Summary of Frank Dikötter's Mao's Great Famine

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 After Stalin’s death in 1953, Mao was able to break free from his influence. He had no problems taking the money from the Russians, and used it to lead a ragged band of guerrilla fighters to ultimate power. However, he always kept his eye on the Russian funding.
#2 When Mao won the war against Chiang Kai-shek, he was given only $300 million in military aid over five years. He had to give up major territorial concessions, but he did obtain a treaty with the Soviet Union providing for mutual protection in the event of aggression by Japan or its allies.
#3 After Stalin’s death, Mao finally saw a chance to secure independence from the Kremlin and claim leadership of the socialist camp. He assumed that he was the leading light of communism, which was about to crush capitalism.
#4 Khrushchev was very critical of Stalin’s handling of Mao, and he resolved to put relations with Beijing on a new footing. He would be Mao’s benevolent tutor, steering the peasant rebel towards a more enlightened form of Marxism.

Sujets

• Asia
• China

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 09 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669352761
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Frank Dikötter's Maos Great Famine
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15 Insights from Chapter 16 Insights from Chapter 17 Insights from Chapter 18 Insights from Chapter 19 Insights from Chapter 20 Insights from Chapter 21 Insights from Chapter 22 Insights from Chapter 23 Insights from Chapter 24 Insights from Chapter 25 Insights from Chapter 26 Insights from Chapter 27 Insights from Chapter 28 Insights from Chapter 29 Insights from Chapter 30 Insights from Chapter 31
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

After Stalin’s death in 1953, Mao was able to break free from his influence. He had no problems taking the money from the Russians, and used it to lead a ragged band of guerrilla fighters to ultimate power. However, he always kept his eye on the Russian funding.

#2

When Mao won the war against Chiang Kai-shek, he was given only $300 million in military aid over five years. He had to give up major territorial concessions, but he did obtain a treaty with the Soviet Union providing for mutual protection in the event of aggression by Japan or its allies.

#3

After Stalin’s death, Mao finally saw a chance to secure independence from the Kremlin and claim leadership of the socialist camp. He assumed that he was the leading light of communism, which was about to crush capitalism.

#4

Khrushchev was very critical of Stalin’s handling of Mao, and he resolved to put relations with Beijing on a new footing. He would be Mao’s benevolent tutor, steering the peasant rebel towards a more enlightened form of Marxism.

#5

Mao’s economic policy, known as the Socialist High Tide, was halted in late 1956, at the second plenum of the party congress. The policy had quickly run into trouble, and famine appeared in some provinces.

#6

The collapse of the Hundred Flowers campaign in June 1957 confirmed the Chairman’s suspicion that rightist conservatism was the major ideological enemy, and that rightist inertia was behind the current economic stagnation. He wanted to revive the policies of the Socialist High Tide, which had been discredited by an outpouring of criticism from the very experts he had tried to court.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The launch of the first earth satellite, Sputnik I, was a shock to the United States. The second launch, of a much heavier satellite, carried the first living creature to travel around the earth through space: a dog named Laika.

#2

Mao was ebullient during the anniversary gala. He knew that his moment had come. He delivered the crucial support on which Khrushchev depended.

#3

Mao’s speech in Moscow was a mixture of flattery and insults towards Khrushchev. He said that the key point of the international situation right now was that the forces of socialism had become overwhelmingly superior to the forces of capitalism.

#4

Mao publicly took up Khrushchev’s challenge and announced that China would outstrip Britain within fifteen years. He spoke on the strength of considerable evidence, though.
Insights from Chapter 3

#1

In Moscow, Khrushchev had provided Mao with the ammunition to charge ahead. The sputnik demonstrated the ability of the relatively backward Soviet Union to take a lead over an economically advanced nation like the United States.

#2

Mao’s campaign to crack the whip and herd the planners on to the road to utopia was met with resistance from some of the provincial leaders. Mao’s verdict on those who opposed rash advance was that they were fifty metres away from the rightists.

#3

The leaders of the Communist Party were subjected to enormous pressure, and even for hardened men the stress was too much. Three days after Zhou made a self-criticism speech, Mao’s notion that mistakes made by the party should not be overemphasised was enshrined in the meeting’s manifesto.

#4

Zhou Enlai, China’s foreign emissary, had a talent for landing right side up. He was a smooth operator who was skilled at forging party unity. Mao had to keep him at bay as a potential contender for power, but he needed him to run the show.