33. The Chinese Had to Believe in Mao Zedong Thought – or Else
Among the many kooky ideas propagated during the Cultural Revolution, was the belief in socialist science. That extended to a belief in a Chinese scientific system for earthquake prediction, whose accuracy was questionable. In 1975, the system actually did provide a timely warning of an upcoming earthquake, allowing for preventative measures that led to a remarkably low death toll. As subsequent events proved, however, that was a fluke.
China’s earthquake prediction system was held up as an example of the superiority of Chinese communism under Mao. Questioning that was to question Mao, and questioning Mao was ill-advised. Like other things touted by Mao’s regime as indicators of its superiority, belief in the earthquake prediction system had nothing to do with science and facts. Not that facts mattered much to Mao and his followers, who routinely dismissed contrary evidence as fake news. Instead, belief in China’s earthquake prediction system became a litmus test to separate “true party liners” from “right-wing deviationists”.
