What did he say?

A letter in Monday's Telegraph caught my eye, I quote the opening two sentences:

"SIR - Conditions in China have changed beyond recognition since I worked there in the early 1960s. Despite unhelpful distractions such as Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, remarkable progress has been made."

An interesting phrase that, "unhelpful distractions"; I am not sure that I would use such a bland phrase to describe the process that resulted in the deaths of between 20 million and 70 million people.

The letter writer, John Molloy, finished his letter thus:

"To human rights campaigners, I say back off a little and allow further change to evolve from within."

How many more deaths would you say were acceptable in the next phase of this "remarkable progress"?


For an interesting analysis of the "unhelpful distractions" in China under Mao take a read of this.