yingde
Therefore when Deng came to power in 1980s, Mao had laid great foundations for him with basic industrial systems and solving security problems including nukes. Deng could spend more on the economy, on the foundation of what Mao achieved. Even the cultural revolution helps better equality, which enabled China from the troubles similar caste system in India. Chinese really stands up to face the competitions from the west, different from Japan and Taiwan, still accustomed to a role play in western system.
Mao and Deng just belonged to different phases of rise of China. Even though both made mistakes, both achieved greatly during their terms. This is why a China torn by warlords and foreign invasion can stage a come back just within 70 years.
In Mao's era, China focused more on security and basic industrial system and spent less money on consuming. One critical security issue was the relation with Soviet Union and United States. Mao also had to secure Chinese borders through wars such as Korean wars, Vietnam Wars, India wars and conflicts with Soviet Unions. In 1950s, Soviet Unions had armies in Northeast and Xinjiang. They had eyes on Northeast and Xinjiang. In 1970s, Mao had already rebalanced the relation with the United States in 1970s. Soviet Union wad mired in Afghanistan and wanted to peace with China.Not really. Deng was quite smart. Unlike Mao who was an ideologists to the core, Deng was a visionary leader and a pragmatic one. Had he ruled China from the beginning instead of Mao, then China would have been a developed country long ago along with Japan and S.Korea.
Mao's obssession with ideology is what made China so poor, isolated from the world and backward to the point where even North Korea had better living standards than them. So contrary to what you said, had China carried on with Mao's policy/ideology and soviet style model instead of opening up to the west and partnering with the U.S/west then believe me it would have been just another giant version of North Korea today, nothing more.
So if anything Deng was a visionary leader who looked at things from a long term perspective and he is the one who is to be credited with China's current prosperity/growth. He is kind of like Japan's Meiji who revolutionised Japan and opened up Japan to the west/world and changed Japan forever. China was just a little too late in the game. So if anything you should be praising Deng not Mao.
Deng did the right thing by casting aside the outdated failed soviet commie ideology and ushering in a more forward looking pragmatic model for his country and adopting close ties with western powers and Japan which brought in huge investments from western countries and overseas Chinese. Only a fool/die hard commie will say Mao was better than Deng in running a country.
Therefore when Deng came to power in 1980s, Mao had laid great foundations for him with basic industrial systems and solving security problems including nukes. Deng could spend more on the economy, on the foundation of what Mao achieved. Even the cultural revolution helps better equality, which enabled China from the troubles similar caste system in India. Chinese really stands up to face the competitions from the west, different from Japan and Taiwan, still accustomed to a role play in western system.
Mao and Deng just belonged to different phases of rise of China. Even though both made mistakes, both achieved greatly during their terms. This is why a China torn by warlords and foreign invasion can stage a come back just within 70 years.
