ABSTRACT
Mao ruled China for twenty-seven years and attempted, in any way he could, to destroy its culture, on the basis that everything could be questioned: country, family, marriage, private property: “Nothing was too outrageous, too shocking or unsayable,” say Chang and Halliday. Mao became more sensitive and paranoid towards any form of criticism, usually reacting, as any other totalitarian dictator, with great cruelty and aggression towards anyone who dared to criticise him. Like many other dictators, such as Castro, Mao exhibited a proclivity for manipulation of the press, for instance, generating a rumour about his own death or attempting to place the “internal persecutor” outside: On 15 April 1932, the Communists issued a declaration of war on Japan. Similar to other totalitarian regimes, Mao lavishly disposed of millions of dollars for the purpose of exercising grandiosity, while his people were often on the verge of starvation; in 1960 alone over twenty-two million people died of starvation in China.
