What if Mao Zedong had been capitalist?

Would he have been able to take over China? And if he did, would his rule have been less unpleasant then OTL or just as bad?
 
If Mao was a capitalist, you have fundamentally changed who he was as a person and as a result he probably would never have come into power or if he did somehow rise to prominence, the results would be totally unpredictable for us to ascertain given all the butterflies this gives.
 
Mao did read a lot of liberal philosophy and supported it at one point so he could have been a capitalist if he hadn't changed his views. But as a generic Kuomintang intellectual (I doubt he'd be a military figure) he's almost certainly going to be an absolute nobody in the RoC. He won't be president of China, Taiwan, or anywhere else.
 
Mao did read a lot of liberal philosophy and supported it at one point so he could have been a capitalist if he hadn't changed his views. But as a generic Kuomintang intellectual (I doubt he'd be a military figure) he's almost certainly going to be an absolute nobody in the RoC. He won't be president of China, Taiwan, or anywhere else.

What about a lower-rank office like Governor of Shaanxi or so?
 
What if he allies himself as he tries to in our time line with the young marshall? They could be warlords together.
 
If Mao was a capitalist, you have fundamentally changed who he was as a person
Basically this.

But then, his personality may never change. His unruliness, his energy which compelled him to be always on the move and on the attack, his preference of chaos over order, his charisma which attracts him followers, I’d say he’d never be mediocre in any TL. Without a country to play with, he would not create a great disaster like IOTL, so he might be legendary in a less grand but more positive way.

On the other hand, without Mao, someone else may assume his historical role as “the leader of the local/peasant faction of Chinese communist movement”, as contrasted to the “international/urbanite” fashion.

Mao did read a lot of liberal philosophy and supported it at one point

Mao, like all young, educated Chinese men in the early 20th century, was exposed to and seduced by several different ideologies at a time.

But for those people, “to save the nation through industry” (實業救國) was almost a consensus. Mao spoke fondly of Zhang Jian (capitalist) even as a communist. So it was not implausible at all for Mao to become a capitalist.
 
Mao did read a lot of liberal philosophy and supported it at one point so he could have been a capitalist if he hadn't changed his views. But as a generic Kuomintang intellectual (I doubt he'd be a military figure) he's almost certainly going to be an absolute nobody in the RoC. He won't be president of China, Taiwan, or anywhere else.
Well, he could maneuver his way into a national ministry Post WWII, and from there, if he plays his cards right, he could be Prime Minister or Vice President...
 
Then he would've misunderstood capitalism like he misunderstood communism and do some insane shit while in power like having a Great Leap Forward equivalent where he turns the country into a parody of free-market principles where every tiniest country road gets privatised and someone installs a tollbooth, leading to a downfall of commerce and a nation-wide starvation he'd refuse to do anything about because he wouldn't want to interfere with the market.

When the US shows itself unwilling to nuke the USSR, he'd call Washingon out on being a bunch of socialists, claiming that he himself is the true leader of the "Free world". Of course, a few years down the line, he'd host the Soviet General Secretary and take him to see an opera, if there are opera houses left in his capital. After all, cinemas are far more profitable.

Not to mention, the security forces would've had their fun with the numerous "Socialist roaders" Mao would happen to stumble across as he safeguards China's free market.
 
Also, I doubt that "Quotations from Mao Zedong, CEO" would sell quite as well if it was left over to market forces.
 
Perhaps also he could have become a lee kew, sixty years earlier.

Singapore is tiny, the Republic of China was huge and corrupt. If we assume Mao is going to lead China even if he's a KMT capitalist, then his regime isn't going to be nearly as successful, and won't be a super-Taiwan either. I'd imagine lots of torture, imprisonment, and just outright murder like Pinochet's Chile, but with some of Mao's own ideas about how capitalism should work thrown in there.
 
Then he would've misunderstood capitalism like he misunderstood communism and do some insane shit while in power like having a Great Leap Forward equivalent where he turns the country into a parody of free-market principles where every tiniest country road gets privatised and someone installs a tollbooth, leading to a downfall of commerce and a nation-wide starvation he'd refuse to do anything about because he wouldn't want to interfere with the market.

When the US shows itself unwilling to nuke the USSR, he'd call Washingon out on being a bunch of socialists, claiming that he himself is the true leader of the "Free world". Of course, a few years down the line, he'd host the Soviet General Secretary and take him to see an opera, if there are opera houses left in his capital. After all, cinemas are far more profitable.

Not to mention, the security forces would've had their fun with the numerous "Socialist roaders" Mao would happen to stumble across as he safeguards China's free market.
Ayn Rand would probably learn Chinese and move there.
 
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