When this profile first appeared in 1950, the column's subject, Mao Zedong (1893 - 1976), was generally seen as a tin-horn dictator and Stalinist dupe. It wouldn't be long before he would be widely recognized as one of the greatest mass-murderers in world history. Upon hearing that Stalin had died, "the official Red Chinese radion spent hours talking of Stalin's death, paid little heed to Malenkov's elevation to Russia's premiership."
"Mao has considered himself second only to Stalin in communism". For those who keep records of the harsh treatment dolled out to religious sects by the various assorted tyrannical governments of the world, China is the all-time champion. Since it's inception, the People's Republic of China has attempted to coerce or eradicate every religious faith within its borders. Here is an account by an eyewitness to the many assorted atrocities dished out to the Christians in China by the followers of Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976.
An article about Soviet persecution of religious adherents can be read here...
This is a single column that clearly lays out the Truman Administration's diplomatic policies concerning Mao's China - the summary is reduced to five bullet points. Washington's growing impatience and distrust with both Chiang Kai-shek's island nation and the communist thugs on the mainland was reaching the high-water mark during the earliest days of 1950 when President Truman's Secretary of State Dean Acheson (1893 – 1971) presented that administration's China policy:
"No official military aid for Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalist government, either on the island of Formosa [Taiwan] or anywhere else. No hasty recognition of the Communist Chinese government of Mao Zedong. No attempt to stop further Russian advances in Asia except through 'friendly encouragement' to India, French Indo-China, Siam, Burma and the new United States of Indonesia..." Quite often when Marxist economic theories are put into effect, tree bark becomes a sought-after delicacy... | 
