Mao's reforms led to the deaths of 30 to forty five million people from the late fifties to the early sixties, one of the greatest catastrophes in human history. The results are that 800 million people in china have been lifted out of poverty since 19 88. And a middle class with a standard of living not far from that of western countries has sprung up in just a few short decades. Imagine how your perspective would be different if you were born into this history, and how you might think differently about relations between china and the united states.