Zhou En Lai peacemaker vs top mass murderer

[caesar novus]

Here is holiday downtime activity for history buffs wanting a change of pace. How about some activism in resolving a bipolar spread in the reputation of Zhou En Lai? I suspect those promoting his angelic side have crass motivations that need to be confronted, at least with email. I have done that, but can't push it too far due to not having the background to assess the claims from Univ. Hong Kong that Zhou was probably the biggest mass murderer in history.

 

He is being promoted as a heroic peacemaker and role model for taming the bad habits of western civilization (a Gandhi, ML King, Mandela). Supported by US politicos like Kissinger and Chinese Americans. On the other hand scholars in Hong Kong and the mainland are disclosing his primary role in the biggest mass murder in history. China's great famine around 1960 is depicted as no food shortage, but deliberate starving of 45 million people (almost equal of global WW2 killings) for Zhou's rather than Mao's agenda.

 

Sources: Here is an hour video of Prof. Dikotter research depicting the great famine as deliberate, horrifying, and violent killing on a scale the planet hadn't seen, just to free up food that Zhou wanted to export for ideological reasons http://www.booktv.org/Watch/11976/Maos+Great+Famine+The+History+of+Chinas+Most+Devastating+Catastrophe+19581962.aspx Here is a review of his book (with mainland China collaboration) http://chinalawandpolicy.com/2011/04/18/book-review-frank-dikotters-maos-great-famine/

But here is a foundation with various special events and big names celebrating his angelic record as a role model http://www.americachinabridge.com/print/Zhou-Enlai-Peace-Institute-en-web.pdf

[caesar novus]

A bit more about what I did... I sent polite but concerned emails with web references to not only those in charge of this "peace institute" but to those consorting with them (celebrating or supporting). I emailed media editors who had praised them, as well as Chinese scholars and political scientists concerned with violence.

 

Results: One political scientist was alarmed and very supportive. One other peace institute seemed surprised that all bad things don't originate in the west. Some polite thanks from a Chinese scholar. No reply from newspaper or TV folks or celebrities or those in charge. No publicity at all - just a pause, or are they laying low from the issues I raised?

 

Next step? I give up - it's in the hands of you with more history background. The poliSci guy gave me a contact to raise more alarm, but said it would be hard. Another possible direction is challenging the credentials of their tax exempt institution. You can research a lot about it on the web, and many of those are at least technically fraudulant. Eg. it appears to me the organization could be set up to allow Zhou's US relatives to travel between published mail drops (which appear to include vacation mansions) free or tax free.

 

The US IRS website will list their tax exempt status, and you might tell they are breaking the rules by cross checking with other online data. For example they may be under loose rules of a small organization, but have actually grown to where much more is required. Unfortunately the "goodness" of an organization doesn't seem to count - I saw another that celebrated bad and illegal behavior with contributions being tax deductible.

 

BTW if you run across one you like, you can snag it's tax number and set things up to donate to it when you die, even without a will. It's called a TOD feature of a money account - transfer upon death. It amazes me this is possible, but I guess if you have creditors they will have the right to try to "claw back" this money you transferred to charity.

Edited December 20, 2011 by caesar novus