Data.
数据
We pull the numbers, line them up, and say what they rest on.
Land reform 土改 · 1947 to 1952
How many died?
Six historians. Six numbers. A hundred thousand to five million. Nobody has the full archive.
SourceKind
The Great Famine 大饥荒 · 1958 to 1962
How many starved?
Four historians. Fifteen million to forty-five million dead. Provincial archives show where the grain went.
SourceKind
Suppressing counter-revolutionaries 镇反 · 1950 to 1953
How many were executed?
One telegram from Mao set the kill ratio at one per thousand. Even the Party's own count recorded 712,000 executions.
SourceKind