"Nothing in his Life Became Him like the Leaving of it"

Reading some stuff on world poverty, I note the data suggesting that the quantum of absolute immiseration has fallen by about half over the last 30 years, predominantly in China (percentages in sub-Saharan Africa have actually increased). It occurs to me--can it be that the greatest blessing to humankind in modern times was the death (in 1976) of Mao Zedong?

[Fun fact: Piero Scaruffi ranks Mao at runaway first place in the league tables for killing his own people, with 49 to 78 million people killed under his care.]