PEDAGOGIKA WSTYDU Vivid Example Great Chinese Famine Jisheng

Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962, by Yang Jisheng, Stacy Mosher (Translation), Jian Guo (Translation). 2012

Insights Into the PEDAGOGIKA WSTYDU. The Ideologically-Caused Great Chinese Famine (1958-1962), With Tens of Millions Dead, Dwarfs the Jews’ Holocaust

For all the inordinate attention, in the West, to the Shoah, we rarely about of the man-made catastrophe that overtook multiples more Chinese than the Holocaust did Jews. This detailed, scholarly work is a small step in rectifying this injustice.

Ideologically-driven mass murder can take several forms: The targeting of a specific ethnic group (genocide), the targeting of a specific class (classicide), and the ideological achievement of a particular objective irrespective of the loss in human lives. The Great Chinese famine is an example of the latter.

THE COMMUNIST CAUSE OF MAO’S FAMINE

In mincing no words, Jisheng remarks, “The basic reason why tens of millions of people in China starved to death was totalitarianism. While totalitarianism does not inevitably result in disasters on such a massive scale, it facilitates the development of extremely flawed policies and impedes their correction. Even more important is that in this kind of system, the government monopolizes all production and life-sustaining resources, so that once a calamity occurs, ordinary people have no means of saving themselves.” (p. 17). So, “In 1955, in accordance with Mao’s wishes, economic policy took on a ‘rash advance,’ marked by high production targets at high speed that burdened the national economy…The regime considered no cost or coercion too great in making the realization of Communist ideals the supreme goal of the entire populace.” (pp. 18-19).

THE PEDAGOGIKA WSTYDU, UNDER COMMUNISM [AND NOW CULTURAL MARXISM] INTIMIDATES AND CORRUPTS THE PEOPLE

What Poles call PEDAGOGIKA WSTYDU (the pedagogy of shame) took its toll on the Chinese people, as described by Jisheng, “Under the imperial system of earlier eras, people had the right to silence. The totalitarian system deprived people of even that right. In one political movement after another, each person was forced to ‘declare his stand’, ‘expose his thoughts,’ and ‘bare his heart to the party.’ REPEATED SELF-ABASEMENT LED PEOPLE CONTINUOUSLY TO TRAMPLE UPON THOSE THINGS THEY MOST CHERISHED AND FLATTER THOSE THINGS THEY HAD ALWAYS MOST DESPISED. In this way the totalitarian system caused the degeneration of the national character of the Chinese people. The insanity and ruthlessness of the Great Leap Forward and the Great Cultural Revolution were the result of that degeneration and the great ‘achievement’ of the totalitarian system.” (pp. 18-19; Emphasis added).

THE GREAT CHINESE FAMINE (1958-1962) WAS NOT SOMETHING “NORMAL”. IT WAS UNPRECEDENTED

Jisheng quickly dispenses with the trivial argument that the Great Chinese Famine was just one of the many natural famines that occur from time to time: “The Great Famine makes all of China’s other famines pale in comparison.” (p. 13). He notes that the largest previous Chinese famine (1928-1930) took, at most, 10 million lives, and more likely down to no more than 6 million. (p. 13).

DO NOT BLAME THE WEATHER

Far from being unusually unfavorable for raising crops, the weather during the years of the Great Famine (1958-1962) were quite ordinary. (p. 289, 456). To be certain about this, Jisheng consulted meteorological expert Gao Suhua of the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. She responded, “‘From 1958 to 1961, there were no large-scale droughts or floods within China, nor was there any large-scale occurrence of damagingly low temperatures. Conditions in those three years were normal.’” (p. 456).

THE STAGGERING DEATH TOLL FROM THE MAN-MADE GREAT CHINESE FAMINE

Although estimates vary, there is a scholarly consensus for a Great Chinese Famine death toll in the tens of millions. A number of Chinese scholars, using different methods, arrive at a figure that converges at 32.5 to 35 million. (p. 430). However, Jisheng adds that, “My research in more than a dozen provinces leads me to conclude that the figure of 36 million approaches the reality but is still too low…Based on this analysis and on opinions from various quarters, I estimate that the Great Famine brought about 36 million unnatural deaths, and a shortfall of 40 million births. China’s total population loss during the Great Famine then comes to 76 million.” (p. 430).

MAO ZEDONG DID NOT “MAKE A MISTAKE”. HE PERSISTED IN HIS MURDEROUS POLICIES EVEN AS THEY BECAME EVIDENT

Jisheng comments, “Although the Central Committee under Mao’s leadership made various adjustments to extreme leftist policies, it failed to adopt practical measures on major issues. IT IGNORED THE OBVIOUS DISTRESS OF STARVING PEASANTS while maintaining elevated procurement targets and food exports, and it persisted with the Great Leap Forward and delayed adjustment of economic targets.” (p. 447; Emphasis added).

Jisheng adds that, “Even more intolerable is the fact that while China’s people starved, the government continued to export large quantities of grain.” (p. 450). In fact, far from being given to the starving peasants, the grains were confiscated even more. (p. 289). Moreover, “Snatching food for export from the lips of starving people necessitated atrocities on a vast scale.” (p. 451).

Lest anyone suspect that Mao Zedong somehow did not know what was going on, the authors of the Introduction (Edward Friedman and Roderick MacFarquhar) write, “While junior officials did falsify data to benefit their own careers, Mao had enough reports from senior colleagues to know that his policy of extracting an increasing percentage of grain from the countryside was causing millions of deaths.” (p. x).

Finally, the nomenklatura feasted while the proletariat starved. Jisheng comments, “Reports of deaths were accompanied by reports of cadre privilege…While peasants starved, cadres entertained at lavish feasts…” (p. 280).