, and if it could be overthrown by criticism, it would be worthless. As we says, metaphor of the hundred flowers is intended to signify a hundred schools of thought,. If you think in, I don't

think this is going to end well. Ding, ding, ding, you are right. The campaign is publicly launched on February 27th, 1957 in a rambling speech on the correct handling of contradictions among the people. In this speech, Mao praises unity of China and the new regime's achievements and then the criticism Mao asks for comes and it is not good. It is widespread and vitriolic. Giant posters appear across the country criticizing CCP officials, including Mao. Students and lecturers openly denounce the party. They attack the very legitimacy of the CCP's rule in China. Millions of letters, poor inter-government offices, venting criticism about everything

from the lateness of public transport to Mao's personal conduct eek, as in the May 4th movement of 1919 some of the strongest criticism comes from China's university students in Beijing and Mao not surprisingly not real happy about all this. And now he knows who his critics are they've just out of themselves. So many had just out of themselves. June 1957 editorial makes an edit to the Hundred Flowers Campaign, under the guise of simply republishing Mao's original speech. But this time, the speech has been edited

to say that not all contradictions will be tolerated. Ha ha ha. Anyone paying attention is a fucking nervous now. He just pulled a real scary JK. Then a year after the 100 Flowers campaign begins, Mao brings it to an end. Mao's new line of thinking will go something like this. What should our policy be towards non-Marxist ideas?

As far as unmistakable counter-revolutionaries and sapetures of the socialist cause are concerned that matter is easy. We simply deprive them of their freedom of speech, he says, oh shit. Anyone paying attention now is shit from being nervous to fucking scared, guessing some pants getting pooped in. A purge of political opposition will follow. A campaign called the anti-rightist campaign purges intellectuals

and others, those who had voiced the very criticism Mao had literally asked for. What a piece of shit. Some think he never cared about any genuine feedback. The whole thing was a ruse to just out to centers. Mao himself would later claim this was a trick, saying he didn't dice the snakes out of their caves. Between 300,000 and 550,000 individuals identified as righteous, most of them intellectuals, academics, writers, and artists are publicly discredited, lose their jobs,

some are forced into labor camps, and some of course are killed. In December of 1957, Mao announces his new plan. He calls it the great leap forward and it will be the shittiest plan yet. It's essentially a second five year plan designed to improve the economic prosperity for the PRC. There's two objectives. The first is speed up China's creation of an industrialized economy, catch up with the West. The second to further transform China into a collective I society where according to Mao Miles Virgin of Marxist theory, people's work, production,

and personal lives will be completely informed, i.e. controlled by the government. Cooperatives and collectivization has been encouraged during the mid-1950s, but it wouldn't be until the great leap forward that the people's communes truly became the government's official policy. Private property has finally been completely abolished. And in some places, so is currency. You don't need money. The state will provide everything. Some of this have been going on prior to 1957.

It just wasn't being prioritized. Peasant families organized into cooperatives of 100 to 300 households. According to a CCP propaganda jingle from the late 1950s, communism is a paradise and people's communes are the way to get there. I don't know the rhythm. Cult, cult, cult, get to the compound. On these collective farms, production, resource allocation, food distribution, entirely controlled by the communists, land plots, farm buildings, tools, livestock, relinquished

to the government. The leadership of people's communes becomes fanatical about implementing governmental policy, increasing production, meeting targets, outdoing other communes. They demand a regimented, practically militarized lifestyle to conform with these expectations, expectations that often exceed what is possible.

Officially, everyone's supposed to get at least six hours sleep every two days, how fucked up is that? Come on, we're nice, we're gonna be cool, we're gonna give least six hours sleep every two days. How fucked up is that? Come on. We're nice. We're gonna be cool. We're gonna give you six hours sleep every other day. Some brigades though now boast of working up to four or five days straight without stopping. Yay!

Communism. The stable take care of you. It'll give you everything you need. And what you need is to fucking work you piece of shit! Sleep what are you? Some kind of capitalistic cry, baby. The other features of communal living include collective childcare nursing homes communal kitchens Cooking at home is banned now as the communal dining hall will allow the government to control all aspects of food distribution and

Consumption you want to eat at home with your family? Nope, you don't have a home anymore. Fuck your family. Where your family you capitalistic pig? Sleeping in the sleep hall eating the food hall the fuck hall, be a good red dog. Food allocations intend to last for a week, sometimes disappear in a day. People don't know where they're gonna get their meal next. By late 1958, the entire Chinese countryside has been divided, organized in 2000s and thousands of communes.

Mao wants to maximize production of both grain and steel, farms and mines. Thanks for putting me in charge, peasants, now back to work. China tosses out a fun national slogan to make people feel good about all this. Dare to think, dare to act. Except don't think, just act. Just let us do the thinking and you act like you're fucking enjoying this. This time the CCP will initiate some new farming technology, sort of large scale irrigation

projects with little input from actual trained engineers begin. Experimental oftentimes, unproven new agricultural techniques are quickly introduced around the country and they don't work. The result is declining crop yields from failed experiments. Uh, check out this is the dumbest one. Check out this awesome plan they enacted. I can't believe this is real.

I swear to God, this is real. The four pest plan. This is my favoriteest one. Check out this awesome plan they enacted. I can't believe this is real. I swear to God, this is real. The four PES plan. This is my favorite part of this. Mal launched a nationwide campaign to exterminate all mosquitoes as PES one, House flies as PES two, Rodents as PES three, and then PES four, Sparrows.

Seriously, as in birds. Those little birds, he wanted all of them dead. He didn't do too well when it came to mosquitoes and house flies because you know they're fucking hard to get rid of. Same for rats, but he did pretty well with the sparrows too well. He believed the sparrows were a major pest when it came to grain crops. He declared and I am being serious quote, birds are public animals of capitalism. He's insane.

That's such a fucking stupid statement. I don't even know where to begin picking it apart. Millions and millions of Chinese get to Sparrow hunting. Sparrow nests are destroyed. Eggs are broken. Chicks are killed. Millions of people are organizing the groups. And they're just walking around hitting noisy pots and pans over and over to prevent the Sparrow from being able to rest in their nests with the goal of causing them to drop dead from exhaustion. And this insane plan actually works. So much what the fuck here. Soldiers and citizens are shooting birds down from the sky, they're hitting with rocks, sticks, whatever, and they kill almost all of the sparrows

in all of China. And then realize, oh shit, sparrows eat locusts and locusts do way more damage to crops and sparrows. Fuck, Q massive locust swarms that then eat the shit out of the crops all over China. Mal tried, Mal then tries to swap out the fourth pest. He's like, I say sparrows, I was kidding around. I meant bedbugs.

Come on, give her the bedbugs. He really did try to swap his habiters too late. Green production falls so sharply. Hundreds of thousands soon die from forest labor trying to protect the remaining crops. Fam and quickly sets in resulting in millions of deaths, millions of people starred because this dumb fuck thought it would be a great idea to kill the goddamn birds. Birds, he said, were public animals of capitalism. It's so stupid. This is literally one of the dumbest historical tragedies I've ever read about. People, oh my God, they resorting out

to eating tree bark and dirt, trying to stay alive. It's hell on earth. In some areas, they resort to cannibalism. I watched a documentary where survivors told tales about stuff like a little boy eating his brother to survive. Mal, of course, denies the situation to parties fault. As more people starve,

Mal's regime desperately tries to stop the bleeding, makes things worse. Farmers who failed to meet irrational grain quotas now, farmers who eat more than the government, a lot of them to eat, to try not to starve. Farmers who try to get more food, who try to flee China, because it's a fucking dumpster fire right now, get tortured and killed, as well as their families.

Mao's thugs want to send a strong message. All right, I listen to crazy tales of kids who are being tossed off cliffs, kids being shot, all kinds of horrible stuff, all because they were starving. starving they got caught eating food they weren't supposed to be eaten or because their parents had broken some dumb rule people are publicly mutilated buried alive, scalded with bowling, boiling water, etc. The more people to die the more Maoist government tries to keep increasing production demands. In 1957 the annual steel production target is 5.35 million tons and then then in May of 1958, he's like, nah, 10.7 million tons.

His demands are not based in reality. They're based in just what he wanted. And then people die when they, of course, they can't meet his insane demands. This is how crazy he is. Like say you're married. And say your wife, husband, partner, whatever makes $50,000 a year. They've never made more than that before in their entire life. And then on New Year's Eve, you tell them, Hey, this next year, I need to make at least $100,000

or I'm gonna fucking kill you. And then when they don't make that money, you actually do kill them. That's what Mao was doing, but to a nation. Mao wanted China's steel production to match the USSR as by 1960, then to overtake Britain's steel production shortly thereafter, and he was willing to kill millions to try and do this. Large scale projects to increase industrial production are introduced to cities, backyard steel furnaces are built on farms and in urban neighborhoods. They don't work. The backyard steel industry produces largely useless low quality pig iron, existing metal equipment, tools, household goods are confiscated, melted to fuel additional production still doesn't work. They come nowhere near their goals because their goals are stupid. Their goals were set by a lunatic who had them kill all the sparrows. Due to the failures in planning and coordination,

the resulting material shortages, the massive increase in industrial investment and reallocation of resources results in no corresponding increase in manufacturing outputs. Also, all the people who had moved the cities to work in industrial development put an additional strain on food distribution and the collective farms, which leads to more starvation, the great leap forward is a massive fuck up. It becomes most known for the great Chinese famine.

Tens of millions dying to the few years. Estimates of the total loss of life that can be attributed to these policies range from 15 to 55 million deaths. Mao's policies lead directly to the worst famine in human history. Farmland damaged by terrible agricultural practices, densely wooded areas are now completely barren. The trees have been cut down to fuel inefficient steel furnaces. People's homes have been torn down to fuel inefficient steel furnaces. People's homes have been torn torn down during these years. Their material used for steel mills or for communal compound construction.

By 1961, with a second plan was over, 30 to 40 percent of China's homes have been demolished. Things got so bad that many high ranking CCP members are now telling Mao that he needs to make some changes. And he doesn't like that. So he kills him. Defense minister, Peng, Dehawai, his purge in August of 1959. So are many allies of his and the party. During the summer of 1959, Mao makes it known that any person that shared a similar view to Peng Dehawai

and his followers will meet the same fate. Mao starts to get really paranoid by the early 60s. He knows he's fucked up. People are talking about him. So he starts killing more and more people. More and more people getting purged, suspected of being dissidents. Oh man.

Finally, Mount decides to reverse some of his policies. He starts to allow people to keep a private plot of land again so they can grow their own food. He gives peasants eight hours off a day. They only have to work 16 hours a day now. What a peach. Now let's back up a few years, check in with Mother Russia. 1958, Soviet leader now. Let's back up a few years checking with mother Russia

1958 Soviet leader Khrushchev makes a visit to China this visit will bring back bad memories for Mao Of how he'd been treated by Stalin when Mao visited the USSR still pissed about being insulted So he decides to insult Khrushchev such a smart noble leader Mao puts Nikita Khrushchev in a room with no air conditioning during a humid Beijing summer leader. Mao puts Nikita Kruchef in a room with no air conditioning during a humid Beijing summer. Then when talks begin the next morning, Mao flatly refuses to agree to a Soviet proposal for joint defense initiatives. At one point, leaving up and waving a finger, Kruchef's face. He chained smokes, knowing Kruchef hates smoking. He treats a Soviet counterpart the leader of a more powerful nation by far at this time, according to one biographer,

like a particularly dense student. He's the best. He's the leader for China to be proud of. After all this, Mao suggests that the meeting between him and the Keta moved to his private residence inside the Communist Party's inner sanctum, this luxury compound. Mao shows up to this meeting dressed in a bathrobe and slippers, then has an aide produce a pair of green bathing trunks for cruise chef. Mao insisted his guest join him in the pool knowing that cruise chef can't swim. Now has an aid bring him some little water wings meant for a child not insulting or disrespectful at all. cruise chef puts on these little water wings after after considerable exertion the Soviet leader is able to kind of get moving quote paddling like a dog in a desperate attempt to swim

with Mao. A Russian aid present will later say it was an unforgettable picture. The appearance of two well-fed leaders in swimming trunks, discussing questions of great policy under splashes of water. This meeting may have had something to do with the deterioration of the relationship between China and the USSR that will follow. On Khrushchev's next visit to Beijing in 1959, he's insulted further. There's no honor guard to greet him as was customary, no welcoming speech. He doesn't even get a microphone for his own speech. They don't give him a mic.

Things devolved into a shouting match. He goes home pissed. In July of 1960, the key to Kruishan for move Soviet advisors from China. By 1966, the two sides are fighting a barely-contained border war. They're no longer allies now is not has not only created the worst family history the world is also

cost china it's most important and most powerful ally by far in the summer of nineteen sixty the government orders an official investigation to results of the great leap forward far from surpassing the west in terms of productivity china was now importing large amounts of food from the west to feed villagers. When they look into this, you know, greatly forward and they try and find out, you know, whose fault it was, they decided it was just a natural disaster. Nothing could be done. Now let's talk for a second about how gross Mao was. In addition to doing really stupid shit like mass murdering sparrows. In addition to doing really evil shit, like tricking people into speaking out against him,

and then ruining their lives and or killing them, hit some very nasty hygiene habits. Didn't brush a teeth. It was one of those weird quirks. He didn't brush a teeth and said he rinsed his mouth with tea and chewed leaves, which is not the same. If you know anything about oral healthcare, this left the chairman supposedly with green rotting teeth and gums that were often infected and sometimes allegedly even oozed pus. He's their leader. When encouraged by a physician to brush chairman Mao would respond, does a tiger brush his teeth? Okay, okay.

I mean, that's true. They also don't live as long. Mao don't need the same kind of foods. Mao also considered bathing to be a waste of time, quote, he would swim and receive rubdowns with hot, with hot towels instead. Is this guy related to the last week's Dirty Serial Killer?

Is he a victim? Is he dong Chinese for Pickedin? Mao also suffered from severe constipation throughout his life, and he apparently made his wife, help him get the poop out by reaching into his butt hole with the fingers and tickling out those turds. Not kidding. Eventually she learned how to perform

animals and began administering animals to him. What a great noble, magnanimous leader. Someone to be proud of. On January 5th, 1964, this fucking weirdo has a book published. This obvious genius decides that all of China's citizens should bathe in the continual glory of his wisdom. That, if they must read, they should read his undeniably wise and timeless thoughts. Mouth's ideas are illustrated, very clearly in a book titled quotations from Chairman Malzay Dung Straight forward title The book is more commonly known as Mal's little red book because the most popular versions were printed in small sizes They could be easily carried and were bound in bright red covers. It was basically Mal's versions of Hitler's mine comp

And he would have more than a billion copies printed But seriously and again given out making it the most widely published, you know of Hitler's mind comp. And he would have more than a billion copies printed. Seriously. And given out making it the most widely published, you know, one of the most widely published books of all time, not because it was so popular, you know, some of you wanted to buy it because he insisted that people have it. The initial publication covered 23 topics with 200 selected quotations by the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. During China's coming cultural revolution, it will become virtually mandatory to own and carry one. The little red book in its later version will contain 267 statements from Mao covering subjects like class struggle, correcting mistaken ideas,

the mass line, Mao's term for the process of consulting the masses, interpreting their suggestions within the framework of Marxism and then enforcing the resulting policies. Including the book is Mao's famous remark that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Okay? Mao's Ministry of Culture aims to distribute a copy to every Chinese citizen, printing houses are built all over China to do this.

Mao himself reportedly felt his ideas in the book were on par with or superior to the ideas of Confucius. And of course, it was off limits to criticize this book in any way. Here's a notable quote about communism. We communists are like seeds and the people are like the soil. Wherever we go, we must unite with the people, take root and blossom among them. Also wrote about criticism saying, this democratic method of resolving contradictions among the people was epitomized in 1942 in the formula unity, unity to elaborate it means starting from the desire for unity resolving contradictions through criticism or struggle and arriving at a new unity on a new basis

In our experience, this is the correct method of resolving contradictions among the people Uh-huh, uh-huh, that is not exactly how Mao and the party handled criticism as you know More accurate quote would be the communist way to resolve contradictions is for me to tell everyone what is right and see who agrees and then kill any motherfucker who does it. That is Chairman Mao's way. There is that way and then there is death. October 1964, the PRC detonates its first nuke. That's fun. Glad this guy has nuke's. Can't brush his teeth, but he has nukes. Between 1966 and 1976, some historians say the real thrust was between 1966 and 1969. Mao leads the great proletarian cultural revolution.

And you can bet your sweet ass. This is gonna be wonderful. Things are gonna work out really well for a whole bunch of people. Mao is frustrated by the CCP's bureaucracy and the lack of revolutionary commitment he perceives in the party. At least that's what he said in regards to why he launched launches new proclaimed revolution.

In reality, it was just on the purge. The cultural revolution centered around the destruction of the four olds. Old ideas, old culture, old customs, old habits, kind of egg. Easier to bend it around, you know, come up with more excuses to kill people. Another slogan would be used to illustrate the will of the party. Smash the four olds. And people would get smashed, illustrate the will of the party, smash the four olds and people would get smashed Mostly a lot of old people The slogan encouraged young activists to destroy anything the state regarded as old

This is insane again in Western minds many would later remember seeing images of the media in the media of young Chinese activists destroying temples Practicing religion will kind of tolerate before now completely condemned as the movement escalates many older people as well as intellectuals and artists who would somehow manage to survive the beginning of mouser rain are physically abused and or murdered now encourages attacks he wants to reassert his authority after the great leap forward blunder communes and the great leap had not gone far enough he now writes they were two week when it came to suppressing counter revolutionaries. The new revolutionary organization our committees consisting of four or former party

codraised young activists and representatives of the People's Liberation Army. They would remain in place until two years after Mao's death and at first they were largely controlled by the army. Millions of young people known as the infamous red guards are mobilized in this way to carry out havoc. They are Mao's shock troops and they go fucking nuts. The red guard persecuted tortured and killed hundreds of thousands if not millions of Chinese who were deemed class enemies. Just being old could make you a class enemy. Estimates of the death toll in the cultural revolution including civilians and red guards

vary greatly ranging from hundreds of thousands to twenty million. Mao centered the early phases of the revolution on China schools. In the summer of 1966, the Communist Party leadership proclaimed it's some of China's educators or members of the exploiting class. And they were poisoning students with their capitalist bullshit ideology. The leadership gave the red guards the green light, carte blanche to deal with the fuck they ever whatever they wanted these educators punish them however They saw fit many of these people are forced into cow sheds they called them makeshift attention centers

But they were forced to perform manual labor recite Maoist tracks. They were regularly beaten often killed After a few months in the cow shed I could feel my emotions being dulled and my thoughts growing more stupid by the day right to peaking university professor G Jean-Jean, in his memoir, The Cowshed, he, his experiences during the time were a dizzying descent into hell, he wrote, and they were not uncommon. G and other sometimes very elderly professors and teachers were beaten, spit upon, tortured,

at rallies and criticism sessions. It would last for hours. One former elite red guard leader, Jean Zio-Alu said on August 19th, I organized a meeting to criticize the leaders of the Beijing education system. A rather serious armed struggle broke out. At the end, some students rushed on stage and used leather whips. Oh, no, I'm sorry, leather belts to whip some of the education officials, including the

party secretary of my school. Jen says the situation spiraled out of control. The school's party secretary, the school's party secretary later committed suicide and a vice secretary was permanently crippled as a result of these beatings. The same summer, Chairman Mao meets with crowds of frenzied red guards in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, endorses their violent tactics, including manual beatings and beatings with clubs, other blunt instruments. In August and September 1966, a total of over 1700 people are beat to death and Beijing alone. This is a shocking change in Chinese society

where according to Confucian principles, teachers and elders were once held in the highest esteem. Along with the horrors inflicted by the Red Guard, a host of CCP party veterans are also purged. So much purging, the campaign finally ends in 1976. In addition to all the unnecessary deaths, 10 years of turmoil, schools and universities essentially frozen from engaging in any kind of intellectual development, China is greatly set back as a nation. Their agriculture and industry is stagnant. While this is going on, Mao finds time to kick out

some fun propaganda. In 1966, when he 1973, it's reported that he plunged into the Yangtze River in swam 15 kilometers, or 9.3 miles in 65 minutes, according to the Chinese central government. That would mean that Chairman Mao swam a mile under eight minutes. When at that time, the world record was for a mile, swimming was 20 minutes. So pretty sweet. Too bad this guy couldn't have found time to compete in the Olympics. This obvious, greatest athlete in history could have won all the gold medals every Olympics. In October of 1971, the Peoples Republic of China replaces the Republic of China, the ousted nationalist government based in Taiwan in the UN Security Council.

This is a big international endorsement. It means it to the international community. Communist China is finally legit. They had not been seen as legit previous to this. February of 1972, US President Richard Nixon takes a trip to China. US China relations have been virtually non-existent since Mao took charge. This is big. Marx is signing that the Shanghai Communique, in which the US acknowledges the one China policy, which means that the Taiwan government is not a separate Chinese government, but falls under the PRC. The meeting with Nixon was one of Mao's last great public successes. Nearin 80 years of age, Mao begins to make less frequent appearances after this.

He retires from world record swimming, focuses on chewing tea leaves and getting his butt whole cleaned out with animals. He's also suffering the debilitating effects of Parkinson's disease. 1973, Chairman Mao offers to send 10 million women to the US, one of the last weird things he does. Publicly, Chairman believed his country was too poor to sustain, and they had an excessive number of women. And the US is like, thank you, but that's weird. That's real weird.

We're good. On September 9, 1976, Mao Zong dies. Mao Zedong dies after several heart attacks. When he died, Chairman Mao's body was involved, put on a display inside of a crystal coffin. You can go see it. If you can, you know, get yourself on the visitor list. At the Mausleyim of Mao, is a dong in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. That's fun.

By the end of his reign, Mao would oversee the slaughter and starvation of somewhere between 30 and 55 million people. He was a great leader! One of the best ever play the game. Mao's sudden death creates power struggle. His designated successor, Waku Feng, took over all the formal roles of leadership at face opposition from Mao's wife, Zhang Qing, and three of her allies. They'd become known as the Gang of Four. Waku Feng would popularize the slogan, smash the Gang of Four. They like to put the smash in tiles. The Gang of

Four were associated with the excesses of the cultural revolution and were quickly arrested. And in true CCP style are purged. The purgers become the purged. Only one can sit on the iron throne. And the game of thrones are as one winner and death to the rest. The cultural revolution is brought to a swift end. Propaganda posters at the time for trade, Zhang Qing and her allies as traders, Zhang Qing or three allies eventually go on trial.

And the courtroom drama plays out in public TV. So it's fire exchanges between prosecutors and Jing Chang, who remains to find even as her former allies to announce her, all her given life senses, and then Jing Chang or Zhang Qing, so I'm sorry, commits suicide in 1991. While already premiered, now become chairman of the CCP, chairman of its military affairs commission, thus officially succeeds.

Mal. The reforms of Mal's shit policies now begin. 1977, Walgwe Fung initiates a new era of policy for China, starting with the open door policy, meaning open trade with the world. More open economic policies follow, a joint venture law, a law governing patents, new laws attract foreign capital. You know, an experiment with special economic zones along the southern coast in the late 70s leads in 1984 to a decision to open 14 cities to more intense engagement with the

international economy. Larger and larger sections of China open to foreign trade over the next decades. These zones become the engines driving China's enormous economic growth and the cities associated with their mushrooming size. Chenzhen, for example, grows from a town of only 30,000 and 1979 to 7,500,000 in about 30 years. Food shortages will vanish as foreign investment increases. Reform and opening up was the newest government slogan and policy revives agriculture.

Peasants allowed far greater choices in what crops to plant, many abandoned farming, to go into entrepreneurial ship, rural patterns of work, land leasing, wealth change markedly after 1978. Millions of political prisoners are freed from prisons and labor camps. Criticizing public policy no longer triggers extreme retaliation the role of the police force is cut back substantially younger better educated people committed to reformer brought into prominent government positions in short things get way fucking better when Mao dies because he was the piece of shit now that things are suddenly amazing reforms would increase stall over the decades to come with protesters emerging,

then being backed by the government, China's economy, booms, party leaders, tenuousy balance reform and authoritarianism. Whoo, let's hop out of this timeline now. Good job, soldier. You've made it back, barely. BAM! BAM!

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! So how is Mao regarded today? Outside of China? Not? Well, generally regarded as one of the worst motherfuckers of all time. The most common number assigned to Mao regarding how many deaths his policies were directly responsible for seems to be 45 million.

45 million of his own people. Hitler is assigned around 11 to 12 million non-combatant deaths. Stalin is assigned as few as 3 million and as high as 60 million non-combatant deaths. The most common number assigned is 9 million. 9 million, 12 million, 45 million, not even close. When it comes to non-combatant deaths, you know, not even Genghis Khan's armies killed as many people as Mao's stupid policies. Genghis Khan's armies sought to have killed around 40 million people, total including soldiers. This makes Mao Zedong the worst mass murderer of all time. How does China view him?

For many, he left a complicated legacy. The Chinese people's will to examine the cultural evolution emerged very quickly after Mao died in 1976. From 1977 to 1980, China allowed writers to explore at least part of the truth about what happened during Mao's reign. But then when they got a little too deep, the government's level of comfort in late 1980, China suddenly ruled the exposure

of the cultural revolution had gone far enough. Further probably might lead to public rejection of not only Mao, but of the Communist Party itself. That says so much. The government archives were closed. They remain closed to this day. The propaganda in China continues, which makes it obviously hard to see Mao for who he was for many in China.

Mao is still celebrated as one of the key figures in Chinese history, at least by the Communist Party. On the 120th anniversary of Mao's birth in 2012, current CCP chairman Z. Jinping called him a great patriot and national hero. President Biden just said at March 25th that GGPing doesn't have a democratic bone in his body. While not as ruthless as Mao was, GGPing still punishes dissent in China.

To an extent, we probably won't fully realize for many years. How can the average Chinese citizen really analyze how they feel about Mao if they're still afraid on some level to announce him if they're not allowed to learn enough about him? Let's recap all we've gone through today. It's a monster topic today, more ways than one. Today, we stuck Mao Zedong, his Chinese Communist Party, some of the moments that shaped Mao's reign of terror in the name of reform and revolution.

What a huge topic. One that continues to shape Chinese politics and society today. I've become into power by winning a very long, more than two decade long civil war with the opposing nationalist party, Mao instigates his great leap forward of five year plan of shit, forced agricultural collectivization,

rural industrialization, it results in a sharp contraction in the Chinese economy between 30 to 55 million die by starvation, execution, torture, and forced labor. It was the longest non-war time campaign of mass killing in human history. Some people resorted to cannibalism to survive. Mao's official goal was to rapidly evolve China from an agrarian economy into a modern industrial society with greater ability to compete with Western industrialized nations,

and it was a failure. You can't turn peasants into steelworkers overnight. Trying to maintain his position as a leader and Quellopposition Mao then started the Cultural Revolution. An army of students known as the Red Guard mobilized to fight against old traditions and ideas. All through it, Mao's China published propaganda, slogans, images of his face,

his little red book is published to maintain his tight grip on China. All of this had devastating effects both for the economy and for society. The only way out for China was to scale back their central planning, give people more economic and personal liberties, which thankfully they have done. But the one party system of China still exists with many worried that Z is simply following Let's head now to today's Top 5 takeaways. Number one, Mao was a Marxist communist. He believed in abolishing private property, communal living, central planning, state-run economics, and a single-party system.

He wanted to modernize China rapidly through top-down planning, but the Great Leap Forward did way more damage than it did good. Number two, Mao was often constipated. Truly. His wife had to pull the shit out of his butt, and later learned how to give him enemies, he was literally full of shit. Number 3, Mao had almost all of China's sparrows killed it arguably the most misguided attempt to increase agricultural output of all time.

With the birds gone, there were more locusts than ever, and thus a lot less crops. Environmentalism, not always a hippy talk. If we don't take care to protect nature, we will die. 4. We meet sacks need to honor debate in the diversity of ideas if we don't want to be like Mao. Don't be like Mao. Mao is able to mobilize an army of young people to fucking murder teachers, artists, intellectuals, and other people that didn't like Mao didn't think like Mao because he demonized other ideas as counter revolutionary. Number five, new info. Near the end of his life Mao praised ancient Qing Dynasty emperor, Shurwang D, and this

guy was interesting. While Shurwang D at age 13, when he formally ascended to the throne in 246 BCE, his first act as king was to execute his mother's lover who would join the opposition. He executed somebody right away. I wonder how like him. He was deeply interested in magic and alchemy and he traveled frequently to search for masters

in these arts who could provide him with the elixir of immortality in 2010 BCE. He would die on one such trip. One source indicates that he died by poisoning after drinking what he thought was the salixer. His son, Hu Hai, would take the throne for three years and would leave an interesting legacy of his own.

He was famous for killing messengers who brought him bad news. He is the origin of the saying don't kill the messenger. Time, suck, tough, five takeaways. Mouge, Adong. Oh, my God, it's Adong. Sucked. At least a little. My mouth is dead.

So much to pick from. It came to information this week. Oh, my God, my brain is shot. Thank you to the Bad Magic Productions team for all the help making Time, suck. I hope you enjoyed this one today. I learned so much. Queen of Bad Magic, Lindsey Cummins,

Reverend Dr. Jill Paisley, the Script Keeper, Zach Flannery, Sophie Fax, Sorceress Evans, Bidelixer, Logan the Art Warlock Keith, Running Bad Magic Merch.com, working on socials along with Liz Hernandez. Next week on Time, suck El Chapo, we bounced from China to Mexico. Look at one of the most powerful drug traffickers in modern history and a dude who pulled off one of the craziest prison breaks I've ever heard about. In July 2015, he escaped via a roughly mile-long tunnel that led to an entry under the shower of his cell. And this wasn't the first time this guy escaped.

He was taken out of prison in a laundry cart back in 2001. The leader of the, oh my gosh, Cena, Cena Loa, there we go. Cartel is in prison today, but for how long? I'll transition to more Spanish words next week And what did he do to get sent to prison the first place? Why did people work so hard to get him out twice a fun and different kind of true crime suck to dig into Pond not intended next week right now. Let's hear some time sucker updates I recorded this episode before last week's Pig Farmer killer suck, so no updates for that one yet. I'm going to start with an Alon school update this week.

Sweet Sac, Stephanie Kendrick writes, greeting suck master, stumbled upon the podcast years ago while listening to comedy stations on Pandora, quickly being hooked. Yes, writing because the last three episodes hit me more than the others. I figured it was the perfect time to drop a line. You know, somebody killer, I live in Santa Rosa, grew up in Northern California, so it was cool to know all the locations you were mush-mouthing about in,

or throughout the episode. Pop award, hit me in the fields. My pop was the best man I've ever known. Ah, carrying hardworking, a vet was never far from a keystone or an ice cold keystone light. That's hilarious. He passed about five years ago. I still think about him and missing every day. Also, how bad ass is your grandma?

I thought I was a rock star for having an unmedicated birth, but she takes it to a new level. Along school, my younger brother was sent off to one of these schools when he was 16, the Horizon Academy near Vegas. He was kind of a punk, getting into trouble, overwhelmed my parents. They were convinced this place would offer counseling, structure, and help until this episode. I never really asked or talked to my brother about his experience, but got the opportunity this weekend. He said it was awful.

Insane levels that were impossible to maintain, uh, rules that made no sense, no social interaction, punishments for even looking at other people, no letters that we sent in or he sent out were ever not altered. Even the letter my mom wrote, letting him know about our grandfather passing was whittled down to one sense. My parents were required to go to seminars, pay more money for those, my parents had to take out loans, well over $60,000 for him to be there, and he didn't even come out with as much as a GED. These places create false hope and desperate parents and cause students pain and distrust. Thank you for covering the subject because I may never have sat and actually listened to my brother's experience.

I always thought he was being defined, just trying not to communicate with us while there. I feel like I was talking about it, helped our relationship. I hope you made it this far down, not sorry for the length, love all the three podcasts, three out of five stars for show. Thank you, Stephanie. Ah, that was all awesome information. I appreciate that. I'm so glad you and your bro are closer now.

That's awesome. Now for an interesting, you know, Semite killer suck update coming in from knowledgeable sack Jordan Ferguson who writes, hello everyone of the sucked engine. I really enjoyed the most recent episode of Time Suck. I had a chime in about the whole big foot fetish, the Kerry Stainer Hat.

At one point, you mentioned that Kerry's mother and a bid to find solace joined the LDS Church. There is some little-known Mormon folklore to the outside world that some Latter-day Saints believed that Bigfoot is not only real, but that he is Cain, the famed brother killer of Genesis from the Bible. Thankfully, very few believe this claim, but it comes from a letter sent by one of the first apostles

of the Church, later quoted in a book, but it comes from a letter sent by one of the first apostles of the church later quoted in a book That was required reading for a time by missionaries of the church the miracle of forgiveness by Spencer Kimball I won't quote it here But I will provide you with a link that talks about the quote from the letter I wonder if Carrie had accompanied his mom to a meeting and someone had mentioned it to him And that's part of why he believed in Sasquatch was such a vigor Though there are many non-LDS people who believe in to be real so so most likely this is conjecture on my part. When I was young like 10, I kind of believed the story, but as I got older, it made zero sense for me for a number of reasons,

but more than any because we have no scientific proof of Sasquatch, like you talked about way back in the Sasquatch versus Nessie Episod. Anyway, here's your link, which has some more links. Anyway, if this gets right on the air, give a huge shout out to my buddy if you could who infect me with space list, right, is Spencer and 3 out of 5 stars. Wouldn't change a thing. Thanks, Lister Jordan. I look to your link, Jordan. That is very interesting. That was part of an old LDS lore.

Yeah, who knows? If you got it from there or not, but it's just interesting to know that it's in there. And yeah, yeah, and I believe this Sasquatch is a kid too. I still would love to know that he's real. I mean, it's hard to believe it, but awesome. And yes, Spencer, thanks for turning Jordan on to the suck. All right, now for another Grandparent tribute inspired by the Pop-Award suck, sent him by Topshell, Sack, Robert Phillips, who writes,

Dear Suck Master, damn you, for making me cut onions on my drive to work this morning. I'm a long time fan of your stand-up. I've been hooked on the sucks since 2018. I was listening to this episode in your Grandport award about how your grandparents had such a huge impact on you Made me reflect on the influence my own grandparents had Specifically my maternal grandfather grandpa Jack like your grandpa mine was a hard work of man a man a few words Choosing them carefully. You love my grandma traveling in his motor home would working in his family He was a perfectionist and all that he did probably because he was was an aerospace engineer, so not a lot of room for error.

My older sister and I spent a lot of time on my grandparents farm, three acres and one horse grown up, and I spent almost all of my time following Grandpa around. He taught me how to fix everything from cars to furniture to fences. He also taught me respect, kindness to value of work while also nurturing my mechanical aptitude. I first got interested in cars because of him and now I am the lead technician of the dealership. His example truly influenced the man I am today. I spent a lot of time in the barn just watching, holding things, grabbing tools as he would build whatever shelf or frame or a new saddle rack, Grandma wanted. She'd always tell him it doesn't have to fly, Jack.

Just make the damn thing. That's a great quote. He helped design and build some benches for my Eagle Scout project. It was during that build back in 2003. The grandma I noticed this one sharp man had lost his step. Wasn't long after he got lost one day out on a drive and couldn't tell us where he was nor could he get home. For the next seven years we watched a one strong sharp hardworking man become a shell of his former self due to Alzheimer's. Let me just say fuck that disease and the horse it wrote in on. Watching someone you love change,

forget slowly die before your eyes is the most painful thing in the world. My grandpa died in March of 2010. When you started choking up about your grandpa, that's right, I remember my allergies got weird for a second. I couldn't help tearing up myself a bit. Hell, I'm tearing up right in this to you now. I regret not telling him how much he meant to me,

how much of an impact he made on me, even how much I loved him before he slipped away. You're right about grabbing onto those grandparents, tell him how much he meant to me, how much of an impact he made on me, even how much I loved him before he slipped away. You're right about grabbing onto those grandparents, tell them how much they mean. My grandma died in 2018, and you better believe she knew how much I loved her. Sorry not sorry for this medium length email, but I just wanted to add another voice to the tell people you love them because life is short-group. Thanks for what you do. Thanks for reminding me of one of the many great meat sacks who made me the man I am today. PSL left so hard at your burly one arm Swedish great uncle who took up woodworking and lost fingers.

Why would you go near a saw after that? You idiot. Sorry I'm done. Yeah, Robert. No, yeah, right. No one will ever understand why he fucking went near a saw after that. And I loved hearing about your grandpa, man. Grandpa Jack, that's awesome.

Thank you for sharing his life. And one more now. This is a long ass episode. So much, but I love it. Now at the next year, I'm Colt Suck update from Colt Close Encanntering Sack, Frank Conklin. Who writes, hello master of the Suck, but Jangle's chew toy. Sorry not sorry about the length of the email,

but I figured you wanna hear this craziness. I'm originally from Upstate New York, around Albany. My mom still lives there. I offhandedly mentioned to her that I recently listened to a podcast about a cult that started in Clifton Park and how I was surprised that I had never heard about it while living in New York.

She asked me, do you mean the next-yam cult? I said, yes, then she dropped to bombshell on me. We were heavily involved with Keith Frenary's Ponzi MLM scheme. My mom was hired by Reneerie to be his personal secretary, holy shit. Then after working for him a bit and a few others, he tried recruiting her into the inner circle, but she was apparently not, or he was apparently not satisfied with her answers

to their questions about joining the inner circle or something along those lines because they quickly backed off that attempt and Keith made her the head of shipping in Clifton Park instead. Later after Rineri is arrested and everything, this evil scum fuck did. off that attempt and Keith made the head of shipping in the clip in Clifton Park instead. Later after Reneerie is arrested and everything, this evil scum fuck did, my mom figured out he was trying to get her to join the sex cult. Holy shit. My mother told me that both my

sister and I met Reneerie several times. I do not remember this. And then he was always cordial and professional with her. When the federal government brought charges against Reneerie several others, my mom had to give a des a deposition on what happened at the Clifton Park office. She feels bad for Reneerie's victims because if she would have known the evil shit he was doing she would have definitely notified the authorities. Thank you for everything you and the time suck crew do to keep this truck driver entertained while traveling long distances between deliveries and keep on

sucking Frank Conklin holy shit Frank. I got man. Fucking drive safe first, all those drives. And that's crazy that your mom almost got recruited into this ex cult for next year. My god, I love these connections. Eeeh, and I lied. We have one more now. I'm sorry. I'll, I'll, I'll feel terrible if I don't do this because then I'll, I'll, I'll lose it and won't ever get on a suck. Ending now on a solid dad warning from concerned sucker Dr. Melissa Tollios. Hello suck master and the whole sucking crew she writes. I heard you're at for dad watch

and I'd really like to join in a cyst. You see my own father passed away in January 2020, while I was two states away fulfilling my PhD residency requirement for cultural studies and anthropology. My father was a real mother sucker and his past he made me realize I don't know much about his sucking whereabouts

for the past few decades. Maybe he helped Albert Fish find the right sucking contacts, or he might have tried to help Cole Bird's in the great war of the, uh, Emu suck it, or maybe he helped cover up the Armenian genocide, and that's why known as ever heard of it. My point is you're absolutely right. We don't know where our sucking fathers might have been, or in what ways they may have been sucking at the time. I can't ask my father now, but my PhD program has taught me to be magnificent at research. So I now fully intend to explore each day in my dad's sucky life and see what kind of suckity was getting into. Thanks for opening my eyes to the importance of this research and showing me that just because we don't have any proof that doesn't mean we can't suspect or theorize that

roles our fathers might have played in history. Praise good boy, football jangles. Be not gone loose of being a hallowed Nimrod and for suck say keep on sucking you beautiful mother suckers. Dr Melissa Tolios. You're right Dr. Tolios, we don't know. Sorry about your loss and best of luck with your research. When you're done researching your dad, please look into mine.

So many fucking questions. That's all for today you guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for listening to another Bad Magic Productions podcast, Meat Sex. Please don't take over any nations this week and kill millions of important birds and cause millions to starve. Just instead,, why don't you just keep on sucking? Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

Oh shit. I don't know how to turn the cameras off. God dang it. I killed all the employees here to save money. I wasn't thinking about that they do a lot of stuff. I produce all the podcasts. I'm happy that I saved the money, but now I can't give fucking show-out. I came and turned these cameras off. God dang it.

Ah, man, I wish I could... It's so hard to unkill somebody. I wonder if I threw Joe's corpse against the cameras. Maybe. Oh fuck. I know how Mao felt about those birds. the so a half

of the I think of all the words okay today that's good What are you guys think about food? Like food, I'm hungry. I just, I don't know. Yeah. I just slowly get out of here. you