Under Mao Zedong, China confiscated the peasants’ land and harvests, created dependence and obedience through food rationing, and combined the distribution of pork on National Day with the public execution of criminals.
Through the destruction of traditional communities by the people’s communes and the systematic direction of resentment toward landlords, intellectuals, and Communist Party officials, this dialogue exposes why communism inevitably develops into an inhumane system of domination.

June 25, 2020
To realize the ideal society envisioned by communism, does it not inevitably become inhumane and give rise to distorted emotions?
The following is a continuation of the preceding chapter.
Inhumane Communism
Seki Hei
The world of birds is dozens of times more “human” than the Chinese Communist regime.
(Laughs.)
During the Mao Zedong era, all the land belonging to the peasants was taken away and placed under the control of the people’s communes.
As a result, the crops they harvested did not belong to them, and they were given only the minimum amount of food necessary for survival.
When people are placed under that kind of control, they gradually begin to depend on the government and express their gratitude whenever rations are distributed.
Takeuchi
They were being subjected to mind control.
Meanwhile, Mao Zedong himself is said to have lived in extraordinary luxury.
Seki Hei
It was truly a life of boundless indulgence.
There was a special culinary team that prepared a weekly menu for Mao Zedong.
One day he would be served a complete Western-style course, and on another day a Manchu–Han Imperial Feast.
The menu changed every day.
While indulging in such luxury, Mao Zedong told the people, “There is no need to eat more than necessary. Eat well during the busy season and make do with rice porridge during the slack season.”
Moreover, Mao Zedong controlled not only the people’s appetites but even their sexual desires.
During the Mao era, the Chinese people were forced to live extremely ascetic lives.
Yet there was one moment each year when the people felt happy.
That was National Day on October 1.
The reason was that, on the previous day, each household was given a ration of 500 grams of pork.
At the same time, the public execution of 30 criminals was carried out.
Takeuchi
What!?
Seki Hei
It did not matter what crimes they had committed.
The father of a friend of mine worked at the Public Security Bureau.
One week before National Day, he would suddenly become extremely busy.
That was because he had to rush around to assemble 30 people who would be executed by firing squad.
On the day of the executions, they were placed one by one onto trucks and paraded through the city streets for several hours.
It is a cruel story, but the children remained excited because they wanted to see the public executions.
It was as though a circus had come to town.
Takeuchi
So the executions were a present, just like the pork.
But did the people not think that the same thing might one day happen to them?
Seki Hei
No.
Rather, it strengthened their determination that they must “never oppose the Communist Party.”
Takeuchi
Hearing such stories makes me truly realize the horror of communism.
Communism was not something that arose naturally.
It was an ideological doctrine created inside the mind of a single individual named Marx.
To realize the ideal society envisioned by communism, does it not inevitably become inhumane and give rise to distorted emotions?
Seki Hei
Exactly as you say.
It ignores the human way of life and forcibly constructs an apparatus of domination.
The people’s communes I mentioned earlier are a perfect example.
The villages of rural China once formed communities of their own, in which the people helped one another.
The people’s communes, however, plundered and destroyed all of those traditional societies.
The peasants who were relentlessly tormented by the people’s communes became increasingly cruel, and their anger was directed toward the landlord class.
Takeuchi
Was it no different in the cities?
Seki Hei
The intellectual class suffered the same fate as the landlords.
Moreover, they were driven into rural society and forced into a position even lower than that of the peasants.
The peasants also made those intellectuals targets of bullying.
When the Cultural Revolution began, the next targets were Communist Party officials.
Takeuchi
There was no end to it.
Communists speak of “a society without rich and poor” and of “equality.”
But when we ask what the true essence of that “equality” is, I believe it means, “Women should be distributed equally among men who are unpopular with the opposite sex.”
Even when we look at the faces of the successive supreme leaders of the Chinese Communist regime, very few of them appear, by any reasonable standard, to have been the type who would be popular with women.
Rather, perhaps it was precisely because they were that type of person that they were attracted to communism.
To be continued.