Appearing on Andrew Neil’s This Week programme several years ago the Labour politician Diane Abbott offered the opinion that “on balance” Chairman Mao “did more good than harm”. It’s a view that still has some currency in parts of the left. Visit any university in Britain and somewhere on the staff you’ll probably find a Maoist sympathiser.
Somehow, despite the famines and the mass murders, the cannibalism and the torture that can be clearly traced back to his policies, some people still think Mao Tse-tung is trendy, or at least defensible in polite society. His Little Red Book still sells all over the world. His pudgy face still appears on T-shirts and mugs.
The persistence of Maoist sympathy baffles Frank Dikotter, a 55-year-old Dutch historian
