can someone explain chairman mao is still praised in china instead of condemnation?

[gougou]

Did you want to understand why Mao is still being praised in China (or whether he is), or did you just want an opportunity to vent your frustration with the CCP? In case of the latter, I don't think a lot is going to come out of this thread.

[liuzhou]

Haha. The US is a democracy?

Everything is non-violent? Tell that to Gabrielle Giffords. Or the Kennedy brothers (John or Robert) or Reagan. Or the huge number of people killed every year in drive-by shootings, school massacres and random examples of... er violence. The USA is considerably more violent than China.

when hu jin tao and wen ji bao were in office, there were districts they fear visiting. attempts have been like made on their lives

Do you have any evidence of attempts on their lives? Or are you just making it up? No one ever threatened Obama's life? Wake up.

(By the way, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao are still in office. Don't worry. It's just a fact. Shouldn't get in the way.)

they had like no military power and had to play it safe as leaders.

Don't be ridiculous. Mao, Deng, Jiang, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping et al are or were only ever in ever power because they have/had the military behind them. You didn't think anyone other than the military ran the country, did you?

No one is defending the CCP. We just aren't running our mouths off about things we don't understand and making up "facts".

(Still waiting to hear what Xi Jinping said about Mao.)

[roddy]

There aren't many places on the Internet, I suspect, where so many adults would spend so long trying to talk sense to an intemperate teenager. Hopefully the OP will benefit from it, and also from these links.

Still waiting to hear what Xi Jinping said about Mao

叔叔好！

[WestTexas]

In my opinion/experience, most young Chinese have a positive view of Mao. They might not deify him, but they do think he is a war hero and the architect of China's current prosperity.

[liuzhou]

they do think...

I'd love to know how you know what young people are thinking.

From what they tell you?

[liuzhou]

There aren't many places on the Internet, I suspect, where so many adults would spend so long trying to talk sense to an intemperate teenager.

It's down to our limitless patience and dedication to education.

[WestTexas]

I'd love to know how you know what young people are thinking.

From what they tell you?

I'm not psychic, so yes. That's generally where people get their information about others' opinions.

[igo_online2012]

There aren't many places on the Internet, I suspect, where so many adults would spend so long trying to talk sense to an intemperate teenager. Hopefully the OP will benefit from it, and also from these links.

Quote

Still waiting to hear what Xi Jinping said about Mao

叔叔好！

that is in the news man, look into it.

[liuzhou]

I'm not psychic, so yes. That's generally where people get their information about others' opinions.

Do you think Chinese students tell their foreign teachers the truth all the time? Or do they tell their foreign teachers what they have been told to tell their foreign teachers?

that is in the news man, look into it.

You mean you can't find any reference. If it had been in the news, it would have been page one. It isn't even on the funnies page.

You imagined it. Or made it up.

[WestTexas]

Do you think Chinese students tell their foreign teachers the truth all the time? Or do they tell their foreign teachers what they have been told to tell their foreign teachers?

I know plenty of Chinese who are not my students, and have heard them, as well as my students, complain about many different aspects of China, including the CCP. I've heard nothing but positives for Chairman Mao. Maybe you hang out with different people and they have different opinions from my Chinese friends, but I don't understand why you are so incredulous that many Chinese do, in fact, hold a deep respect for Mao Zedong.

[igo_online2012]

Haha. The US is a democracy?

Everything is non-violent? Tell that to Gabrielle Giffords. Or the Kennedy brothers(John or Robert) or Reagan. Or the huge number of people killed every year in drive-by shootings, school massacres and random examples of... er violence. The USA is considerably more violent than China.

i meant in politics .

Quote

when hu jin tao and wen ji bao were in office, there were districts they fear visiting. attempts have been like made on their lives

Do you have any evidence of attempts on their lives? Or are you just making it up? No one ever threatened Obama's life? Wake up.

(By the way, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao are still in office. Don't worry. It's just a fact. Shouldn't get in the way.)

look into news man.

Quote

they had like no military power and had to play it safe as leaders.

Don't be ridiculous. Mao, Deng, Jiang, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping et al are or were only in ever power because they have the military behind them. You didn't think anyone other than the military ran the country, did you?

jiang and his gang are the ones holding all the military power and keeping hu and wen at bay. thats in the news.

i fear this liuzhuo a troll or worst yet in league with jiang's gang.

[liuzhou]

I have been talking to Chinese people every day for over 17 years. Including talking to ex-students. (Not usually about Mao. We have better things to discuss.) But I have only ever met one person who reveres Mao and she does so more out of a worry that he might come back. He killed her husband, after all.

Ex-students have told me very openly that they were told always to praise China's glorious post 1949 history when talking to foreign teachers. I see no reason to think anything has changed.

None of them claimed that Mao founded the Chinese Communist party,though.

[gougou]

i fear this liuzhuo a troll or worst yet in league with jiang's gang.

"this liuzhou" has 2,262 posts; you have 12. He also has 179 reputation points; you have -4. He has made a reputation (though not always an uncontroversial one) on this board already; you have yet to make one.

One way that would help you to do that would be to provide links to the news you keep on referring to, rather than to tell people to look for it themselves.

[imron]

not like you can’t get the positives of ccp minus their negatives with a proper democracy.

Actually you can't. The main positive of the CCP is that they can make policy decisions and implement them quickly, throwing billions of dollars at the problem if necessary regardless of whether the people agree with it or not. You simply can't do that in a democracy with the same efficiency and speed because there are checks and balances to prevent any one person or any one group from having such absolute power - because while such power is great when those policies are benevolent (e.g. investment in telecoms, roads, rail, and other infrastructure), it has terrible consequences when used incorrectly. Unfortunately, the checks and balances in a democratic society can also be abused - just look at how the US political system has been crippled these last 2 years, with the Republicans doing everything they can to block legislation that would help the US economy, simply because such policies would have helped Obama win re-election (which he ended up doing anyway despite all of that).

why do people defend the ccp anyways

I don't think people are defending the CCP so much as they are pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Contrary to what you might believe, making misleading statements about the situation doesn't make your argument stronger, and when you suggest that people who disagree with such misleading statements are somehow in cahoots with the CCP it only further demonstrates your ignorance on the topic.

i meant in politics .

Hahaha, did you even understand Liuzhou's post? Do you even know who Gabrielle Giffords, John and Robert Kennedy and (Ronald) Reagan are? And you're the one asking Liuzhou to read the news?

[liuzhou]

i fear this liuzhuo a troll or worst yet in league with jiang's gang.

No. I am Jiang Zemin

[WestTexas]

But I have only ever met one person who reveres Mao and she does so more out of a worry that he might come back.

Think what you want. The people standing in line to go see Mao's tomb and the people buying Mao posters to hang up aren't doing it to be ironic.

[roddy]

Ok, the OP's gone. If you want to continue the discussion go ahead, but do us all a favour and ignore his posts.

[Guest realmayo]

You simply can't do that in a democracy with the same efficiency and speed

I'd quibble with efficiency here. Quibble quibble.

[liuzhou]

The people standing in line to go see Mao's tomb and the people buying Mao posters to hang up aren't doing it to be ironic.

I'm astonished at your insight into people's minds and motivation. But you say you aren't psychic.

The most popular (by far) of the very popular guided London walks held every day no matter what the weather, is the Jack the Ripper walk. People visit the scenes of his crimes, have a drink in one of the pubs he probably frequented and where he probably picked up at least one of his victims, then they buy Jack the Ripper souvenirs.

Not perhaps the best analogy, but clearly all those tourists revere good old Jack.

I've been to see Mao in Tiananmen. I've been to see Lenin in Moscow, too. I bought the t-shirts and Mao cigarette lighters. I wasn't being ironic either. As you would no doubt have divined had you seen me.

Doesn't mean I revere either of them. I just find them interesting.

Chinese people can't deny that Mao is a huge part of their heritage - rightly or wrongly. It doesn't mean they can't think.

[imron]

I'd quibble with efficiency here

Australia has been discussing for over 20 years about whether to build high-speed rail links between major cities. Nothing gets done, despite huge demand (Melbourne-Sydney is one of the world's busiest air routes).

China on the other hand just decides to build a new high speed rail line and it gets done. I don't doubt that there are problems with doing things so fast (see for example Wenzhou), and I'm sure there is corruption and inefficiency involved in the actual building of the rail lines, not to mention problems with people who get displaced, but the efficiency with which policy decisions get made is still in my opinion comparatively high.