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==Legacy==

==Legacy==

''This section is pro-Mao''

In their book Mao: The Unknown Story, authors Jung Chang and Jon Halliday state that in his first five years of power, 700,000 were claimed by Mao to be dead, but another 700,000 died in local excesses and 700,000 committed suicide out of fear of Mao. During the Great Leap Forward, Mao deliberately killed peasants by shipping food to the USSR and Eastern Europe in exchange for aid in building  arms plants. As well, Mao's plans for peasants to make steel and build canals meant that in 1959-60 nobody grew any food. Thus, the worst famine in history occured. Huge numbers were killed by puppets of Mao in the Cultural Revolution, which actually was launched to get rid of Mao's rivals in the Chinese Communist Party.

While often portrayed negatively, Mao Zedong made many undeniable contributions to China. Before 1949, for instance, the illiteracy rate in Mainland China was 80 percent, and [[life expectancy]] was a meager 35 years.{{fact}} At his death, illiteracy had declined to less than seven percent, and average life expectancy had increased to more than 70 years (alternative statistics also quote improvements, though not nearly as dramatic).{{fact}} In addition to these increases, the total population of China increased 57% to 700 million, from the constant 400 million mark during the span between the [[Opium War]] and the [[Chinese Civil War]]. Also, under Mao's government, China ended its "Century of Humiliation" from Western and Japanese imperialism and regained its status as a major world power. Mao also industrialized China to a considerable extent and ensured China's sovereignty during his rule. Many, including some of Mao's supporters, view the [[Kuomintang]], which Mao drove off the mainland, as having been corrupt.

 

The Maoist era also improved women's rights by outlawing [[prostitution]], a phenomenon that was to return after Deng Xiaoping and post-Maoist CPC leaders increased liberalization of the economy. Indeed, Mao once famously remarked that "Women hold up half the heavens". A popular slogan during the Cultural Revolution was, "Break the chains, unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution!" Mao was clearly an advocate for womens' rights, and worked towards equality.

==References==

==References==