Who did more for China, Mao Tse Tung or Deng Xiaoping?

Question

Each leader towered over China during different periods of its history.

Answer 1

I'm going to go with Deng.  It was under Deng that Shanghai developed into what it is today, and China was able to recover from the economic problems created by Mao's ill informed decisions.

Deng was able to improve the standard of living of most Chinese.  

Chins is poised to become a major economic power in the world, and is developing its middle class.

Neither of them are fans of freedom, but in terms of life for the average Chinese family, it has improved under Deng.  

(Just look at the increasing number of Chinese allowed to study abroad, and the number of foreigners now permitted to study inside China.)

Mao's China could never have pulled off an Olympics.  Beijing is about to do it, despite all sorts of problems like flooding and earthquakes.

Mao's Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution were devastating to China.  You can't avoid that fact.

Answer 2

i agree with the first answerer. he is the first one to establish the Communist Party, which ousted all spheres of influence present in China and he eventually proclaimed the People's republic of China. as i know, Deng Xiaoping is just a successor of Mao.

Answer 3

Mao Zedong, despite being a brutal, blood thirsty, evil dictator, created a powerful PRC the likes of what we see today. Without his political skills, China would not be a world power.

Answer 4

Mao. He expelled the Japanese and organized the Communist Party. Deng corrected mistakes but the Chinese economy was working like a capitalist one long before Deng came to power. Zhou Enlai was very important but he's rarely mentioned.