Mao's Criticism Of The Hundred Flowers Campaign

Mao tse-tung brought the communist revolution to China and gained political though the barrel of a gun. The Chinese system he overthrew nearly 50 years ago was backwards and corrupt. Few would argue the fact that he dragged China into the 20th century. But at a cost in human lives that is staggering. Suspected enemies of the party were murdered by the millions, farming collectives and the Great Leap Forwards of industrialization that failed miserably and left millions more died from starvation. Mao left a system of oppression that continues to this day even as China moves forwards with economic reforms and towards the central position on the world stage.
On December 26, 1893 Mao was born to a peasant family in Shaoshan, here he was only able to receive minimal education before he left home to complete his academic training in the Hunanese capital of Changsha. After graduation from the Hunan First Normal School, Mao was employed at Beijing …show more content…
By slaughtering over 2 million feudal landlords, Mao was able to reclaim, and equally redistribute land as people 's communes, vastly improving China’s overall living condition. However in the city’s, intellectuals opposed the revolution. Mao, sensing the disquiet, and in 1956, launched the "Hundred Flowers Campaign" inviting intellectuals to suggest criticism. “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend” is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land. (slogan used in One Hundred Flowers campaign, 1956) However, this proved to be a feint. Any criticism was used as an excuse to publically humiliate or execute “Anti-revolutionaries.” This drive to expose the opposition killed millions, and became mania among youths who were inculcated to denounce any adults who may harbour ‘rightest’ beliefs. Mao’s image was plastered everywhere, and he became revered as China’s supreme