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Guest Thinkers

Mao’s Great Famine

The unspoken history of China: "Between 1959 and 1962, at least forty-three million Chinese died. Most died of hunger, over two million were executed or were beaten or tortured to death."

“In brutal fact, between 1959 and 1962, at least forty-three million Chinese died during the famine Snow didn’t bother to see. Most died of hunger, over two million were executed or were beaten or tortured to death, the birth rate halved in some places, parents sold their children, and people dug up the dead and ate them. The cause of this disaster, the worst ever to befall China and one of the worst anywhere at any time, was Mao, who, cheered on by his sycophantic and frightened colleagues, decreed that before long China’s economy must overtake that of the Soviet Union, Britain and even the US.”


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