On this episode of China Uncensored:
In communist China,
nothing says overthrowing the bourgeois capitalist class
like Mao Zedong.
And nothing says celebrating the bourgeois capitalist class like...
Mao Zedong?!
Wait...why is Mao on all the Chinese money?
Hi, welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
In the rich tapestry of world history,
the most successful dictator was almost certainly China’s Mao Zedong.
At least in terms of killing people.
But he’s also the most successful dictator
at still being widely celebrated,
despite killing tens of millions of innocent people.
He’s got giant statues... he’s in rural homes...
and of course he’s still above Tiananmen square.
And Mao is also on all the Chinese money.
Domination of every denomination.
Which is a shame.
Because in America,
if you’re All About the Benjamins,
you’re clearly ballin’ it like Puff Daddy.
But in China, you could be All About the Maos and still be this guy.
So why have only Mao on the money, instead of, for example,
other Chinese leaders who’ve killed somewhat fewer people?
Or instead of, well, anything else?
Well, it turns out, Mao wasn’t always on the Chinese money—
even during the era of his absolute dictatorship.
The official name of the Chinese dollar, or yuan, is “Renminbi”.
It means “the people’s money.”
And in the early days, the banknotes reflected that.
This 50 yuan note from 1980 shows the three classes:
The intellectual, the farmer, and the industrial worker.
There was no capitalist class in China 40 years ago.
Mao had killed them all.
In fact, there’s a joke in China about
how the banknotes reflect inflation.
They say that in the 1950s,
5 yuan is enough to buy food for a large group of people.
In the 60s,
10 yuan is enough to buy food for half a dozen people.
In the 90s,
100 yuan could still buy food for four people,
but nowadays 100 yuan is only enough to feed one person.
100 yuan is about 15 US dollars.
But Chinese officials didn’t switch to a purely Mao-based currency
just to perpetuate a mildly amusing joke.
They had another reason: to stop counterfeiting.
It used to be fairly easy to counterfeit notes.
You could draw the peasants wrong,
and no one would be able to tell the difference.
But everyone knows what Mao looks like—
since his portrait is everywhere.
So it’s much harder to counterfeit now.
That’s not to say counterfeiting is not still a problem.
It is.
In 2014, officials seized more than half a billion dollars
in counterfeit currency across the country.
And in 2013,
police arrested an elderly painter in Guangzhou province.
This one guy had apparently drawn the templates
for 97 percent of all the fake banknotes.
And look, I know it’s wrong to counterfeit money.
But some kid out there can legitimately say he has
the coolest grandpa in China.
In fact, a lot of grandpa’s counterfeit notes
are still floating around today.
In this article from 2017,
a Canadian tourist says he got counterfeit cash
mixed in with real cash when he withdrew money
from an bank ATM in Beijing.
Which I suppose also says something about
how much you can trust Chinese banks.
You know what they say:
Mao money, Mao problems.
To combat this, in 2015,
authorities released a new version of the 100 yuan note,
with features like color-changing ink.
But all of them have one thing in common:
Mao Zedong is still on one side of every Chinese banknote—
even though Mao was a dictator who killed tens of millions of people,
including the parents and grandparents of a lot of the people
living in China today.
So why not instead have Xi Jinping?
Or something else, like...a happy flower?
Well, because once you put the Great Helmsman on the currency,
it’s politically impossible to take him off.
If they did, it would be like going against what Mao stood for.
And I know, the modern Chinese economy already goes against
everything Mao stood for.
But you’re supposed to pretend like Mao’s theories
are still totally relevant.
And for Chinese leader Xi Jinping—
who’s already already being accused of grabbing too much power—
it would be a major political mistake to try to replace Mao on the money.
But you know, it’s not entirely a bad thing.
Because having Mao on all the banknotes is a subtle reminder
that China’s currency is backed not by gold,
or by centuries of government stability,
but instead by the whims of a dictator.
And what’s a currency backed by a murderous regime really worth?
And now it’s time for another fan question from one of the folks
who supports China Uncensored on Patreon.
Larry Ong Wei Zhong asks,
“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
That’s actually a very deep question.
What is one half of a thing without the whole?
Can there be Yin without Yang?
Could China Uncensored exist without the Communist Party?
It’s profound.
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
It’s not rocket surgery, Larry.
And what do the rest of you think?
Leave your comments below.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.
At the end of most of our episodes,
I’ll be answering questions from viewers.
It’s one of the rewards we give to viewers
who support China Uncensored.
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