The book of J. Chang and J. Haliday, Mao, the unknown story, is very

dishonest, distorting the truth and misleading the Western public into

profound misunderstanding of Mao, China modern history and China itself.





The book central theme is to condemn Mao as an evil monster, bad as or

worse than Hitler. Although the book is supposedly the outcome of 10 years

of intensive research, based on secret archives and hundreds of interviews

in many countries, a careful reader can see clearly that there are huge

gaps between its sensational claims and vast references. Moreover,

the evidence in the book often contradicts, rather than supports, the claims.

An impartial reader should be able to see the contradictions and

inconsistencies between these claims and the reality, without any exceptional

knowledge about China history, because plenty of evidence against these claims

is provided in the book itself.





In the review of Chang and Haliday book, I examine 17 key claims in the book,

which tarnish Mao character most strongly and are praised by Western media as

the most convincingly proven. All of them can be shown clearly as false and

unfounded. When was asked about these 17 questions during an interview with the

Chinese media Duowei, Jung Chang was unable to give any meaningful answer.

Her brother Pu Chang (a translator of the Chinese version of the book) declared

that he would soon give his reply in the web site of Duowei. But no further

response can be found anywhere since then (more than one month ago).





For the details of my 17 questions and arguments to prove the total fallacy of

Chang and Haliday, please visit: http://www.geocities.com/jinxiaoding.