Mao, The Unknown Story - Chang & Halliday

Well, it has taken me 6 weeks to read and I feel exhausted! This book will probably permanently affect the way I view Mao and China. It is written with such attention to detail that at times it is hard not to feel bombarded with facts – which all point to Mao being a ruthless, self-serving and power-obsessed man. The details of “purges”, brutal killings, public executions and the complete disregard for the lives of the ordinary citizen remove any previous romanticism around “revolution”. The myth of the Long March, the exposed reliance on Moscow for Super-power status and the revealing of vast donations of scarce food to other communist countries (in affect condemning to poverty and death millions of Chinese) all challenge the official version of history. Chang estimates that over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao’s rule in peacetime – a mind-blowing number. I left the book with the view that even if Chang managed to get even half of her facts wrong, she leaves no room for sitting on the fence in regard to Mao and the suffering he caused to the majority of the Chinese people.