Life under Mao Tse–tung was strange and brutish. While he was chairman of China, he introduced some policies that didn’t work well and that eventually killed an estimated 45–75 million of his own people. Under the feverish sway of Mao’s cult of personality, people in China got a little weird—and there are some lesser-known stories from Mao’s rule that you’d never imagine.

10 Mao Sent Mangoes To People, And They Went Crazy

In 1968, a Pakistani foreign minister gave Mao a gift: a cart full of mangoes. To the minister, this was probably nothing more than a simple gesture. But in China, it sparked a wave of complete insanity.

Mao gave the mangoes to a few people on his propaganda team, and they reacted as if Mao had just dragged an angel down from Heaven and dropped him on their doorstep. The People’s Daily wrote an article saying that “tears swelled up in their eyes” with the joy of getting a mango and that they “cried out enthusiastically and sang with wild abandonment.”

A textile factory put their mango in a shrine and had workers pass by and pay respects to it when they entered. When the mango went bad, they made a replica of the mango and kept it in the shrine so that no worker would have to start their day without giving thanks for the mango.

9 A Man Was Executed For Comparing Mangoes To Sweet Potatoes

As most Chinese people had never seen a mango before, the experience was life-changing for every single person honored enough to behold this juicy tropical fruit. That is, every person except for one.

A dentist got the chance to see a mango in person and somehow was not impressed. He denounced the mango as being similar to a sweet potato, which made the people furious.

The dentist was arrested on charges of “counterrevolutionary speech.” He was sent to prison and, shortly after, executed for the crime of saying mangoes kind of look like sweet potatoes. Nobody ever dared to scoff at mangoes again.

8 Stamp Collecting Was Made A Crime

Mao tried to put an end to every hint of bourgeoisie in his country. Sometimes, this meant putting an end to corrupt businesses and wealthy landowners. Other times, it meant tearing up children’s stamp collections.

Reportedly, Mao hated stamps. He viewed collecting them as a bourgeois pastime and, when the Cultural Revolution began, banned his people from keeping stamps in any collected form.

The ruling stayed in place until Mao died, and it took until he was gone before Chinese hobbyists could openly show off the stamps they’d slipped off envelopes. Ironically, the effect of Mao’s ban is that stamps from the Cultural Revolution are now among the most prized and sought after in the world.

7 Students Were Encouraged To Beat Their Teachers

The Communist Party of China encouraged its people to “clear away the evil habits of the old society” and tear down the old ideas of their forefathers. Although there’s no proof they ever explicitly said that meant “beat your teacher to death,” that’s definitely how people took it.

In 1966, students in at least 91 separate schools dragged their teachers into the streets and beat them until they decried their corrupt ways. In some instances, the students splashed ink on the teachers’ clothes and hung boards on them with their names crossed out with red X’s. Then the students beat these teachers with nail-spiked clubs and burned them with scalding water, often until they died.

By the end, 18 educators had been killed by their students and many more had committed suicide over the humiliation. Meanwhile, Mao sat back and ordered his security not to interfere with what the students were doing. He didn’t let the army try to restore order for a full two years.

6 The Great Wall Was Torn Down For Building Materials

During the 1970s, the Chinese government realized that it didn’t need to waste so much money on building materials for housing. After all, the longest wall in the world was just sitting there taking up space. With another chance to destroy an old relic, they encouraged people to start dismantling the Great Wall for the spare bricks.

Villagers living near the Great Wall tore parts of it down and then worked the bricks into their homes. Even the government tore down whole sections and used the parts to build a dam.

The Great Wall eventually became a heritage site, and the area was protected. To this day, though, there are still a few houses with great chunks of history holding up their walls.

5 Tigers Were Declared An Enemy Of The People And Nearly Eradicated

In 1959, Mao got fed up with tigers. After farmers in China were attacked by animals, Mao announced that tigers—along with wolves and leopards—were “enemies of the people” and should be destroyed.

The Communist Party sparked a number of “anti-pest” campaigns that encouraged people to seek out and kill predatory animals. In just a few years, the Chinese had slaughtered nearly 75 percent of the world’s population of South Asian tigers and brought these animals to the brink of extinction.

4 The Red Guard Wanted To Make People Go On Red Traffic Lights

The Red Guard was on a constant lookout for anything that might be counterrevolutionary. In September 1966, some of them noticed something insidious—people were stopping their cars when they saw red traffic lights.

Since red was the color of the party, the group decided that stopping on red and driving on green was “obstructing the progress of revolution,” and they marched to demand an end to it. From then on, the men declared, they would force people to drive on red.

Fortunately, the Red Guard was stopped by China’s Premier Chou En-lai before they could put their plan into motion. Premier Chou sat the men down and assured them that stopping on red symbolized how the party “guarantees the safety of all revolutionary activities.” An onslaught of riots and traffic accidents was just barely avoided.

3 People Were Arrested For Owning Ties

According to writer Liang Heng, you could get into trouble in Mao’s time just for dressing well. Liang recounts a story in which his father was nearly sent to prison because he was found in possession of a tie.

Members of the Red Guard had broken into Liang’s home and were searching through his father’s things when they found a tie. A Red Guard held up the tie and announced that it was “capitalist.” When Liang’s father was found to own a suit and cuff links, he was denounced as a “stinking intellectual,” and then his clothes and books were gathered together and burned.

Liang’s father escaped imprisonment by agreeing to state that burning his possessions was “a revolutionary action” and a good thing. Still, he didn’t emerge unscathed. The Red Guards took his radio and a month’s salary as payment before leaving his home.

2 People Cannibalized Each Other To Show Their Dedication To The Party

In Mao’s China, cannibalism was a major problem. According to some reports, some of the students who killed their principals ate the dead bodies as a way of celebrating their triumph over counterrevolutionaries. A government-run cafeteria also allegedly displayed the bodies of traitors on meathooks and served their flesh for lunch.

The worst cases were in Guangxi Province. In the late 1960s, at least 137 people were killed and eaten in that province alone. These bodies were usually shared with others, suggesting that there were likely thousands of people who committed cannibalism.

While there’s almost no doubt that starvation was part of the reason this happened, the people who did it didn’t see themselves as desperate. The acts of cannibalism were touted as a way of showing just how feverishly dedicated a person was to the cause of the party. If you were willing to eat China’s enemies, they figured, no one could say you were taking the cause lightly.

1 Mao Tried To Gift 10 Million Women To The US

In 1973, in Mao’s later years, he sat down with Henry Kissinger, hoping to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with the United States. At first, Kissinger reportedly tried to keep the conversation on serious topics, but Mao’s mind was on other things.

Mao told Kissinger that China was a “very poor country” and had little to offer in a trade agreement—except, that is, for women. He offered to send 10 million women to the US, saying that he had them in excess and that they only caused problems.

As Mao riffed on about how women were ruining the country, one of his party members warned him that, if his words got out, “it would incur the public wrath.” The dying Mao, though, was getting old and tired. He didn’t seem too worried.

“I’m not afraid of anything,” the chairman said between heavy coughs. “God has sent me an invitation.”

Ancient Rome wasn’t known for its enlightened attitude toward women. They were expected to be homemakers and to stay out of public life. Yet some women did manage to gain political power behind the scenes—even if they had to be ruthless to keep it.

10Messalina

Messalina is best remembered for accusations about her wild sexual escapades, which Roman writers tended to throw at anyone they didn’t like. Pliny the Elder even claimed that she had sex with 25 men in a row to win a contest with Rome’s most famous prostitute.

This hostility probably came from the fact that Messalina was the most powerful woman in Roman history up to that point. Her husband was Claudius, who became emperor mostly because his ambitious relatives considered him a drooling idiot and never bothered having him murdered. When Caligula was assassinated, Claudius was found hiding behind a curtain and took the throne as the last man standing.

Messalina dominated her meek husband and soon controlled his administration. Anyone who opposed her risked being arrested on false charges. She even persuaded Claudius to execute her stepfather by saying she’d dreamed he was plotting against the emperor.

But she went too far in AD 48, when she married another man. It was probably a coup attempt, with Messalina and her new husband planning to replace Claudius entirely. Unfortunately, Rome’s bureaucrats preferred the easily manipulated Claudius and persuaded him to put the conspirators to death. They prevented Messalina from seeing Claudius before her execution, fearing she would be able to talk him out of it.

9Agrippina

After Messalina’s death, Claudius rewrote Rome’s incest laws and married his niece, Agrippina, a hardened veteran of imperial intrigue. (Her sister had been starved to death on Messalina’s orders.) As before, Claudius was easily pushed around by his new wife, who quickly took control of the empire. Agrippina even signed government documents and officially dealt with foreign ambassadors.

Agrippina had a son, Nero, from a previous marriage, and she was determined to make him emperor. She talked Claudius into adopting Nero and favoring him over his biological son, Britannicus. Anyone who opposed Nero was systematically eliminated.

After Claudius granted Nero equal imperial power, Agrippina decided that she no longer needed Claudius and served him a tasty dish of poisonous mushrooms. Lucky to the end, Claudius suffered a massive bout of diarrhea, which saved him from the poison. But Agrippina’s allies were everywhere, and Claudius’s doctor pushed more poison down his throat with a feather. Nero became emperor, and Agrippina’s triumph was complete.

8Poppaea Sabina

After Nero became emperor, Agrippina continued to exert influence behind the scenes. However, she met her match in her son’s lover, Poppaea Sabina.

Poppaea wanted Nero to marry her, but he was already married to Octavia, daughter of Claudius and Messalina. Agrippina had worked hard to secure the match (even framing Octavia’s first fiance for treason) and refused to allow her son to get divorced. Meanwhile, Poppaea (whose mother had been forced into suicide by Messalina) hated Octavia and demanded that Nero stand up to his mother.

Trapped between the women in his life, Nero chose Poppaea and gave his mother a boat designed to collapse and kill her. But Agrippina survived and swam to safety. Worse, she knew it was an assassination attempt because she had seen the crew of a “rescue” ship clubbing survivors to death with their oars. In a panic, Nero gave up on making it look like an accident and had his mother hacked to death. She supposedly went out bravely, telling the her son’s henchmen to strike the first blow at her womb.

7Julia Domna

After a male-dominated century, powerful women made a major comeback in Rome during the Severan dynasty, which was arguably a dynasty of women. The trend started with Julia Domna, wife and trusted adviser to Emperor Septimius Severus.

Domna really came into her own following Septimius’s death in AD 211, when he was succeeded by their sons, Caracalla and Geta. Domna played a dominant role in their administration and officially ran the empire while Caracalla was on campaign.

Although Domna was an excellent administrator, she was unable to prevent tragedy from stalking her family. First, Caracalla killed Geta in a fit of rage. Then, Caracalla was murdered by the prefect Macrinus. This was too much for Domna, who chose to commit suicide after hearing the news.

6Julia Soaemias

After murdering Caracalla, Macrinus seized power and declared himself emperor. But he underestimated the Severan women. Julia Maesa (Domna’s sister) and her daughter, Julia Soaemias, were determined to get revenge on Macrinus and restore their family to power.

In a campaign of furious intrigue, Soaemias and Maesa persuaded the legions of the East to support Soaemias’s son, Elagabalus. Since Elagabalus wasn’t actually a blood relation of Septimius Severus, they started a rumor that he was Caracalla’s illegitimate son by incest, which somehow worked in their favor.

Macrinus raced to put down the rebellion, but he was defeated and executed outside Antioch. Elagabalus became emperor, but the 14-year-old was uninterested in governing. Maesa and Soaemias were the real rulers of Rome during his reign.

5Julia Maesa

While Soaemias helped rule the empire, Elagabalus was allowed to indulge his every whim and soon developed a reputation for wild debauchery. He supposedly prostituted himself in the imperial palace and married a charioteer named Hierocles. Cassius Dio claimed that he offered a fortune to any surgeon who could give him a vagina.

On another occasion, he fell for an athlete named Zoticus, who supposedly had a huge penis. The jealous Hierocles spiked his rival’s drink, and “after a whole night of embarrassment, being unable to secure an erection, he was driven out of the palace, out of Rome, and later out of the rest of Italy.”

Whether these stories are true is debatable, but it’s clear that Elagabalus quickly alienated most of Rome, and his mother was unwilling to rein him in. His grandmother, Maesa, eventually stepped in and staged a coup, deposing Elagabalus in favor of his cousin Alexander, the second emperor she’d put on the throne. In a shocking show of ruthlessness, Maesa had her daughter and grandson executed to secure Alexander’s power base.

4Julia Mamaea

Maesa died shortly after putting Alexander on the throne. She was succeeded by her daughter, Julia Mamaea, Alexander’s mother and the last of the dynasty of women who effectively ruled Rome. Historians agree that Mamaea “totally dominated” her young son and ran the empire with the help of a council of senators.

She even joined the army on military campaigns, which was unheard-of for a woman. Unfortunately, the wars went badly, and the legions eventually mutinied. Soldiers murdered Alexander and Mamaea as they clung together in their tent, ending the Severan dynasty.

3Ulpia Severina

Ulpia Severina was the wife of Emperor Aurelian, a renowned general who was murdered by his own soldiers in AD 275. Other than that, almost nothing is known about her. We’re only aware of her existence from monuments and coins, which suggest that she ruled for a brief period after Aurelian’s death.

During Aurelian’s reign, Roman mints issued some coins in his name and some coins in Severina’s name. (This was standard practice.) However, coins from the time of Aurelian’s death only appear to have been issued in Severina’s name. The coins also bear images consistent with Severina trying to shore up her power.

Ancient sources mention a gap between Aurelian’s death and Tacitus taking the throne, and some historians speculate that Severina ruled during this period, only to be erased from history after Tacitus took charge. However, her coins were already in circulation and couldn’t be erased. Severina may have been the first woman to rule the Roman Empire in her own right.

2Aelia Pulcheria

Aelia Pulcheria was a childhood prodigy who declared herself regent for her brother when she was 15—only two years older than her brother. She kept a tight grip on power for the next four decades. To shore up her position, she took a vow of perpetual chastity and cultivated a religious reputation.

However, Pulcheria ran into problems when her brother died in 450. Although she had long been the true power in the Eastern Roman Empire, it was unheard-of for a woman to rule alone. The easiest solution was for Pulcheria to get married, but she refused to violate her vow of chastity. In an unusual move, she eventually did marry a senator named Marcian, who became her co-emperor after he publicly agreed that they would never have sex.

1Galla Placidia

The daughter of Emperor Theodosius, Galla Placidia lived during the dying days of the Western empire. As a young woman, she proved her toughness by confirming a death sentence for the woman who had raised her. A few years later, the Visigoths sacked Rome and kidnapped Placidia. They intended to ransom her to her brother, Emperor Honorius, but he declined to pay, and the Visigoths dragged Placidia around Europe for the next six years.

In 414, Placidia married the young Visigoth king Athaulf. They were supposedly genuinely in love, but Athaulf was murdered within the year. Placidia returned to Rome, where she married Emperor Constantius. After Constantius died, a usurper tried to steal the throne from the couple’s infant son. Placidia fled to Constantinople, where she persuaded her niece, Pulcheria, to give her an army.

Returning to Rome, Placidia made her son emperor and ruled as regent for the next 14 years.

Throughout history, a few remarkable women managed to rise to the top of male-dominated societies and take power in their own right. Their names echo through history: Hatshepsut, Cleopatra, Wu Zetian. But it was more common for powerful women to need to cloak their rule through male puppets. These women have largely been forgotten today, even though behind the scenes they dominated some of the most powerful empires in world history.

10Marozia

In the early 10th century, Europe seemed in a state of terminal decline. The Frankish Empire was crumbling, and the power of the pagan Vikings was growing. In the South, Muslims had conquered Spain and Sicily, while the nomadic Hungarians had swept across the Carpathians. Only the Catholic Church seemed to hold Europe together. And the Church was led by a remarkable woman: the senator Marozia.

Marozia was the daughter of Count Theophylact, the most powerful man in Rome. After his death, Marozia inherited his power base and declared herself “senatrix.” When Pope John X tried to challenge her, she threw him into prison, where he quickly and mysteriously died. She then installed a succession of puppet popes, with herself the real power behind the Throne of Saint Peter.

In 931, Pope Stephen VII died and Marozia appointed her son, John XI, to replace him. By now, her power in Rome was complete, but she wanted more. In 932, she sealed a deal to marry Hugh of Arles, the king of Italy. The Pope was to declare the couple emperor and empress, rightful overlords of all of Europe.

But a tiny incident would derail all of Marozia’s grand plans. From a previous marriage, Marozia had a teenage son named Alberic who hated his new stepdad. When Hugh slapped Alberic in the face for spilling some water, it was the last straw. Alberic incited the Roman citizens to riot against the foreign Hugh, who only escaped by climbing down the city walls with a rope. Alberic then imprisoned his mother and took her place as the real ruler of Rome.

9Toregene

After Genghis Khan died, power passed to his third son, Ogedei. He was an inoffensive alcoholic chosen mainly because his older brothers hated each other and would probably have started a civil war. Ogedei seems to have left much of the job of ruling to his wife, Toregene, as several proclamations in her name predate his death.

After Ogedei drank himself into an early grave, Toregene officially took power until a successor could be elected. She proceeded to delay the election for five years while she ruled one of the greatest empires in history, stretching from China to Russia. The Seljuk sultan journeyed to pay homage to her, as did the Grand Prince Yaroslav, who died mysteriously after feasting with her.

While she ruled the empire, Toregene sought to ensure her power base by having her son Guyuk elected khan. Since everyone hated Guyuk, this required a massive campaign of bribery, which Toregene funded by imposing an aggressive new form of tax farming. She died in 1246, one year after finally securing her son’s election to succeed her.

8Kosem Sultan

The most powerful woman of the 17th century came to Istanbul as a slave around 1600. She was Greek originally. But she took the name Kosem when she was sold to the imperial harem, where she soon became the favorite wife of Sultan Ahmed I. She made her first grab for power after Ahmed’s death, when she maneuvered his mentally ill brother, Mustafa, onto the throne.

Mustafa was quickly deposed by his nephew Osman, and Kosem retreated into the background for a few years. She returned in 1623 when her young son Murad IV became sultan. (Osman had been murdered by his Janissary slave-soldiers in the interim.) Kosem became regent during her son’s childhood, ruling the empire for over a decade.

Kosem again took power in 1640 when Murad died and was replaced with his mentally ill brother Ibrahim. (Mentally ill brothers were something of a tradition among the Ottomans.) She quickly found Ibrahim too erratic to control and organized his murder in 1648. After that, she continued to rule as regent for his young son Mehmed IV.

7Turhan

After Mehmed IV took the throne, Kosem continued to rule as regent, modestly directing her ministers from behind an ornate curtain. This was deeply resented by the boy’s mother, Turhan, who thought the regency should have been hers. But Kosem’s power seemed unassailable. She commanded the personal loyalty of the Janissary Corps, and her vast estates made her one of the richest people on Earth.

To make matters worse, Kosem realized that Mehmed and his mother were beginning to show signs of independence and began making plans to have them killed. In 1651, Turhan was tipped off to a plot to poison the sultan’s sherbet and knew she had to act.

Turhan decided that the only option was a rapid palace coup, giving Kosem no time to summon her Janissary allies. On September 2, Turhan and her eunuchs rapidly attacked Kosem’s apartments and killed the guards. Kosem tried to hide in a closet. But she was dragged out and strangled with some curtains.

With Kosem gone, Turhan took the regency and effectively ruled the empire until 1656, when she agreed to transfer power to the Grand Vizier Koprulu Mehmed Pasha.

6Sorghaghtani

Although almost forgotten today, Sorghaghtani was one of the most famous women of the 13th century. The Persian chronicler Rashid al-Din wrote that the “great emirs and troops” of the Mongols “never swerved a hair’s breadth from her command.” Meanwhile, an impressed poet declared that “if all women were like unto her, then women would be superior to men.”

Sorghaghtani was the wife of Tolui, the youngest son of Genghis Khan. When Tolui died, Sorghaghtani was appointed regent of his estates, even though her oldest son was already 23. She quickly established herself as a power player in Mongol politics and helped to place Guyuk Khan on the throne.

When Guyuk died in 1248, Sorghaghtani saw her chance. She formed an alliance with the powerful Batu, khan of the Golden Horde, and began a massive campaign of bribery to have her son Mongke elected Great Khan. In this she was opposed by Guyuk’s family, but Sorghaghtani was relentless and even personally oversaw the torture and execution of Guyuk’s wife, Oghul Qaimish.

Sorghaghtani was successful, and all four of her sons became powerful khans thanks to her years of careful planning and manipulation.

5Ahhotep

Ahhotep I lived in interesting times. In the 1500s BC, ancient Egypt seemed to be crumbling under internal pressures and a fearsome group of invaders known as the Hyksos. Ahhotep was the sister-wife of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao, who was executed by the Hyksos in the 1560s. Analysis of his mummy reveals that his death involved two axe blows to the head and a dagger to the neck.

After her husband’s death, Ahhotep became regent for her young son Ahmose I. As well as ruling Egypt, she seems to have personally rallied her husband’s forces to fight off the Hyksos and Egyptian rebels. After this feat, she began wearing the “Golden Flies of Valor,” a decoration given to distinguished Egyptian generals.

Her son later erected an inscription in her honor: “Give praise to the lady of the land, the mistress of the lands, whose name is (held) high in every foreign country, who has made many plans . . . who took care of [Egypt]. She looked after its troops, she guarded them, she rounded up its fugitives, brought back its deserters, she pacified the South and she repelled those who rebelled against her.”

Ahhotep lived to a ripe old age (perhaps around 90) and was buried with great honor, wearing the Golden Flies of Valor around her neck.

4Zoe

Although she formally ruled with a series of husbands, Zoe was unquestionably the true ruler of the Byzantine Empire, which stretched throughout the Balkans and Asia. In fact, her only real rival was her sister Theodora, who eventually claimed the title of co-empress before Zoe could sideline her again.

Zoe and Theodora were the daughters of Constantine VIII. Since the emperor had no sons, Zoe was married to the powerful urban prefect Romanos, who became emperor when Constantine died. Zoe at once exiled her sister, poisoned Romanos, and married her chamberlain, who was put on the throne as Michael IV.

When Michael IV died, his nephew tried to seize the throne and exile Zoe. The palace was immediately attacked by an enraged mob who demanded their empress back. With the citizens of Constantinople behind her, Zoe had the unfortunate usurper castrated, blinded, and exiled to a monastery.

Unfortunately, the mob also demanded Theodora. Zoe was forced to accept her sister as coruler until Zoe outflanked Theodora by marrying Constantine IX Monomachus, who became co-emperor. Zoe dominated the empire until her death in 1050, after which her husband and sister continued to rule.

3Arsinoe

Arsinoe was the daughter of Ptolemy I, a Macedonian general who had seized Egypt when Alexander the Great died. Arsinoe was married to Lysimachus, another general who had taken control of Thrace and soon became a key player in the wars between Alexander’s successors. Among other things, Arsinoe poisoned Lysimachus’s son by his first marriage and then had her own children murdered by her second husband.

Around 279 BC, Arsinoe fled back to Egypt, where her brother Ptolemy II had inherited the throne. She quickly proved the most formidable politician in the kingdom, having her brother’s wife exiled on false charges and then marrying him herself, scandalizing Greek society.

As queen, Arsinoe soon sidelined her brother and established herself as the effective ruler of Egypt. She was referred to as a pharaoh in official documents and issued coins in her name, depicting her in full pharaonic regalia. She and her brother were often depicted as Isis and Osiris in art, invoking ancient Egyptian traditions to justify their marriage.

Arsinoe died around 268, leaving behind a powerful cult centered around her worship. Her brother never remarried, although he ruled for another 20 years.

2Empress Wei

Wei was the wife of Emperor Zhongzong, who ruled Tang Dynasty China in the early eighth century. Her husband had succeeded Wu Zetian, the only woman to rule China in her own right. Wei was said to be a great admirer of Wu and sought to emulate her power and ruthlessness.

Luckily, her husband was widely agreed to be a “timid and weak-willed person” who was happy to leave the business of governing to his tougher and smarter wife. She quickly built a powerful clique at court, including many of Wu’s former ministers. Anyone who opposed her risked death. On one occasion, the Minister of War brutally murdered an officer just for criticizing the empress.

After five years, Wei’s reign hit a problem when her husband suddenly died. (It was widely rumored that Wei had poisoned him.) With the official emperor dead, Wei knew that challengers would emerge to claim the throne. So she concealed his death until she could call in 50,000 troops to surround the palace.

Unfortunately, her enemies were inside the palace. Her husband’s sister and nephew, Princess Taiping and Li Longji, staged a coup one night. Wei tried to escape, but was killed by the soldiers she had ordered to surround the palace. They had decided they preferred to be on the winning side.

1Nur Jahan

In the 1620s, the mighty Mughal Empire stretched across the Indian subcontinent. Officially, it was ruled by the emperor Jahangir. In reality, Jahangir was a weak, alcoholic, opium addict and true power rested with his wife, Nur Jahan.

This was no great secret: Nur Jahan issued proclamations in her own name and had coins minted bearing her image. She even held the royal seal, which was used to stamp all official orders.

A later visitor to the court wrote that women’s power “is sometimes exerted in the harem; but, like the virtues of a magnet, it is silent and unperceived. Nur Jahan stood forth in public; she broke through all restraints and custom, and acquired power by her own address.”

Her archrival was the general and minister Mahabat Khan. When Nur Jahan had his son-in-law arrested, Mahabat responded by seizing Jahangir in a coup. Nur Jahan personally led her troops in an attempt to seize him back and then organized a cunning escape plan. Mahabat’s gamble had failed, and Nur Jahan’s power was left unchecked.

You’re probably reading this outside of China thinking, ‘China doesn’t control me in any way,’ but there’s a good chance the People’s Republic of China has a lot more influence on your life than you may think.

While some people may be facing economic hardships due to a trade dispute, or some such political nonsense, odds are, you’re impacted by people over in China all the time. These examples highlight just how the Chinese have taken control of all of our lives.

See Also: 10 Ways Life Will Change If China Becomes The World’s Superpower

10 China Owns Tik-Tok

Fact: Tik-Tok Is Owned By China

Tik-Tok is an app, which was released in 2017, but it has gone on to become one of the most popular short-video social media apps for young people all over the world. Even if you don’t use the app, you probably know several people who do, and if you think that there’s no way an app like Tik-Tok could have an influence on the world’s millennial generation, you may not be aware of Tik-Tok’s reach. By the end of 2019, the app had been downloaded more than 80 million times in the United States alone.^[1]

Since the app is owned and operated out of China, the U.S. government has labeled it a national security threat following an investigation by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.^[2] Specifically, the app was noted as identifying the location and activities of members of the Armed Forces who use Tik-Tok. Even more concerning, the biometric data obtained by the app is freely shared with the Chinese government, which has dominance over the cyber industry in the country. If you use the app, odds are, someone in the Chinese government knows about it.^[3]

9 China Owns Reddit

Fact: Reddit Is A Vehicle Of Chinese Propaganda

Reddit is an American company, so you might think it was outside China’s sphere of influence. As a public company, this is not the case, and when the site raised $300 million in February 2019 through stock sales, one of the principal investors was Tencent Holdings Ltd.,^[4] a Chinese internet company. The purchase/financing sparked a backlash on the site, which was mainly due to China’s policy of blocking content it finds offensive/potentially inflammatory. These include videos of the Tiananmen Square Protest and even pictures of Winnie the Pooh following online comparisons between the beloved bear and the Chinese Dictator Xi Jinping.

Reddit confirmed Tencent’s backing at $150 million^[5], and there’s no way the company/Chinese government would invest that amount of capital without gaining some level of influence. China is one of the leaders in cyber defense/offense and seeing as it also possesses one of the most influential propaganda programs in the world, there is little doubt Reddit is a popular destination for potential influence. The site is rife with Chinese trolls, most commonly referred to as “Chinabots”^[6] by the online community and the only subreddit that supports the current US president (The_Donald) has been put into permanent quarantine so its influence cannot spread. Pro-communism subreddits are, of course, left entirely to their own devices.^[7]

8 China Owns Hollywood

Fact: Chinese Influence On American Cinema Is All About The Benjamins

If you’ve been looking over the landscape of Hollywood action cinema in recent years and thought there was a prevalence of giant robots and explosions, you can thank the Chinese film market. While this example is far less nefarious than the ones listed previously, there is no doubt that the average Chinese moviegoer loves to see movies featuring over-the-top action sequences, huge explosions, and amazing fight scenes. While the west enjoys these things as well, the European and American box office receipts would never have allowed for six+Transformers movies had the films not done as well as they did in China.

Chinese moviegoers often make up the bulk of a movie’s audience around the world, which means Chinese cash has taken over the market.^[8] Why would a movie production company invest millions in a picture the American audience wouldn’t like when the same investment in a tired action schtick earns massive cash in China? The easy answer is, they often don’t. This is the reason Michael Bay keeps making movies despite the west’s rampant disapproval in his work. Chinese people will see his movies, and many more like it,^[9] so he gets to make more.

7 Global Power

Fact: China Is Quickly Becoming A Global Power

Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States of America has long been referred to as the world’s last superpower. China is looking to join that club, and it hasn’t been working at it by invading countries, or by destabilizing governments; China has made its way onto the world stage through pure force of will… and a lot of money. China’s stake in the global economy in 1990 was just 2%, but by 2014, that number had jumped to 13%^[10] and growing.

By 2018, China had grown its economy to become the second in the world, falling just behind the United States. Over the previous 30+ years, the country moved beyond Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan to take its current spot, which was noted in 2018 as having a GDP of 13.6 trillion.^[11] What does this mean for the average American? China owns a massive amount of American debt, which means any money you pay in taxes sees a percentage going to the PRC in payment of that debt.^[12]

6 Goodbye Free Speech

Fact: The Chinese Government Has Limited American Free Speech

If you’re an American, odds are, you’re familiar with the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides Americans with freedom of speech alongside other rights. In late 2019, a rise in protests in Hong Kong over issues the citizens had with an increase in Chinese influence gained the attention of the rest of the world. Many westerners made comments online and in interviews, offering their support to the protesters while condemning the Chinese government. As you can imagine, the PRC government didn’t take too kindly to this.

While China can’t tell an American citizen what they can say on their home turf, the nation can limit the airing of NBA games on its televisions, which translates into a massive loss of revenue for the professional sports organization.^[13] The General Manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, tweeted an image with the words, “Fight for Freedom. Stand for Hong Kong,” which led to an immediate backlash from China. At first, the NBA sided with China and issued an apology, but this drew immediate condemnation from members of the U.S. Congress.^[14] Ultimately, Morey’s speech wasn’t suppressed, but the influence China had on the NBA was palpable.

5 Military Focus

Fact: China’s Push Towards Becoming A Superpower Has Shifted The West’s Military Focus

China has grown on the world stage as an economic powerhouse, and while this has made huge changes to the global economy, it’s also caused a ripple in defense spending throughout the west. The United States and China are far from calling one another enemies, but they are potential adversaries when it comes to military dominance of the Pacific. This is especially the case due to China’s insistence on creating islands wherever it can to extend its national boundaries in the South China Sea.^[15]

In terms of military spending, you can rest assured that the United States didn’t develop the F-22 Raptor or F-35 Lightning to counter threats from ISIS. Those weapon platforms are designed to take on similar aircraft, and those are only a couple the public knows about. Military training exercises and wargaming are featuring potential Chinese actors more and more, and any changes in training or allocation of additional equipment and training mean an increase in expense. Currently, the U.S. spends around $680 billion^[16] on defense while China spends an estimated $175 billion, but that number is trending higher, and the west is following suit.^[17]

4 Raw Materials

Fact: China Has Most Of The World’s Rare Earth Elements… And You Need Them!

Rare Earth elements are some of the most difficult elements to find and process, and to top it all off, they are vital in the electronics industry. Everything from the camera lens on your phone to the solar panels used to create renewable energy contains bits and pieces of rare earth elements, and China has a monopoly on mining and processing them. China accounts for more than 95% of the world’s production of these elements, which puts the nation in a position of power over the rest of the world.^[18]

To be clear, rare earth elements aren’t exactly rare, but they do form in limited concentrations (deposits), which are difficult to mine and even harder to process. The United States closed its only processing facility in the early 2000s, and since that time, demand for rare earth elements has increased exponentially with the advent of new electronics, high-performance aircraft, and weapons systems.^[19] So long as China holds the monopoly on processing rare earth elements, you can rest assured of your dependence on the Communist nation.^[20]

3 Made In China

Fact: Most Of The Products We Use Are Manufactured In China

There’s a joke that everything in the United States is made in China, and while the statement isn’t 100% true, it is about 10% accurate.^[21] More and more companies are moving their production to China, and the reason is rather simple; Chinese labor is abundant, readily available, and, most importantly, cheap. All of the west’s standards to worker’s rights and minimum salary expectations are thrown out the window to save money on product costs, and as a result, we can purchase our products relatively cheaply if they aren’t made in the USA.

A lot of the consumer goods we buy are made in the USA but assembled in China. This is a term often seen on products in the west. It’s cheaper to ship parts to China, have Chinese workers assemble them, and return them to the U.S. than it is to do everything in the States.^[22] This applies to a wide array of products, but one of the most important, the iPhone and most Apple products, are assembled and/or manufactured in China.^[23] Bottom line: if you’re reading this on your iPhone, you owe some thanks to the Chinese people and their government.

2 Google Kowtows To China

Fact: China’s Influence Over Google May Become Problematic

Google has long been the champion of free speech, but the company that helped build the modern Internet via its search engine and other products has been slowly acceding itself to China. Back in May of 2018, Google removed a phrase from its corporate code of conduct, which had been the standard since 2000. That phrase was “Don’t be evil,” and it looks like the company might be taking the darker path when it comes to working with China.^[24]

For years, China has blocked Google and its products from its people through the “Great Chinese Firewall,” but Google wants a piece of the action in one of the largest and fastest-growing economies on the planet. Google has been quietly working behind the scenes, to help develop a censored search engine code called “Dragonfly” in a bid to bring China into its list of customers. Chinese influence upon Google in this capacity has the potential to impact search results in the west, and any form of Internet censorship on a western audience is highly suspect and dangerous.^[25] Should this trend continue, a market of 800 million+ Chinese Internet customers may hold an advantage on a substantially smaller U.S.U.S. market.

1 Chinese Hackers

Fact: Chinese Hackers Have Probably Hacked You At Least Once

When it comes to hackers, the United States and its allies in Europe are far behind what China has in terms of people and capability. While the west was busy focusing on defense, the Chinese military was hard at work, creating a so-called “hacker army” comprised of anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 individual hackers.^[26] The Chinese hacker army regularly compromises everything from corporate and trade secrets to installing malware on popular apps used by millions of people.^[27]

There’s a very good chance that your information has been compromised by hackers in China, and there isn’t much you can do about it. If you use the Internet to pay for things, or even slide your debit card at your favorite retailer, that information has probably been stolen in one of many data thefts. These can stem from bad actors anywhere in the world, but a large portion of them are little more than Chinese hackers working on their craft.^[28]

About The Author: Jonathan is a graphic artist, illustrator, and writer. He is a Retired Soldier and enjoys researching and writing about history, science, theology, and many other subjects.