You needed an atheist revolution to prime China for rocketsled-level economic growth 30 years later......
The fact that China won, and every Hindu,Buddhist,Muslim,Christian (non-Western ones) majority country lost in the race for development. is precisely due to the fact that China turned Atheist...
Now it is too late cause the world at any time cannot support more than 2 billion people on developed lifestyle level
Pre-Mao China was a hotbed of religious superstition giving rise to notions that Taoist Chi superpower can stop western military weapons..This led to the debacle of Boxer Rebellion..........This is not unlike Indian Babas and Swamis claiming you can live on Prana without food, that Yogic penances give you superpower and you should revere these Yogis for that...That Yogis can break the laws of physics, stop their heartbeats, live without breathing...It is this rampant superstitious beliefs that is sapping the energy of the Indian people........On top of that belief in pseudo-science (nuclear warfare and alien spaceships in Ramayana,Mahabharata) and pseudo-history (Ramayana,Mbh are true history while actual history of Magadhan kings being unimportant) is rampant and viral in the educated classes of India...China has a much better sense of what is historically true and what is not
Mao may have been bad because of the untold sufferings brought on Chinese people due to his ill timed revolutions..But Chinese people should revere Him for dragging them into rationality and atheism inspite of protestations........The atheist revolution is not over in China as there are vestiges of Chinese superstitions left and Chrsitianity is worryingly increasing there...But their problems with religious/superstitious irrationality is nowhere near the level of India or Middle East or Africa