Mao

"To this day we don’t really know much about Mao’s personal history. The Communist Party portrays him as the Great Leader. His smiling image is everywhere. Even the political system still follows his model. So what Chang did was delve deeper to discover who is the real Mao? You hear from people like his private doctor talking about his personal history. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . Even today he’s still very much respected as the person who opened the way to China’s Communist future. But the book tells a different story; it was all about Mao and his quest for power. Even though he was born a peasant all he wanted was to become another Chinese Emperor. He killed so many people along the way. There are estimates that it was somewhere between 50 and 70 million; that’s more than any other 20th-century leader. Yes, everyone had to listen to him and if they didn’t they’d be killed. Finally in 1976 he died. But we still don’t know all the details of what he did and I think we need to do some more digging to expose him. Just like we finally exposed Stalin and Hitler."