I just finished Wild Swans which talks about a childhood in Mao's China, where they thought children of the west were missing out. That got me wondering how the world reacted to Mao's China.
I'm going to page /u/AsiaExpert & /u/cordis_melum (I really should change my name to Hermes) our resident experts on 20th Cen. China. Hopefully they can answer your question as it's an interesting one :)
Can you narrow this down a bit?
Otherwise it's gonna have to be very general answers.
Do you mean random everyday observers around the world? Governments?
And reacted to what about 'Mao's China'.
Culture? Government policies? Famine? Cultural Revolution?
Gonna need just a little bit more here to answer your question.