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A Most Secret Tragedy
Keywords:
Tags: China,
Michael Fathers reviews two detailed accounts of Mao's Great Leap Forward. From 1958-62 Mao launched an effort to industrialize China in its effort to surpass Krushchev's effort to surpass the U.S. and western nations in one decade. Yang Jingsheng's account in the book 'Tombstone,' is a result of decades of research to find what happened during this period. He lost his own father to starvation during this period when all Chinese agriculture was forced into communes with communal living and communal kitchens. The result were disastrous as agricultural production suffered badly leading to famines and loss of an estimated 45 million lives. The policy was continued even as the result showed a looming disaster by 1959. It was only by 1962 that Mao was forced to accept the failure of the program. As an editor of Xinhua news agency, Jingsheng had access to accounts of waht happened in provincial documents and archives. The other book reviewed is 'The Great Famine' by Frank Dikotter which provides an illuminating account of what happened in these years. Dikotter says the final responsibility rested with Mao for calling for higher grain deliveries from the countryside at the height of the famine and for continuing the policy of force and coercion leading to starvation- he quotes Mao who said: "It is better to let half the people die so that the other half can eat their fill." The truth about this period was hidden by propaganda and the mistake accounts of westerners who visited China including Francois Mitterand till the 1990's. Jasper Becker, a former correspondent in China for the Guardian, gave one of the first accounts of what had happened in "Hungry Ghosts: China's Secret Famine" (1996). What shocked readers was the extent of the dead, the violence, and the fear of speaking out even after 30 years. The fear of speaking out is evidenced in the pen name Mo Yan of the Nobel prize winner in Literature for 2012 which means do not speak out in Chinese because his parents were from a more affluent farming family in the village. Mo Yan uses animal and fairy tale characters and Chinese history in his novels and stories including his effort to describe the behaviour of arrogant local officials. The chronology of this period also tells a story. China's Communists took control in 1949, the famine and violent repression to establish the commune system occured in 1958-1962 only 8 years later, and the Great Proleterian Cultural Revolution was launched by Mao in 1966 and was to last a decade till his death in 1979- a period which saw a new effort of upending of China's countryside to establish communism.
The Great Proleterian Cultural Revolution- upheaval in Mao's China 1966-1979
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Ji immigrated to the U.S. with his parents as the Japanese invaded China on the advice of Zhou Enlai. He studied in the U.S. and returned after 1949. Ji enrolled at Tsinghua University and became an interpreter for the Chinese leadership from 1954 to 1979, and was present with Chinese leaders in their meetings with U.S. leaders. His view of his life is that he just wanted to help the two countries live in peace.
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Mo Yan says he hopes dissident Liu Xiaobo is released soon. China's official media has given huge publicity on the award of the Nobel to Mo Yan. In his own writings Mo Yan has described the behaviour of powerful local officials in China.
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In a country run by the Communist party, without free expression, the problem of accountability is a severe one. It also endangers one-party rule as abuses of power accumulate and no way exists for people to ventilate their grievances.
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Efforts to get some form of political reform to the Chinese system. Liu's efforts seen by the government as an effort to overthrow the socialist system. This happens when that system has taken on many aspects of capitalism, and capitalism with few controls as long as it delivers growth. The best known dissident in China is a literature professor and has twice spent time in prison since the 1989 Tiananmen protests. The situation for dissidents and human rights in China during the last two decades of hyper-growth and state sponsored capitalism.
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Corruption, gangsterism, and abuse of power at the local level in China.
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Some things are reminiscent of when the Koumintang was in power. The perception still is that redress of grievances can be obtained in Beijing, even though the central governmet cannot control local corrupt officials.
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