26Mao's Tiger Extermination Program
Mao Zedong declared South Asian tigers as “enemies of the people” and as a result of several “anti-pest” campaigns that were launched by him, these animals were brought to the brink of extinction.
27. North Korea exists because Taiwan exists: China was prevented by the US 7th Fleet from invading Taiwan in June 1950, so Mao Zedong announced China would enter the Korean war with the invasion force originally intended for Taiwan, and by October this force saved North Korea from imminent defeat.
28. In 1956, Mao Zedong was so angry with Kim Il Sung that he told Moscow he might use the 400,000 Chinese troops still in North Korea to “help Kim Il-sung correct his mistakes,” a thinly veiled proposal to depose him. However, Mao later came to regard Kim as a loyal son, to the point of promising him that if the United States attacked the North, Kim could use China’s northeastern provinces as a rear area under his own command.
29. Mao Zedong killed anywhere between 40-70 million of his own people (as much as the Bubonic plague, which is more than Hitler and Stalin combined) and yet is still considered one of the most important individuals in modern world history.
30. Tian Han, the lyricist for China’s national anthem, was later denounced and accused of criticizing Chairman Mao Zedong and the CCP with his play, ultimately dying in prison during the Cultural Revolution.
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31China's Time Zone
China only has a single time zone. It used to have five, but in 1949 Mao Zedong changed the entire country’s zone to Bejing’s time to promote ‘national unity.’
32. Mao Zedong’s granddaughter Kong Dongmei earned a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999 and is on the list of China’s wealthiest. As the president of a cultural company, with a bookshop aimed at protecting Communist culture, Kong has capitalized on her grandfather's name.
33. In 1973, Mao Zedong told USA’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger that China had an excess of females and offered the U.S. 10 million Chinese women. He further said, “They give birth to children and our children are too many.” Kissinger in response replied: “It is such a novel proposition, we will have to study it.”
34. The culture of the People’s Republic of China before 1978 was highly influenced by the personality cult of Mao Zedong. Most people were required to recite quotations of Chairman Mao and printed material at that time usually quoted Mao’s words in bold as well as in the preface. In fact, the book “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung,” which included quotations from Mao, could be found in bookstores in 117 countries and territories around the world by 1967. Some sources claim that over 6.5 billion printed volumes of it have been distributed to date. It was essentially an unofficial requirement for every Chinese citizen to own, read, and carry at all times.
35. Mao Zedong only traveled outside China twice in his 28-year leadership, both times to the Soviet Union.
361st National People’s Congress
During China’s 1st National People’s Congress in 1954, Mao Zedong won the Chairmanship Election with 1210 in favor, 0 against and 0 abstain. There were 1226 deputies to Congress.
37. Mao Zedong rejected evolution by natural selection and instead believed that animals evolved as a result of continual effort. He believed that you should be able to make your future kids’ necks longer by stretching yours.
38. When they were young communists, Mao Zedong was jealous of his 2nd in command Zhou Enlai’s good looks. Similarly, Mao’s future wife Jiang Qing was jealous of Zhou Enlai’s adopted daughter Sun Weishi’s beauty and popularity with men. Lin Biao who was a Marshall in CCP proposed to her. Lin Biao’s wife Ye Qun was also jealous of Sun. Decades later, during the Cultural Revolution, Mao and Jiang Qing locked up Sun Weishi, where she was tortured, gang-raped, and was eventually found dead naked with her arms and legs still shackled. When Zhou found out, he was shattered and ordered an autopsy, but Mao and Jiang immediately ordered Sun to be cremated. At the time, Lin Biao had become Mao’s designated successor, but he and Ye Qun would die less than 3 years later under strange circumstances in a plane crash (allegedly in a failed attempt to defect to the Soviet Union).
39. Many Chinese competed to see who was more loyal to Chairman Mao when he died. Groups of people wept in front of Mao’s portraits, beating their chests, screaming and howling as if in a wailing competition.
40. On October 6, 1976, after the death of Mao Zedong, the ‘Gang of four,’ a political faction of Communist party officials (headed by Mao Zedong’s last wife), who had total control over media and played a crucial role in the Cultural Revolution, were arrested. Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s widow was tried and sentenced to death. Though her sentence was commuted to a life sentence, she eventually committed suicide.
