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| 02/29/1972 |
Daily plans for the first three weeks and commentary about these plans at three grade levels: primary (K–2), middle (3–4), and upper (5–6)
As China prepares to mark the 90th anniversary of its Communist Party on July 1, there are signs of a new ideological struggle over former leader Mao Zedong's legacy.
It's been nearly 35 years since the death of Chairman Mao, and the official verdict is that Mao was 70 percent right and 30 percent wrong. That assessment is controversial, given the tens of millions of deaths Mao caused through economic mismanagement and political terror.
Now an 82-year-old reform-minded economist, Mao Yushi (no relation to the former leader), has reopened the debate over the chairman inside China. In a bold essay, he wrote that Chairman Mao should not be viewed as a god any longer.
"The three biggest murderers of the 20th century are Hitler, Stalin and Mao Zedong. That's commonly accepted among historians outside China, and Mao killed the most people. They're seen as representatives of evil," he told NPR. "But in China, Mao's portrait is still in Tiananmen Square. If China wants to develop further, it needs to distinguish between basic right and wrong."
Reformist Mao Yushi, 82, has caused a storm with his latest essay criticizing Chairman Mao. But he would welcome a court hearing. "It wouldn't be me on trial, it would be Chairman Mao on trial," he says.
The website's [Utopia]founder, Fan Jinggang, 34, also started a bookshop specializing in the works of Mao, as well as Cu ltural Revolution-era films and biographies of leaders like Hugo Chavez. Fan says Mao Yushi has gone too far.
"[Mao Yushi] represents those Western imperialist powers and China's landlord class that were chased out at the founding of new China," Fan says. "Their common trait is they oppose the People's Republic of China, and China's socialist system."
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