Mao’s successor drew lessons from Singapore’s economic development
On October 1, 1949, at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing, Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Revolution, declared the founding of the modern People’s Republic of China. Mao was an idealist who strove for constant class struggle as a way to keep the Chinese from becoming bourgeois. At the height of the Cultural Revolution, in 1967-69, schools and universities were closed, and children were encouraged to hit and rebel against their parents. Mao was, of course, a famous leader and liberator, but he was less practical when it came to governing the country.
(This story appears in the 09 August, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)