Show notes
How did a tiny band of guerrillas come to rule a quarter of humanity? And was the outcome of the Chinese Civil War really the ‘heroic’ popular uprising that the People’s Republic portrays? In this episode of the HistoryExtra podcast, Danny Bird speaks to Frank Dikötter about the surprising reality behind the rise of the Communist Party of China – from its marginal beginnings in the 1920s and the myth of the Long March, to the decisive role of Stalin and th…
Highlighted moments
In 1936, when Edgar Snow is invited by the communists, they represent roughly 40,000 people in a country of half a billion.
“In China, by the end of the 1930s, in 1940, it is one person for every 1,400 people, which is the exact same rough number, roughly the same number, as there are communist party members in the United States of America, which is not exactly seen to be at the forefront of the revolution.”
“After eight months, that city has been starved into surrender. 160,000 ordinary people have starved to death. It's the same number as the victims of Hiroshima.”
Transcript
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