Mao’s Women

Some time ago in these pages, I treated you to a slightly salacious account of the amatory exploits or lack thereof of Chiang Kai-shek. So it seems reasonable to give Chairman Mao the same treatment. And I have to say that in both cases this is justified not only by salacious curiosity, but by the fact that both Mao and Chiang had wives who had important political roles: in Chiang’s case we are talking of Mayling Soong, one of the greatest women of the twentieth century; in Mao’s of Jiang Qing, who wielded influence quite out of proportion to either her official political position or her personal capabilities. Power is the greatest aphrodisiac and Chairman Mao had lots of that. But beyond that, their choices in women and their treatment of their partners speak volumes about their characters. In Mao’s case, he was clearly attracted to forceful intelligent women (although where Jiang Qing fits into this analysis is unclear). His treatment of them is almost universally driven…