Editing Great Leap Forward (section)

{{Short description|1958–1962 Chinese socioeconomic campaign}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox disaster
|title=Great Leap Forward
|image=Iron smelting in 1958 China, from- Backyardfurnace5 (cropped).jpg
|caption=Rural workers smelting iron during the nighttime in 1958
|native_name=大跃进
|date=1958–1962
|Location=[[China]]
|type=Famine, economic mismanagement
|cause=Central planning, collectivization policies
|motive=Economic collectivization of agriculture, realisation of [[socialism]]
|reported deaths=15–55 million
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
| pic = Great Leap Forward (Chinese characters).svg
| piccap = "Great Leap Forward" in simplified (top) and traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
| picupright = 0.45
| s = 大跃进
| t = 大躍進
| order = st
| p = Dà yuè jìn
| j = Daai6 joek3 zeon3
| y = Daaih yeuk jeun
| ci = {{IPAc-yue|d|aai|6|-|j|oek|3|-|z|eon|3}}
| tl = Tuā io̍k tsìn
| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|d|a|4|-|yue|4|-|j|in|4}}
| tp = Dà yuè jìn
| w = {{tonesup|Ta4 yüeh4 chin4}}
| bpmf = {{bpmfsp|ㄉㄚˋ|ㄩㄝˋ|ㄐㄧㄣˋ}}
}}
{{Mao Zedong series}}
{{History of the People's Republic of China}}
The '''Great Leap Forward''' was an [[industrialization]] campaign within [[China]] from 1958 to 1962, led by the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP). Party Chairman [[Mao Zedong]] launched the campaign to transform the country from an [[agrarian society]] into an [[industrialized society]] through the formation of [[people's commune]]s.  The Great Leap Forward is estimated to have led to between 15 and 55 million deaths in mainland China during the 1959–1961 [[Great Chinese Famine]] it caused, making it the [[List of famines|largest or second-largest famine]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Kte'pi |first=Bill |title=Chinese Famine (1907) |pages=70–71 |year=2011 |url=https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/disasterrelief/n31.xml |place=Thousand Oaks |publisher=Sage |doi=10.4135/9781412994064 |isbn=978-1412971010 |quote=The Chinese Famine of 1907 is the second-worst famine in recorded history, with an estimated death toll of around 25 million people; this exceeds the lowest estimates for the death toll of the later Great Chinese Famine, meaning that the 1907 famine could actually be the worst in history. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Disaster Relief |access-date=25 December 2021 |archive-date=1 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201022144/http://sk.sagepub.com/Reference/disasterrelief/n31.xml |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> in human history.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smil |first=Vaclav |date=18 December 1999 |title=China's great famine: 40 years later |journal=British Medical Journal |volume=319 |issue=7225 |pages=1619–1621 |doi=10.1136/bmj.319.7225.1619 |pmc=1127087 |pmid=10600969}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Meng |first1=Xin |last2=Qian |first2=Nancy |last3=Yared |first3=Pierre |year=2015 |title=The Institutional Causes of China's Great Famine, 1959–1961 |url=https://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/pyared/papers/famines.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Review of Economic Studies |volume=82 |issue=4 |pages=1568–1611 |doi=10.1093/restud/rdv016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200305165942/https://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/pyared/papers/famines.pdf |archive-date=5 March 2020 |access-date=22 April 2020}}</ref><ref name="Hasell2013">{{Cite journal |last1=Hasell |first1=Joe |last2=Roser |first2=Max |date=10 October 2013 |title=Famines |url=https://ourworldindata.org/famines |url-status=live |journal=Our World in Data |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418002509/https://ourworldindata.org/famines |archive-date=18 April 2020 |access-date=22 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Yixin |date=January 2015 |title=The Study of China's Great Leap Forward Famine in the West |url=http://ww2.usc.cuhk.edu.hk/PaperCollection/webmanager/wkfiles/2012/201503_38_paper.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Jiangsu University (Social Science Edition) |language=zh |volume=17 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517052743/http://ww2.usc.cuhk.edu.hk/PaperCollection/webmanager/wkfiles/2012/201503_38_paper.pdf |archive-date=17 May 2021 |access-date=29 July 2020 |via=[[Chinese University of Hong Kong]]}}</ref>

The Great Leap Forward stemmed from multiple factors, including "the purge of [[intellectuals]], the surge of less-educated radicals, the need to find new ways to generate domestic capital, rising enthusiasm about the potential results mass mobilization might produce, and reaction against the sociopolitical results of the [[Soviet Union|Soviet &#91;Union&#93;]]'s development strategy."{{sfnp|Lieberthal|2003|p={{page needed|date=June 2024}}}} Mao ambitiously sought an increase in rural grain production and an increase in industrial activity. Mao was dismissive of technical experts and basic economic principles, which meant that industrialization of the countryside would solely be dependent on the peasants. Grain quotas were introduced with the idea of having peasants provide grains for themselves and support urban areas. Output from the industrial activities such as steel was also supposed to be used for urban growth.{{sfnp|Lieberthal|2003|p={{page needed|date=June 2024}}}} Local officials were fearful of the [[Anti-Right Deviation Struggle]] and they competed to fulfill or over-fulfill quotas which were based on Mao's exaggerated claims, collecting non-existent "surpluses" and leaving farmers to starve to death. Higher officials did not dare to report the economic disaster which was being caused by these policies, and national officials, blaming bad weather for the decline in food output, took little or no action.

The major changes which occurred in the lives of rural Chinese people included the incremental introduction of mandatory [[Collective farming|agricultural collectivization]]. Private farming was prohibited, and those people who engaged in it were persecuted and labeled [[Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries|counter-revolutionaries]]. Restrictions on rural people were enforced with public [[struggle session]]s and social pressure, and [[Forced labour|forced labor]] was also exacted on people.<ref name="Mirsky2009" /> Rural industrialization, while officially a priority of the campaign, saw "its development&nbsp;... aborted by the mistakes of the Great Leap Forward".{{sfnp|Perkins|1991|p={{page needed|date=June 2024}}}} Economist [[Dwight H. Perkins (economist)|Dwight Perkins]] argues that "enormous amounts of investment only produced modest increases in production or none at all.&nbsp;... In short, the Great Leap [Forward] was a very expensive disaster".{{sfnp|Perkins|1991|pp=483, 486}}

The CCP studied the damage that was done at various conferences from 1960 to 1962, especially at the [[Seven Thousand Cadres Conference]] in 1962, during which Mao Zedong ceded day-to-day leadership to pragmatic moderates like Chinese President [[Liu Shaoqi]] and Vice Premier [[Deng Xiaoping]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Timeline |url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/theme/chinese-foreign-policy-database/timeline?year=1962 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622102243/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/theme/chinese-foreign-policy-database/timeline?year=1962 |archive-date=22 June 2020 |access-date=21 June 2020 |website=Chinese Foreign Policy Database |publisher=Wilson Center}}</ref><ref name="Columbia University">{{Cite web |title=Three Chinese Leaders: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping |url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_leaders.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517180540/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_leaders.htm |archive-date=17 May 2023 |access-date=22 June 2020 |publisher=[[Columbia University]]}}</ref><ref name="CNLaw&Govt1996">{{Cite journal |date=July 1996 |title=The Road to the Cultural Revolution |journal=Chinese Law & Government |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=61–71 |doi=10.2753/CLG0009-4609290461 }}</ref> Acknowledging responsibilities for the Great Leap Forward, Mao did not retreat from his policies; instead, he blamed problems on bad implementation and "rightists" who opposed him.<ref name="CNLaw&Govt1996" />{{sfnp|Lieberthal|2003|p={{page needed|date=June 2024}}}} He initiated the [[Socialist Education Movement]] in 1963 and the [[Cultural Revolution]] in 1966 in order to remove opposition and re-consolidate his power.<ref name="CNLaw&Govt1996" /> In addition, dozens of dams constructed in [[Zhumadian|Zhumadian, Henan]], during the Great Leap Forward collapsed in 1975 (under the influence of [[Typhoon Nina (1975)|Typhoon Nina]]) and resulted in the [[1975 Banqiao Dam failure]], with estimates of its death toll ranging from tens of thousands to 240,000.<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 August 2012 |script-title=zh:1975年那个黑色八月（上） |trans-title=The dark August of 1975 (1) |url=http://paper.people.com.cn/zgnyb/html/2012-08/20/content_1099870.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200506134746/http://paper.people.com.cn/zgnyb/html/2012-08/20/content_1099870.htm |archive-date=6 May 2020 |access-date=25 March 2020 |website=[[People's Daily|People's Net]] |publisher=China Energy News |language=zh}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=8 August 2019 |title=Reflections on Banqiao |url=https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/reflections-on-banqiao/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240724024450/https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/reflections-on-banqiao |archive-date=24 July 2024 |access-date=25 March 2020 |publisher=Institution of Chemical Engineers}}</ref>