Things Are Not What They Seem

My summer reading included Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (her husband). Jung Chang is considered one of the first brave writers to take the mask off of the history of Red China. 

Her epic 615 page book comes with 150 pages of footnotes and source material–showing the depth, breadth and accuracy of her research.

Wow, is it an eye-opener.

Two important principles stood out to me from her book about Chairman Mao. This week I will examine the first that we should apply to our own lives and nations.

It is: when it comes to history, oftentimes, things are not what they seem.

First a little background on the remarkable Jung Chang. She was born in Sechuan Province in China in 1952 and worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker and an electrician before becoming an English language student and then assistant lecturer at Sichuan University.

Jung fled China for Britain in 1978, married Jon Halliday, and obtained a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of York in 1982–the first person from the People’s Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British University.

In 1991, she wrote an inspiring book on her family heritage called Wild Swans which startled the world with its insider glimpse of Chinese life during the Communist years. The award-winning book sold more than 10 million copies in thirty languages.

That’s a mega best-seller. Why?

Because she was one of the first to tell the truth about what really happened in China during the 20th century.

After fourteen more years of research, including clandestine interviews with Chinese figures both inside and outside mainland China, Jung Chang and her husband followed up with Mao: The Unknown Story–which I’ve just finished reading.

Its revelations got me thinking that one of the biggest surprises for all of us in eternity–when we stand before God and learn the truth about human history–is that reality was significantly different from what we thought or were taught.

Thus, we need to constantly pursue God’s perspective on history and events so that we do not become lost in the lies of human life.

True, we will never see things with perfect accuracy here on earth. But we can get closer to  reality if we are prayerful, diligent seekers of the truth. And when we know the truth, that truth can both set us free and allow us to be emancipators of others through the grace and power of Jesus Christ (John 8:32).

Now a little glimpse into Mao: The Unknown Story. This week I will talk broadly about history and next week, delve a little more closely into the actual character of Mao Tse Tung (Zedong).

Next week’s article will be titled The Face of Evil.

That’s because we should really use Mao–rather than Hitler–as the poster child of evil tyrants. Hitler was certainly Lucifer personified in killing 6-8 million people before and during World World II.

But real history will record that Mao Tse Tung, the communist revolutionary who took over China in 1949 and led the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, was the greatest satanic tyrant to date–killing probably 70 million fellow Chinese citizens before he died in September 9, 1976.

That’s ten times more murders than Hitler.

And most of what we’ve been taught about Mao and the communist revolution, according to Jung Chang, is wrong.

Things are not what they seem.

Some examples:

• Popular consensus is that communists played on the hopes and fears of the peasantry to launch their take-over of Chinese civilization. We’ve all heard that communist revolutions take place when poor workers are mobilized to fight the landowners and wealthy–that it is the exploitation of the rich that leads to an uprising among the poor. But Mao himself came from an upper class background in Hunan province. He never cared for peasants or the disparity in income and power in feudal China. Jung lays to rest the myth that communist dictators like Mao are modern-day Robin Hoods. She pain-stakingly chronicles that Mao Tse Tung was nothing less than a power-hungry thug. Most of the 70 million murders were committed against the peasant-peoples.
• I have always assumed that the Chinese Communist Revolution was launched and funded in China–that is, it was an internal civil war first against the Manchu dynasty, and then the nationalists, led by Chiang kai-shek, against the communists (or CCP) led by Mao and others. That’s what I was taught in school. But that is not even close to the truth. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, and gaining strength on the 20s and 30s, the whole of the Chinese Revolution was financed and led by Soviet Russia, especially under leadership of Stalin. Russian agents and double agents coordinated all of its developments from Shanghai, Stalin himself made all the key decisions from Moscow, and Mao would never have conquered China without millions of dollars of monthly Bolshevik support (a large sum of money eighty years ago). The final conquest was due solely to the Russian supply of equipment and arms. Stalin’s main purpose was to use a “united” (and Communist) China to defeat Japan. This was Russian empire-building via blood and money. It then became Chinese empire building–because Mao’s ultimate goal was to rule the world–by way of torture and bloodshed.
• I’d always heard that the famous “Long March” that brought Mao to the pinnacle of power in 1934-35 was an heroic escape from the bandit-lands of central China that endeared Chairman Mao to the Chinese people. I envisioned him leading bedraggled troops, akin to George Washington at Valley Forge, with great personal sacrifice and courage. Not a whiff of truth! Mao, who loved luxury, always lived in the nicest of dwellings even when others were freezing to death and bloodying their feet around him. In fact, during the vast majority of the 6000 kilometer march, as an 80,000-man army was reduced to 10,000 via famine, exhaustion, executions, and desertion, Mao and his top leaders were lavishly carried in sedan “litters” by the peasant soldiers–wining and dining while those around them perished. This was tyranny with “a smoke and a smile”.
• In every phase of Mao’s rise to power, from the early days in Hunan, to his decade of leadership in the Yellow Earth Plateau, to his triumphant rule in Peking, every step he took was via lies, deception, purgings, deliberately-mis-leading orders to suppress his rivals, torture, mass murder and betrayal. His rise to power was nothing less, at every step, than sadistic satanism without any regard, to wives, children, friends, comrades, or any other human being. Next week I will take a broader look at Mao’s character, or lack thereof, in “The Face of Evil.” It’s the only phrase that comes to mind when studying Mao Tse Tung’s leadership style.

What I gleaned from Jung’s amazing expose of China’s real 20th century story is that things are not what they seem.Much of history and what we “see” is a lie, or at the least, extremely in-complete.

How do we appy this to our own life and times? Here are just a few examples:

1. We need the truth about what happened in Ben Ghazi, Libya when Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other brave Americans were killed. We were first flummoxed to believe it was the result of a You Tube video. Now we are slowly learning that the cover-up may have taken place because the United States was involved in an illegal arms deal to Syria.

Things are not what they seem.

2. The uprisings of the so-called Arab Spring did not take place to usher in a season of freedom and democracy in the Middle East. The election of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt did not portend the coming of liberty to the land of the Nile.

Things are not what they seem.

3. American’s economy in 2013 is not getting better, real estate values have not hit bottom, real unemployment is not seven percent, and seventeen trillion dollars in debt is leading us toward a financial Armageddon.

Things are not what they seem.

4. We must not forget that life on earth is a titanic struggle between good and evil. The Devil and his demons are unseen actors–angels and their commanders do the Lord’s bidding–and much of what we are told in the secular world about history and reality is one big scam from the satanic underground.

So what are we to do to combat our ignorance?

Talk to God about all things. Let his Word be your compass and inspiration. Choose your counselors and sources wisely. Do your homework and don’t believe the demonic cheerleaders. Seek the truth about all events and histories and ask God to enlighten you.

Truth is power– in your own life and in the life of nations.

Don’t just accept what you hear and see. Always remember that, because of the magnitude of human and satanically inspired propaganda, things are not what they seem.