29. The Tangshan Disaster Discredited Mao and Mao Zedong Thought
The vaunted Chinese earthquake prediction system, touted by Mao’s communist followers, had not predicted the Tangshan disaster. The complete lack of warning, combined with a horrific death toll in the hundreds of thousands, was hard to ignore.
It was a stark failure that demonstrated to all – even if none dared say so – that the claims of the superiority of Chinese methods and communist science touted by Mao were ludicrous. It was against that backdrop of yet another demonstrable failure that an aged and ailing Mao went into his final decline, and died a month and a half later, on September 9th, 1976.