Jakob Nemetz 1

Mao Zedongs Speech Serve the People

Mao Zedong was a Chinese leader who rose to power and brought the country into Communism. Mao Zedong created the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China. In 1944 Mao Zedong proclaimed the Serve the People speech at a funeral of a friend. In such speech, Mao Zedong talked of what true men and comrades should be. He spoke of how they will all eventually die, but they should die an honorable death for the people of China. He says: To die for the people is weightier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather. In 1943 Mao Zedong became the leader of the Communist Party of China. In 1949 his group became superior to opposing groups. An estimated 160,000 civilian deaths were caused by a single battle in his partys attempts at being dominant. When Mao was in power not all was well for the country; famine was rampant. Large amounts of people were starving all across his country. He saw these peasants, workers, and farmers more as digits than actual people. Any of them caught stealing during such rough time were subject to extreme tortures if not immediate death. This continued unstopped and freely by Mao Zedong and the officials under him. To some this time is considered a dark age in Chinas history. It can almost be noted as a war against the peasants, played out by the state. One third of all homes were demolished to create fertilizer for farms. Peasants were killed while they were starving or forced to work to death. Not many documents remain to show actual numbers of deaths, tortures, and other statistics. But, archives of the Public Security Bureau do give many experts a look at the numbers of deaths. The general numbers as given by those who studied the reports are between 40,000,000-70,000,000. That is forty-million people to seventy-million people were killed. All of these facts when -to work for the fascists and die

Jakob Nemetz 2

for the exploiters and oppressors is [a] lighter [death] than a feather. Mao Zedong s genocide is the largest in recorded history.