Malcolm Turnbull said Mao founded China using the phrase ‘the Chinese people have stood up’, a widely held view that might not be entirely correct

'Mao did not say it': Australian PM's quote falls foul of China experts

Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull dusted off his Mandarin and doffed his hat to Chairman Mao on Saturday as he hit back at Chinese meddling in his country’s politics.



Turnbull says Australia will 'stand up' to China as foreign influence row heats up Read more

“Modern China was founded in 1949 with these words: ‘Zhongguo renmin zhanqilai’ – the Chinese people have stood up’,” Turnbull told reporters after Beijing accused him of poisoning ties by “pandering to irresponsible reports”.

“It was an assertion of sovereignty, it was an assertion of pride,” he continued. “And so we say: ‘Aodaliya renmin zhanqilai – the Australian people stand up.’”

It was an effective soundbite from Australia’s Great Helmsman – but perhaps not entirely historically correct. For while that phrase is widely remembered as the one with which Mao founded the People’s Republic of China – on 1 October 1949 – experts actually believe the revolutionary leader said nothing of the sort.

Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) . @TurnbullMalcolm : Turnbull has denied he feels intimidated or bullied by China's complaint. 'Chinese people stand up for their sovereignty and they expect Australian people and particularly Australian leaders to stand up for theirs'. MORE: https://t.co/sRwmUNcEVW pic.twitter.com/TtucgLLwM2

“In fact, Mao opened his famous speech that day with the words Zhongua renmin gongheguo zhongyang renmin zhengfu jintian chengli le – the central people’s government of the People’s Republic of China today is established,” the revered China scholar Perry Link writes in his 2013 book An Anatomy of Chinese.

In a 2009 report Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post drew the same conclusion.



“The quality of the official film footage of the founding ceremony of the ‘new’ China was as bad as it could be, with black and white images that were often dark, shaky and blurred, and muffled soundtracks full of noise and crackling,” the newspaper reported.

“Nonetheless, when Mao stood in front of a microphone in Tiananmen Square, speaking with a ribbon on his chest and a piece of paper in both hands, the slogan did not appear, nor did it anywhere in his address to the marching crowd during the rest of the ceremony.”

One witness told the newspaper: “I heard everything he said and to this day I remember very clearly all that was said. But I do not remember Mao saying, ‘The Chinese people have stood up’, and I don’t think he said it. I think it was too emotional a sentence to say at such a formal event.”

Two Chinese journalists who covered the Tiananmen ceremony agreed. One, from China’s official news agency, Xinhua, said: “After a thorough re-examination of my memory, the answer is very clear: Chairman Mao did not say it during the opening ceremony.”

In his book, Link claimed the phrase attributed to Mao was nevertheless authentic and had been uttered 10 days before the 1 October celebration. Others, however, have disputed even that.

In 2007, the Chinese academic Guan Huailun claimed Mao had used that earlier speech to declare: “The Chinese have stood up” not “The Chinese people have stood up”. “Despite being just a word off, [that] conveyed a totally different meaning,” Guan concluded.

