Li Ao definitely an interesting character lol.

Here’s a part where he talks about Mao (from 2009):

“由此可见，毛泽东是我们中华民族最伟大的英雄，历史将千秋万代铭记这一点。最近二十多年来，某些受西方影响的知识分子们(他们并不代表中国最广大的人民群众)恶毒攻击毛泽东，企图将中国重新拉回半殖民地的老路，使中国脱离向世界现代化强国冲刺的道路，沦为西方帝国主义的低级加工厂。”

“As we can see, Mao Zedong is a great hero of the Chinese people and he will remembered in history for many many generations. In the past twenty years, certain intellectuals were swayed by the west and have venomously attacked Mao’s character (but they do not represent the vast majority of the people). They aim to pull China back into a half feudal state, away from its path of becoming a strong nation and back into its status as a low level factory to serve the western imperialist states.”