[dferlemann]

I don't know if it's fair to compare him to Mao, as Mao's reputation is pretty bad in the west. The general feel of this article is like: oh, he's pretty cool, well, anti-corruption, but controlling, and take his job really seriously, just like HITLER! Whut...

But this article has very good details though. I enjoyed reading it.

[LiweiZ]

Mao's reputation is mixed in mainland China, too. For more than 150 years, the big and powerful nation state of mind and the weakness in reality stay as a main force behind many things we see. It's a good starting point for reasoning many issues in China. And for me as a Chinese, it's a big negative sign before anything organically good could happen back home.

[mjklin]

Ask any Chinese person and they will tell you: Mao was 70% right, 30% wrong. This is the official party line taught in schools.

[LiweiZ]

Well, I translated what you said into Chinese in my mind and get what those Chinese really said. In Chinese, we often use 70% and 30% as a way to indicate both sides exist but the 70% part comes with more weight. It's not to say that is exactly 70%. Their original words are probably like this: 毛主席七分功，三分过。 Just to make this expression more clearer.

[LiweiZ]

First time to hear that. If you are Chinese grown up in PRC as well, it's most likely you are younger than I am. Also, what I said is not some content directly from a specific source. Even there is some kind of "standard" from the authority in some way, the possibility that people have exactly same consensus in this regard.

[LiweiZ]

And please take self-censorship into account as well, this is something deeply embedded in our subconsciousness (if not consciousness).