"In 1957, in a speech in Moscow, Mao said he was willing to lose 300 million people - half of China's population. Even if China lost half of its population, Mao said - the country would suffer no great loss. We could produce more people. It was not until the Great Leap Forward, when millions of Chinese began dying during the famine, that I became fully aware of how much Mao resembled the ruthless emperors he so admired. Mao knew people were dying by the millions. He did not care." - Dr. Li Zhisui (The Private Life of Chairman Mao)

I'm reading this crazy book. I look at the words. I even feel like I understand them... but I can't comprehend this.