In a lecture titled "Mao's China: A necessary Evil?" British Broadcasting Corporation correspondent Philip Short discussed the importance of Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong's leadership and personality in bringing about cultural and political change in China yesterday afternoon in the Rockefeller Center.
"One can argue that the prosperity and dynamism of China today are part of Mao's legacy" Short said to an audience of over 60 people. Although he admitted that this could be a stretch.
According to Short, in the span of Mao's lifetime China was transformed from a rural peasant society into a modern state.
"Change on that scale could not have occurred without some measure of pain," he said.
Short stressed that although Mao's way of changing China may not have been the best method, some of the suffering under Mao's rule was necessary to bring about such a great change.
"Mao was a tyrant," Short said, "but to say this simply falls short."
He briefly compared Mao to Stalin and Hitler and pointed out that although all three were responsible for mass deaths of their countrymen, Mao's motives were different.
The 30 million Chinese deaths during Mao's rule were not premeditated, unlike the deaths under Stalin and Hitler, according to Short, and this distinction is a crucial one. He drew a comparison to the charges of manslaughter and murder in a legal court.
Mao can be best understood through his cultural context, Short said. Born in 1893, Mao had a traditional background, but grew up during violent, revolutionary times when the old Chinese Empire ended.
Short, who is the author of "Mao: A Life" described Mao as a military strategist, a devious politician, a statesman, a romantic and a poet.
"Mao wanted China to be a red beacon shining out to the rest of the world," Short said.
Mao was largely ideologically motivated, he said. But Short said he believes Mao's Utopian dreams were ultimately doomed to failure.
Short said that the violence of Mao's lifetime and rule was not unprecedented in Chinese history. Similarly turbulent periods preceded the First and Second Golden Ages of China.
This does raise the question, as to whether we are "on the verge of the Third Chinese Golden Age," Short said.
After the lecture, Short answered questions on Mao's motivation in the 100 Flowers Campaign and the present leadership in China.
He spent 25 years working as a main foreign correspondent for the BBC, the London Times, and The Economist.
