[Scheherazade]

It’s almost become an anti signal at this point, whenever someone says Mao was responsible for xx millions of deaths you can safely assume that they are easily fooled. There is no serious historian of Chinese history would actually claim a number like that either. Direct responsibility is probably in the thousands range, he was fighting for decades after all, indirectly through 1 degree of separation probably hundreds of thousands, through 2 degrees of separation probably in the low millions if you include the cultural revolution and the very late stages of the famine when he became fully aware of the devastation. 3+ degrees? Perhaps in the 8 digit range, though at that point attributing malice or intent becomes absurd for anyone who understands how Beijing power politics works.