(The scene: Mao Zedong still stands in the dock.)

The Jade Emperor: Today is the final day of this trial. We now invite Confucius to present his views.

Confucius (rising): Mao Zedong read the classics of the sages in his youth. Unfortunately, he later followed the evil Russian path, overturned the civilization of his ancestors, incited barbaric rebellion, plunged China into repeated disasters, left the people destitute, and caused countless deaths. His crimes are enormous.

In 1966, Mao launched the so-called Cultural Revolution. The Central Cultural Revolution Group instructed more than 200 Red Guards from Beijing to go to Qufu to rebel. Under the slogan “Smash the Kong Family Shop,” they incited local rebels to “thoroughly destroy the Kong Family Shop.” They convened a mass rally of ten thousand people, smashed the State Council’s stele marking the site as a “National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit,” remained in Qufu for 29 days, burned more than 2,700 ancient books, destroyed over 900 scrolls of calligraphy and paintings—many of them first-class nationally protected cultural relics and rare editions—shattered more than 1,000 stone steles from successive dynasties, wrecked the Temple of Confucius, damaged the Kong Mansion and the Confucius Forest, and leveled Confucius’ tomb.

Mao destroyed the legacy of the ancestors, shook the foundations of the nation, and injured the roots of Chinese civilization, leaving the people confused and spiritually lost like headless flies. Moral order collapsed; the country nearly ceased to be a country. The harmful influence extends far beyond three generations. For two thousand years, though dynasties rose and fell and rebellions occurred, no one opposed Confucius. The ancestral civilization remained intact—until Mao Zedong, lawless and reckless, placed nothing above his so-called “supreme instructions” and his little red book of quotations.

Mao Zedong’s crimes are far greater than Hitler’s. Hitler killed people but did not destroy a civilization. Mao destroyed civilization; his crimes are greater still. Hitler repented thoroughly. Mao must likewise repent thoroughly—at least with three times the effort of Hitler—and use his influence to urge his successors to repent as well.

Mao’s successor, Xi Jinping, exploits foreigners’ favorable impression of Confucius by using him as a signboard, establishing five hundred so-called Confucius Institutes around the world as bases for red cultural infiltration and espionage. Many have now been exposed and shut down by foreign countries. If Xi truly wishes to restore Confucian civilization, why not first establish five hundred Confucius Institutes within China?

I once said: “The faults of a gentleman are like an eclipse of the sun and moon; when he corrects them, all look up to him.” But Mao was not a gentleman. As his wife Yang Kaihui frankly stated, Mao was a hooligan in life and a hooligan in politics. In his lifetime he never showed repentance. Empress Dowager Cixi committed grave errors—indeed great ones—provoking the Eight-Nation Alliance and the fall of the capital, causing one hundred thousand deaths. Yet when Cixi recognized her fault, she issued two self-reproach edicts and implemented reforms, proving she was a gentleman; when she corrected herself, all looked up to her. Even if Mao now utters words of regret, there is no action. His present successor continues under his influence, bringing calamity upon China.

The Jade Emperor: Confucius has exposed Mao Zedong’s successor Xi Jinping for failing to correct Mao’s anti-Confucian errors and restore Confucian civilization at home, instead using Confucius as a façade for red cultural infiltration abroad. Confucius demands that Mao learn from Hitler and repent thoroughly. Now we invite Jesus to speak.

Jesus (rising): Mao Zedong ruled China, destroyed civilization, destroyed religion; his crimes are monstrous. He overthrew Confucius and opposed God, suppressed Catholicism and Christianity, incited people to rebel and fight each other, dragging them back to a primitive jungle state, restoring barbaric bestiality and stripping away humanity, taking pleasure in it. He is an enemy of civilization.

The God worshiped in Christianity corresponds to the Heavenly Emperor long spoken of in China. The Catholic envoy Matteo Ricci came to Beijing in the late Ming dynasty in the 16th century, exchanged ideas with Chinese scholars. The Ming court accepted Catholicism; Ricci accepted Confucius and translated The Analects, publishing it in Paris. God and Confucius are not opposed; East and West built bridges between civilizations, living in harmony without inherent conflict.

Mao destroyed religion and civilization; the evil has not yet been eradicated. Mao’s successor Xi Jinping continues to suppress religious belief in China. Catholics and Christians are forced underground. Uyghurs in Xinjiang are persecuted and cannot practice their faith freely. The Dalai Lama of Tibet remains in exile abroad. More than one hundred Tibetan lamas have self-immolated in protest against religious persecution. Xi now again invokes Mao, reviving talk of class and class struggle. To defend freedom of religious belief and world civilization, one must oppose Mao’s destruction of religion, oppose Xi’s inheritance of Mao’s political legacy, oppose his ambition to expand a “red empire,” and oppose his continued damage to world civilization.

The Jade Emperor: Jesus testifies that Mao Zedong persecuted religion and destroyed freedom of belief.

The Jade Emperor: After ten days of public trial, with thirty witnesses testifying to Mao Zedong’s crimes and the evidence verified, I have reached the following judgment after comprehensive consideration:

“Mao Zedong is a demon against humanity. Disregarding the lives of the people, he concentrated all resources to accelerate the creation of the atomic bomb he regarded as his lifeline. Everything gave way to the atomic bomb, directly causing the great famine and the staggering rise in the number of starvation deaths. Among the countless principles of justice under heaven, respect for life is the first. To show no respect for life and to treat the lives of the people as ants is the gravest of crimes. When the atomic bomb was detonated, he summoned three thousand song-and-dance performers to celebrate. Second, during nationwide famine, he squandered enormous public wealth to build dozens of palatial residences for himself across the country. Third, he exported grain to fulfill his international communist commitments. Fourth, he armed militias to seal villages, allowing tens of millions of peasants to starve to death within, blocking information from reaching the outside world, deceiving the international community, and concealing the truth of millions upon millions of starvation deaths.

“Mao Zedong was utterly inhuman, devoid of conscience, allowing subordinates to cruelly kill citizens and fabricate countless wrongful cases. I personally received more than twenty victims, including Zhang Zhixin, Lin Zhao, Li Jiulian, Zhong Haiyuan, Yu Luoke, Wang Shenyou, Fang Zhongmou, Ding Zuxiao, Qi Yuanhua, Xu Huichang, Mao Yingxing, Lu Zhili, Ren Daxiong, Xie Hongshui, Ma Bohua, Shi Renxiang, Ma Mianzhen, Shi Yunfeng, Wang Shiwei, Chu Anping, Gu Zhun, and Fu Lei. They were people of ideals and talent, devoted national elites, representing millions of innocent victims. The massacres Mao inflicted upon his compatriots left bones piled like mountains and tears of blood flowing endlessly, shocking all ages and lands; heaven’s justice cannot tolerate it. The primitive bestiality unleashed by his cries of class struggle even led to horrifying acts not only of killing but of cannibalism, dragging Chinese civilization back thousands of years.

“Mao Zedong, bloodthirsty and cruel, guilty of innumerable crimes with conclusive evidence, bears extreme guilt. His thirty years of rule caused eighty million deaths, and for twenty years the entire nation endured severe food shortages. The Cultural Revolution he personally initiated and led gravely damaged Chinese civilization and completely destroyed human ethics. He stands as the greatest criminal in five thousand years of Chinese history. His crimes surpass those of Stalin and Hitler; he is foremost among the three greatest culprits in human history. To cast him into boiling oil, to tread the Flaming Mountain, to bind him forever to the pillar of shame, to make him kneel eternally before the dead—these are insufficient punishments. Mao, the tyrant, has committed grave sins and shows no deep repentance. His admission of error is but a trick to escape the eighteenth level of hell; he harbors no true compassion or reflection. To warn the descendants of China for tens of thousands of years, I decree the addition of a nineteenth level beneath the eighteenth hell. Mao Zedong’s soul shall be cast into the nineteenth level of hell. After one thousand years he may reincarnate—but never again as a human. In his next life after a thousand years, he shall be reborn as a snake. This judgment is the final verdict of history, effective for all eternity.”

(The Jade Emperor, impartial and resolute, announces the verdict. The gallery of a hundred spectators erupts in applause and cheers in firm support of the proclamation.)

Mao Zedong: Human life is weightier than heaven; respect for life stands above all. Yet I regarded the people as ants. Regardless of millions starving to death, I built dozens of palaces across the nation and mobilized all resources to hasten my atomic bomb. I lost all conscience, instructed Zhou Enlai to destroy reports of starvation deaths and erase the evidence. Had I possessed even a trace of humanity or compassion, thirty million fewer might have starved. I concealed the truth from the world, falsely claiming that China had never experienced starvation deaths.

Today Xi Jinping still waves my banner, shouting about global governance. Yet at the seventieth anniversary celebration, not a single foreign guest attended. Isolated and without popular support, with no crowds to watch, amid biting cold winds, the seventy-year nightmare rule threatens the world; gray smog fills the sky as if the heavens themselves would change.

I accept the judgment of the Jade Emperor. I shall kneel eternally before the dead compatriots, repent and atone for a thousand years, and beg forgiveness from the people.

(Court officers escort Mao Zedong away.)

(The century trial concludes successfully. The Jade Emperor, Confucius, and Jesus exit. Qin Shi Huang, Zhu Yuanzhang, and the Daoguang Emperor also exit. The crowd waves in farewell before dispersing.)

NEXT: Postscript