| Kenneth James Hammond isn't objective. He's funded by the Confucius Institute. imo his opinion is compromised by money i.e. he is a paid CCP apologist. It's no different from researchers who deny climate change and are conveniently funded by the oil industry. I don't see any change in mental gymnastics just because it's coming from a caucasian. Incentives tend to drive the outcome of anything like someone's public opinion. Mao was a brilliant military strategist, but he was a complete disaster as a statesman. He is not vindicated. He made Zhou Enlai's work much harder to accomplish and much longer to take effect. There are few statesmen who were worse than Mao like Stalin. I have to question either your logic, or whether or not if you're commenting from inside the mainland. > Exhibit 2: life expectancy from 1850 to 2020. Again, how can we trust the data from yet another secretive authoritarian government? > Exhibit 3: Kevin Tellier, a very good China watcher I don't know much about Kevin Teller, but if he has a conflict of interest like Hammond, then his opinion is worth less than more objective sources. For the record, I am neither anti China or even anti CCP (I don't even think it really exists anymore since it's a dictatorship again); nor am I a pro US zealot. I am only anti-Xi, and I am not a fan of Mao's governance. If something stinks, I'm not going to pretend that it's nice perfume. |