“Communism itself is based upon a series of deceptions about the nature of man, God, and the state—that man is a soulless animal, that God is a fiction, and that the state will wither away.”
This statement is one of many critical insights that China expert Steven W. Mosher contributes to modern political dialogue in his book, The Devil and Communist China: From Mao Down to Xi.
Eye Witness Testimony
Mr. Mosher knows his topic. In the seventies, he was a liberal academic, an abortion proponent and an atheist. His leftist credentials were so sterling that he was the first U.S. social scientist invited to visit Red China. The visit took place during the last days of Mao Zedong’s regime and not long after the euphoria induced by President Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking visit in 1972. However, the horrors that he witnessed radically changed the author’s life.
He was especially appalled by events related to Mao’s planned birth policy, launched in the late fifties. An influential 1972 M.I.T. report arguing that population growth would soon outstrip the world’s resources fueled Mao’s inclinations. Between 1971 and 1979, Mr. Mosher reports, “the annual number of abortions increased from 3.91 million to 7.86 million, while the number of sterilizations rose from 1.74 million to 5.29 million.” This diseased fruit matured in China’s infamous “One Child Policy” from 1981 to 2016.
“I watched—with the permission of local officials who were eager to demonstrate their prowess in planning births to a visiting foreigner—as [women] were aborted and sterilized against their will. I will never forget the pain and suffering etched on the faces of these women as their unborn children, some only days from birth, were brutally killed with chemical weapons—poison shots—and then dismembered with surgical knives.”
Subsequently, the author became a pro-life advocate and converted to Catholicism.
The Culture of Legalism
Moving as such tragedies are, the book further explores their roots in Mao Zedong’s melding of the ancient Chinese philosophy of legalism with nineteenth-century Marxism.
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Legalism is a product of the Qin Dynasty, especially of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who ruled from 221-210 B.C. Those familiar with Mao’s “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” (1966-1976) will be struck by the parallels.
The tenets of legalism are easily understood. Common people exist to be used by the strong man. Voluntary associations should be suppressed because they might encourage competing loyalties. The state should create networks of informants. Laws should emphasize punishments over rewards. Harsh and swift penalties involving groups of people are optimal, and the guilt or innocence of the individual is unimportant.
To implement legalism, the strongman emperor Qin Shi Huang sought to forbid thought itself. Anyone owning philosophical books was required to turn them in to the government. Qin forbade private schools, political discussions and any praise of prior emperors, especially if it cast doubt on his decisions.
Marxism Methods to Achieve Control
Mao saw that the precepts of legalism served his ambitions, but he needed a method to implement them. He recognized that Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism could provide it. After all, Communism invests total power in the hands of a small self-appointed cadre.
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Moreover, by affiliating himself with the Marxists, he could gain the support of two camps that would facilitate his rise to power. The first was the Soviet Union, which could provide military aid and training to Mao’s Red Army. The second consisted of Western pseudo-intellectuals who wielded significant influence in academia, journalism and government. Like Lenin before him, Mao deemed the latter “useful idiots” as they could dilute the impact of political and religious critics who recognized the dangers of Communism.
Also, like Lenin and Stalin, Mao had no use for any moral system that limited his boundless ambitions. The masses whom Marx claimed to champion meant nothing to communist dictators. As mere pawns in their quest for power, their lives were disposable. Truths and lies, like hot and cold water taps, could be turned on or off as best served their purposes.
The Cult of Personality
In pursuing his ends, Mao also implemented a method employed by Stalin, the cult of personality. Massive portraits, posters and statues drove home the idea that they were the guardians of their respective peoples and nations. Of course, they had the opposite effect on those who might be tempted to rebel, warning that the leader’s eyes were always open and on them.
The cult of personality went far beyond images. Every book, every newspaper, every popular song sang the praises of Mao. Millions carried his little red book, Quotations of Chairman Mao, everywhere. They proclaimed his wisdom, intelligence and (non-existent) generosity. A typical song was the 1943 composition, The East is Red.
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The East is Red, the sun rises.
In China, Mao Zedong is born.
He seeks the people’s happiness.
He is the people’s Great Savior.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Rightfully, Mao Zedong is the main character in this book. However, that is also one of the book’s few weaknesses. Out of 269 pages, only the last 70 focus on the period since Mao’s death. That is unfortunate as Mao’s successors—Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping—have led the nation for almost twice as long.
Unfortunately, the book contains little about the developing relationship between Red China and the United States since 1972. When Mao died, China was an economic basket case. Now, it is an economic powerhouse. A vital factor in that growth was the extremely favorable treatment accorded China under the misguided premise that strong trading ties would result in China becoming a market economy and, eventually, a defender of human rights. Today, such hopes have vanished. A critical appraisal of the U.S. role in China’s increasing importance would have been enlightening. Given his background, Mr. Mosher could be just the man to write it.
Resisting Communism’s Evils
This review has yet to note one of the book’s principal merits. Mr. Mosher adroitly ties the fallacies of Communist thought to the corresponding truths of Christianity.
An excellent example comes under the heading “Mao’s Evil Genius.”
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“Mao Zedong was one of the most evil men who ever lived…. The totalitarian regime that he created continues to pay its dues to the devil on a regular basis, dealing out death to unborn babies, persecution to Christians, and genocide to restless minorities…. One way to ensure that we are opposed to Satan and his demons is to understand and expose the sins of an evil genius like Mao and then ask God to empower us to do the opposite.”
This book belongs on the reading list of anyone who wants to understand where China has been, where it is going, and the dire dangers posed by Communism.
“Communism is not just a false gospel; it is, in a very real sense, the anti-gospel, Satan’s latest and most successful attempt to turn man away from his Creator…. Mao began his journey to Communism by rejecting God. America needs to begin its journey back to Christian civilization by rejecting Communism, under whatever seductive guises it is presented to us.”
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