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In Xi Jinping’s China, is Chairman Mao back?
On the 130th anniversary of the founder of People’s China’s birth, BEN CHACKO asks whether media hype about Xi as a new Mao rings true – or whether the country’s trajectory has really changed that much.
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Mao’s legacy defended, and famous swim decoded, for clueless academics
In late 1965 the rumblings of the Cultural Revolution had begun, due to grumblings over corruption, revisionism (“taking the capitalist road,” selling out socialism, etc.) and the snooty technocratism of urbanites. The party, led by Mao, saw these trends as threats to the common good, the revolution, and the Party’s “Heavenly Mandate” – the millennia-old concept that China’s rulers are chosen by Heaven to rule, and that they must actually display this divinity via perfectly moral conduct and leadership…or else revolt is justified.
