You should googling about Mao Zedong, and see his books (the books that he wrote). And you can see that Mao Zedong was a preacher. He was a Priest (if not even a Prophet) of Communism Ideology. His military strategies were based on classical Chinese books, like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sun Tzu, etc. But the core of his expertise was to develop communism ideology, doctrine and propaganda. Because both of Communism Ideology and doctrine were become the core of CCP Strategy when they struggle to survive (and even win the war) prior 1949.
So, if you ask a person who was so expert in Communism, Mao was the one that you should find. I guarantee that you will become a hardcore loyalist and diehard commie after that.
But Communism Ideology and Doctrine don't have any knowledge about Economy. The worse thing was, Communism hate Economy. As Economy has a tight relation with capitalism. That's why Mao was failed in his economic development plans in China. Because He had nil understanding about economy. And he was very idealistic about Communism. Too idealistic to an extend that Communism is more important than anything else in the country.
But well, give him a break; he was a teacher after all. His major was Communism, not an Economist from the best university out there.
If only Mao willing to retired after 1949, and gave the government policies to people who know about economy, China will be richer and stronger right now. And there won't be any Cultural Revolution in their history.
If Mao was replaced by someone else, I am not optimistic China will hold during cold war.
First, other leaders may not agree to support North Korea during Korean War in 1950. Actually most of Mao's comrades disagreed with Mao, they didn't want to fight with USA. Then we have USA troops next to our boarder.
Then, with USA threat next to our boarder, China won't has much choice but closer to USSR, or to say independent foreign policy. That's Stalin's original plan. Stalin is best geopolitical master, he encouraged Kim Il-sung to have a war to unify Korean Peninsula, Stalin knew it will backfired on China's national security.
No one in CCP had Mao's authority, sectarianism will destroy CCP from inside, just like USSR.
Without Mao's determination and authority, radical reform is harder, sectarianism will stumble China. China won't play a significant role during cold war. US won't give up Taiwan nor first island chain. China is deadlocked between USSR and USA. The north and west side is surrounded by USSR. The east and south side is surrounded by USA. China is the battle field, the front-line of two supper power.
There are 2 series of books, which you can read, one is 美国对华情报解密档案, the other is 苏联历史档案选编. I read those books, I don't think other people can play better than Mao.
Mao is very tough, he fought for independent foreign policy and great power position. Without Mao, China won't restore P5 seat in UN in 1971, nor hydrogen bomb in 1967. Without Mao, China won't have launched Dongfanghong space satellite in 1970, nor DF-4 intercontinental ballistic missile in 1975.
Mao is radical, but he built China's backbone, which is steel, heavy industry, railway, power plant, dam, and most importantly tanks, fighter jets, Nukes and intercontinental ballistic missile.
Without Mao's Nukes, Deng Xiaoping can't focus on economy development as well as cut military budget.
I think some of you Pakistanis and other Muslim members here misunderstand something. China is not really particularly targeting Islam/Muslims. You guys need to understand that China is still ruled by a Communist government and they are atheist first and foremost(you are not allowed to be religious and be part of the CCP for example ). So just because the country has opened up and adopted some capitalistic policies while dropping many of Mao's earlier policies/thoughts doesn't means that the country is not ruled by a Communist party anymore. It's just that the CCP leaders(led by Deng) have had to reform and change many of their policies (they had no choice , they had to change the way the country worked else they would have been left behind like north Korea while the world moved forward) and embrace the modern world .
However, China is still very much under the total control of the party from the legislative, to the judiciary to the executive etc there is no separation of powers and everything is under the grip for the party. As such the party has core policies which they follow.
Religion is something the party has always been cautious about. It's not only Islam , Christians too have to allow their churches to be controlled ,monitored by the party and the party appoints who gets to be priest not the Vatican. Etc etc This has also created lots of tensions and conflict between Christians and the CCP, reason many churches have gone underground . So it's not just like the CCP is targeting only Islam to be honest.
So they have a different system , anything the party deems is toa threat to the party and their hold on power will be monitored and controlled. Which I think is normal looking at things from their perspective. So it's not specifically targeting Muslims but all recognised religions in China.
The only difference here is that Muslims tend to be more rebellious than Christians, Taoist etc in their opposition to the party policies. Hence why it's get more limelight.
I think you have a point. Personally I think all ideologies is a religion, and all religions is an ideology. And we all knew religions do not get along with each other naturally, ideologies do not get along with each other naturally.
But, China dislike religions not because CCP. China secular power control religions most of time in history, not the otherwise. Religions in China never played a significant role, never. China is not Europe, nor middle east, nor South Asia. Religions must obey secular power, no matter it's King, Emperor or Chairman.
Once religions want to compete with secular power, they better knew their position. Falun Gong rose and fell just in 10 years or so.
