The thought, culture and customs that brought China to where we found her must disappear. The thought, customs and culture of proletarian China, which does not yet exist, must appear.
Mao Tse-tung to French Minister of Culture Andre Malraux, 1965
MERELY gaining effective control over China's 800 million people a population twice the size of the British Empire at its zenithwas an epic achievement. But Mao Tse-tung's ambitions did not stop there. A few months after his conversation with Malraux, Mao launched the cataclysmic Cultural Revolution. It was the climax, perhaps the final one,...
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