Mao offered U.S. 10 million women

[The_Professor]

Mao offered U.S. 10 million women     
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amid a discussion of trade in 1973, Chinese leader Mao Zedong made what U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called a novel proposition: sending tens of thousands, even 10 million, Chinese women to the United States.


Chinese leader Mao Zedong, here depicted in an Andy Warhol painting, offered women to the U.S.

 "You know, China is a very poor country," Mao said, according to a document released by the State Department's historian office.

"We don't have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands."

A few minutes later, Mao circled back to the offer. "Do you want our Chinese women?" he asked. "We can give you 10 million."

After Kissinger noted Mao was "improving his offer," the chairman said, "We have too many women. ... They give birth to children and our children are too many."

"It is such a novel proposition," Kissinger replied in his discussion with Mao in Beijing. "We will have to study it."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/14/chinese.women.ap/index.html

[Michael Tee]

Kissinger never asked for any samples?  I find the whole story, as related, just doesn't gibe with what we know of Kissinger.

The Mao portraits by Andy Warhol, BTW, are in MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.  They're magnificent.

[The_Professor]

Kissinger never asked for any samples?  I find the whole story, as related, just doesn't gibe with what we know of Kissinger.

The Mao portraits by Andy Warhol, BTW, are in MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.  They're magnificent.

Is this the same Mo was liked his girls real young, aka 12 years old when he would them deflower them in unspeakable ways.

[_JS]

He quite clearly offered the wrong gender to Mr. Kissenger.

[The_Professor]

Doesn't negate the FACT that this great leader (supposedly) was prevert of momentus proportions and is where asbestos won'thelp him. Seriously, leaders should belooked at in their entirety, not jsut their acoomplishmnets on the world state, but perhaps behind the scenes as well.

The man murdered probably millions, most for superfluous reasons and deflowered barely adolescent young girls and boys. Gimme a break.

And please don't spout that old tired "When in Rome" mantra.

[_JS]

Doesn't negate the FACT that this great leader (supposedly) was prevert of momentus proportions and is where asbestos won'thelp him. Seriously, leaders should belooked at in their entirety, not jsut their acoomplishmnets on the world state, but perhaps behind the scenes as well.

The man murdered probably millions, most for superfluous reasons and deflowered barely adolescent young girls and boys. Gimme a break.

And please don't spout that old tired "When in Rome" mantra.

You think that I defend Mao?

Hell no. Mao was an extremely intelligent young man (read his earliest work) yet an absolute nightmare of a leader. Maoism is a horrible perversion of Marxism.

The Cultural Revolution was a terror perpetrated on some of the very people he should have cared for. You'll not find me defending Mao. You'll sure as hell not find me defending modern China either.

[The_Professor]

why not modern China, JS?

[Lanya]

I don't defend Mao. Who is defending him? Why not address your ire to that person?

[The_Professor]

I don't defend Mao. Who is defending him? Why not address your ire to that person?

huh? Mao is dead as a doornail. Plus, no ire here. Just curious as to why folks like Mao are so revered.

[kimba1]

What i don`t get about Mao is why the f%&k do people think he`s my hero
if chinese people leave china to live here
the chances that chinese is a fan of mao will be very slim
people rarely leave thier place of birth just because the other place has a better life only
I know many chinese and not one came here out of a whim

[Xavier_Onassis]

The Cultural Revolution was a terror perpetrated on some of the very people he should have cared for. You'll not find me defending Mao. You'll sure as hell not find me defending modern China either.

Mao was cruel, oppressive and incompetent. Hu and the rest of the leaders of the PRC are perhaps cruel and oppressive, but at least they are competent. A 10% or better growth rate is unprecedented in human history. Of course, China is a special case in many ways. I won't say I defend Hu, but running a huge nation like China as efficiently as he has is no mean feat.

One problem China seems to have now is not enough women, because every family always wants a son, so the daughters frequently get aborted. The percentage of young males is higher than the percentage of young females ever since it was possible for parents to know the gender of their child.
==============================
the chances that chinese is a fan of mao will be very slim

Someone likes the memory of Mao, because he is still on the money. I observe that Jefferson Davis, Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover do not appear on US currency. Mao's winning the Revolution was a major feat. His running the country, especially the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, was a ghastly disaster.

[Michael Tee]

<<Mao was cruel, oppressive and incompetent.>>

Not as cruel and oppressive as the American-backed KMT, its leaders and warlord allies, all of whom he had to defeat to free China from foreign domination.  They boiled Communists alive in the boilers of locomotives in Shanghai.  They were experts in torture.  They exploited and robbed mercilessly, even in time of famine.

I'd like to know what crimes Mao committed that even bring him close to the crimes of the KMT and its leading lights.

As for his "incompetency," he fought the Europeans, Japs, "Nationalists" and Americans, starting from the weakest of all positions; he kept his movement together on a 4,000-mile long retreat in appalling conditions; and in the end he led his people to a victory that laid the basis for what is now obviously going to be the major superpower of the 21st Century.  He more than anyone else is responsible for the transformation of a weak, starving, sickly and backward nation at the mercy of foreigners and their armies into the colossus that it is today.

Sure you can say now that the Cultural Revolution was a failure and an atrocity.  Chairman Mao was trying his best to deal with the problem that so far no communist nation has successfully resolved, Lord Acton's dictum.  And he felt that "permanent revolution" ("revolution within the revolution) was a possible answer.  No one else has solved the problem either, just to put his "failure" in perspective.  Similarly, "The Great Leap Forward," his attempt to solve the problems of the first generation of young people waiting for the new Revolutionary Government's plans to start bearing fruit.  Note the failures, sure, but don't over-castigate the man because he dared to dream big, because he at least took on the biggest of the problems, rather than leaving them for someone else.  And celebrate his accomplishments, because they are truly superhuman.

[_JS]

why not modern China, JS?

Modern China is a mix of capitalism and elitism. The wealthiest people in modern China are the "princelings" who are the sons of the "Communist" Party inner circle officials. Under Deng, in the early 80's, after visits from none other than Milton Friedman (and in fairness, other western laissez faire economists) the Chinese adopted free market policies under the structure of an authoritarian state.

Interestingly, we discussed Henry Kissenger. Kissenger wrote an op-ed piece just after the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989 explaining that Deng had no other choice but to violently put down the democratic protests. That massacre took place just two months after another visit from Friedman. Those protesters wanted a voice because many of the "reforms" were being imposed upon them.

It is basically a state with extremely poor human rights and another regime disproving the theory that free markets = free people.

[The_Professor]

<<Mao was cruel, oppressive and incompetent.>>

Not as cruel and oppressive as the American-backed KMT, its leaders and warlord allies, all of whom he had to defeat to free China from foreign domination.  They boiled Communists alive in the boilers of locomotives in Shanghai.  They were experts in torture.  They exploited and robbed mercilessly, even in time of famine.

I'd like to know what crimes Mao committed that even bring him close to the crimes of the KMT and its leading lights.

As for his "incompetency," he fought the Europeans, Japs, "Nationalists" and Americans, starting from the weakest of all positions; he kept his movement together on a 4,000-mile long retreat in appalling conditions; and in the end he led his people to a victory that laid the basis for what is now obviously going to be the major superpower of the 21st Century.  He more than anyone else is responsible for the transformation of a weak, starving, sickly and backward nation at the mercy of foreigners and their armies into the colossus that it is today.

Sure you can say now that the Cultural Revolution was a failure and an atrocity.  Chairman Mao was trying his best to deal with the problem that so far no communist nation has successfully resolved, Lord Acton's dictum.  And he felt that "permanent revolution" ("revolution within the revolution) was a possible answer.  No one else has solved the problem either, just to put his "failure" in perspective.  Similarly, "The Great Leap Forward," his attempt to solve the problems of the first generation of young people waiting for the new Revolutionary Government's plans to start bearing fruit.  Note the failures, sure, but don't over-castigate the man because he dared to dream big, because he at least took on the biggest of the problems, rather than leaving them for someone else.  And celebrate his accomplishments, because they are truly superhuman.

And the millions murdered?

[Michael Tee]

<<And the millions murdered?>>

Enough hypocrisy already.  You don't give a shit about the 800-odd real villagers killed by Lt. Calley, why pretend you give a shit about the fake crimes of Chairman Mao?