Lux de Veritas
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Well, I am a bit short on time right now, so I will just cover Mao's contribution regarding to Chinese agriculture.
Food is the cornerstone of the society and in order to feed a modern nation, you need modern agriculture techniques, which mean farming machine, pesticide, chemical fertilizer, reliable irrigation. Let's first talk about farming machines: Tractors are one of the most often used machine in agriculture production. The very first Chinese tractor factory produced is found in 1958 at Jiangxi Province, Nanchang City. Pesticide and Chemical fertilizers both require petroleum to be made. Farming machines also require petroleum products to run. The very first Chinese oil field is the Daqing field which is found during the aggressive expansion of Great Leap forward. Because Daqing, China never suffered another famine. Irrigation is another foundation of modern agriculture. While Mao's China did not have the expertise to build titanic structures like the three gorge dam, they were quite capable and did build a large number of water reserve and small hydro stations. Many of them still operates until today. Did you wondered why China is producing more food than India (as well as the next two countries combined) despite having less land devoted for agriculture? These are the reasons. Without farming machines, farmer's productivity is low. Without pesticides, the crop will be ruined by pests. Without fertilizers, you would drain the land dry and without dams and reservoirs, you can't store water for dry season and prevent flood during wet season.
Mao has plenty of other contributions. Infrastructure, education, medicare, economy, technological progress, military achievements. China is powerful today because Mao and subsequent leaders each laid powerful foundations for their successors.
Oh, one of the biggest jokes is that some countries want to copy Deng's economic achievements, but unwilling to go through Mao's work first. Guess what, you can't build a skyscraper without working on the foundation first.
Duh, there is no national wide war after 1950 BECAUSE PRC WAS ABLE TO PREVENT THE OPPONENTS FROM ENTERING CHINESE BORDER. The Japanese "war machine" doesn't hold a candle to US military and PRC did just fine against it.
The ability to ward off foreign aggression does not give communist to kill 30 millions in peace time Great Leap Forward within 3-4 years. The Sino Japan WW2 killed 26 millions in 8 years, far less than what communist did.
As I have mentioned, Mao legacy is a mix bag. He unite China and build a strong army which is a pre-requisite for China's emergence. His tyranny is unparalleled.