----- Original Message ----- From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2000 10:07 PM Subject: Re: Cambodia Part 1
>
> Re the Famine. Chou En Lai told a journalist that a major
> cause was that the local areas, wanting to claim they had
> met their targets, over-reported their harvests and sent in
> their grain tax on the claimed rather than the actual figures.
> Then problems snowballed (including especially transportation
> -- China after all still had not much of a railroad system,
> let alone a "modern" highway system.
>
> Of course Chou was a monster who lied for the fun of
> it (like the WSJ editors, perhaps, or Kissinger or Woodrow
> Wilson or Kennedy) -- but those arguing other causes ought
> to at least acknowledge Chou's claim.
>
> Carrol
>
Mao Tsé Tung's doctor in his biography of the Chinese
leader also considers that overclaiming harvests was
a major cause of famine. He has no sympathy for his
former boss, so he is a reliable source foe liberals.
However, he ststes that overclaiming was a result
of hard pressure on local CP's bureaucrats to achieve
their unrealistic planned production quotes.
Alexandre Fenelon