Fascinating to see that Mao saw from the start the need for foreign investment and "capitalism". In view of this, the reforms of Deng Xiaoping weren't all that radical. There's clearly much more continuity between the two eras as is customarily acknowledged here in the West, a point you make regularly.
In one of his long essays on China, Gwydion Williams observes that had Mao been able to obtain foreign investment from the West that the Cultural Revolution may have been milder or wholly avoided, that it was partly a reflection of desperation on Mao's part. An intriguing counter-factual.
You titled this 'Commander Mao', you could have easily titled it 'Poet Mao'. But he was both. Thanks for this wonderful post.
Fascinating to see that Mao saw from the start the need for foreign investment and "capitalism". In view of this, the reforms of Deng Xiaoping weren't all that radical. There's clearly much more continuity between the two eras as is customarily acknowledged here in the West, a point you make regularly.
In one of his long essays on China, Gwydion Williams observes that had Mao been able to obtain foreign investment from the West that the Cultural Revolution may have been milder or wholly avoided, that it was partly a reflection of desperation on Mao's part. An intriguing counter-factual.