Mao's Legacy Flashcards
1
Q
How did China benefit from Mao’s rule?
A
- China became a unified country.
- China became a great power. China acquired nuclear weapons and entered the space race.
- there was progress towards greater equality for women.
- China’s population became better educated and more healthy.
- Food production, particularly grain, kept pace with the rapid increase the population; apart from the GLF.
- Improved communications enabled food to be moved from regions where there was a surplus to regions where there were shortages.
- China experiences significant industrial development. Steel production tripled between the 1950s and the 1970s.
2
Q
What were the costs of Mao’s rule?
A
- 10s of millions of deaths, either from famine or political attacks.
- ‘ends justify the means’
- human rights abuses; imprisonment without charge or trial, no right to appeal, no protection fro the law.
- No freedom of speech, conscience, assembly or protest.
- Cruel or unusual punishments, labour camps and torture.
- Policies of mass mobilisation and continuing revolution meant China could not progress any further in its economic development.
Policy of self-reliance increased China’s isolation cutting them off from the new ideas - Destruction of historical buildings.
