Great Leap Forward

Great Leap Forward (1958–60) An attempt by Mao Zedong to galvanize Chinese agriculture, and thus release forces to continue the emphasis on the growth of heavy industry produced by the first five-year plan (1953–8). Agriculture was to be revolutionized, e.g. through the reorganization of collectives of a few hundred households into communes with around 50,000 people each. Private plots were abolished to encourage work in state agriculture. Through these efficiency drives, millions were released to work in industry, where Mao aimed at increasing steel production by a yearly average of 15 per cent, in order to overtake British steel production by 1973. The campaign backfired, with disastrous consequences. Given the intense pressure to report productivity increases, reported efficiency gains were more apparent than real. The building of around one million backyard furnaces by around sixty million people was nothing short of economic folly, and led to the production of unwanted goods of shoddy quality. In total, agriculture was deprived of around 20 per cent of its labour force within two years. By 1960, grain output had declined by over 40 per cent. Compounded by a series of natural catastrophes, this set off the greatest famine in twentieth-century history. In 1960 alone, an estimated ten million people died, while in total, between sixteen and twenty-seven million people died of hunger.