The 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China is an occasion for celebration and reflection. Indeed, there is much to celebrate. The transformation of China from a weak, impoverished and war-torn country into a relatively stable and prosperous power is an achievement that has made the world a better place overall. But the ruling Communist party’s six decades in power have not exactly been an uninterrupted period of economic growth and political stability. Two of those decades (1957-1976) are known for the worst human suffering, brutality and fanaticism in Chinese history.
For example, under the megalomaniacal rule of Mao Zedong, the party purged more than 500,000 intellectuals and professionals in the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957. Mao’s Great Leap Forward, an ill-conceived scheme to vault China into the industrialised world in 1958, led to the worst famine in world history, in which about 36m people starved to death. The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) brought China to the brink of civil war, destroyed millions of lives and left Chinese society completely traumatised.
