319 | Frank Dikötter: Shattering the Myths of China After Mao
The Realignment
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The Problem With the United States' Interpretation of the Maoist Period
How did the West then interpret what the PRC was doing during this period where the country was shut down? Well, very poorly. And since you asked me very specifically about the United States, as opposed to say Britain or Europe, there were two issues here. The first is used, of course, no access to information. But it's compounded by another issue, which is very American, namely that from the very beginning from 1949 onwards, a great number of China specialists were quite sympathetic to Mao and the Communist Party of China.
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