Editing Great Leap Forward (section)

== Initial phase and resistance ==

===Initial goals===
{{Main|Exceeding the UK, catching the USA|Launching satellites}}
Regarding agriculture, the Chinese government recognized the country's dilemma of feeding its rapidly growing population without the means to make significant capital improvements in agriculture.{{sfnp|Harrell|2023|p=82}} Viewing human labor as an underutilized [[Factors of production|factor of production]], the government intensified the mobilization of masses of people to increase labor inputs in agriculture.{{sfnp|Harrell|2023|p=82}}

In November 1957, party leaders of communist countries gathered in Moscow to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the [[October Revolution]]. [[General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet Communist Party First Secretary]] [[Nikita Khrushchev]] proposed not only to catch up with but exceed the United States in industrial output in the next 15 years through peaceful competition. Mao Zedong was so inspired by the slogan that China put forward its own one: to catch up with and surpass the United Kingdom in 15 years. As with its approach to agriculture, the Chinese government attempted to compensate for its inability to invest in industry with mass mobilizations to increase human labor inputs.{{sfnp|Harrell|2023|p=82}}

During the Great Leap Forward, architectural projects were managed according to the strategy of the Three Simultaneities, a process that involved designing, preparing materials, and building at the same time.<ref name=":Zhu">{{Cite book |last=Zhu |first=Tao |title=Red Legacies in China: Cultural Afterlives of the Communist Revolution |date=2016 |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |isbn=978-0-674-73718-1 |editor-last=Li |editor-first=Jie |series=Harvard Contemporary China Series |volume= |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |chapter=Building Big With No Regret: From Beijing's "Ten Great Buildings" in the 1950s to China's Megaprojects Today |doi= |jstor= |editor-last2=Zhang |editor-first2=Enhua}}</ref>{{Rp|page=69}}

The initial projects of the Great Leap Forward were accelerating the construction of waterworks on the [[North China Plain]] during the 1957-1958 winter and next the development of people's communes and crude forms of rural industrialization.{{sfnp|Harrell|2023|p=82}} Some Great Leap Projects had lots of long-term value to China's economy and continued to benefit China after The Great Leap Forward ended. Some of the projects included bridges, railroads, canals and reservoirs. However, some of these projects were completed quickly, resulting in errors and delays that did more harm than good.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ebrey |title=East Asia. A Cultural, Social, and Political History |last2=Walthall |date=January 2013 |publisher=Cengage |isbn=9781133606475 |edition=3rd |pages=481}}</ref>

=== Lushan Conference and the Anti-Right Deviation Struggle ===
{{Main|Lushan Conference|Anti-Right Deviation Struggle}}

The initial impact of the Great Leap Forward was discussed at the [[Lushan Conference]] in July–August 1959. Although many of the more moderate leaders had reservations about the new policy, the only senior leader to speak out openly was Marshal [[Peng Dehuai]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Li |first=Rui |author-link=Li Rui |date=1999-09-27 |title=No Dissent |url=https://time.com/archive/6955457/no-dissent/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241228230821/https://time.com/archive/6955457/no-dissent/ |archive-date=2024-12-28 |access-date=2024-12-28 |magazine=[[TIME]] |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Teiwes |first=Frederick C. |author-link=Frederick Teiwes |date=1986 |editor-last=Longpu |editor-first=Zheng |editor2-last=Domes |editor2-first=Jurgen |title=Peng Dehuai and Mao Zedong |journal=The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs |issue=16 |pages=81–98 |doi=10.2307/2158776 |jstor=2158776 }}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Kohlenberg |first=Paul Joscha |date=January 2017 |title=The Use of "Comrade" as a Political Instrument in the Chinese Communist Party, from Mao to Xi |journal=The China Journal |volume=77 |pages=72–92 |doi=10.1086/688519 }}</ref> Mao responded to Peng's criticism of the Great Leap by dismissing Peng from his post as the [[Minister of National Defense (China)|Minister of National Defense]], denouncing Peng (who came from a poor peasant family) and his supporters as "bourgeois",<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" /> subsequently launching a nationwide campaign against "rightist opportunism" known as the "[[Anti-Right Deviation Struggle]]".<ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |last=Teiwes |first=Frederick C. |author-link=Frederick Teiwes |date=1986 |editor-last=Longpu |editor-first=Zheng |editor2-last=Domes |editor2-first=Jurgen |title=Peng Dehuai and Mao Zedong |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2158776 |journal=The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs |issue=16 |pages=81–98 |doi=10.2307/2158776 |issn=0156-7365 |jstor=2158776 |archive-date=4 May 2019 |access-date=28 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504043021/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2158776 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Peng was replaced by [[Lin Biao]], who began a systematic purge of Peng's supporters from the military.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Peng Dehuai |url=http://en.people.cn/data/people/pengdehuai.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209052658/http://en.people.cn/data/people/pengdehuai.shtml |archive-date=2023-12-09 |access-date=2024-12-28 |website=[[People's Daily]]}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=March 2025}} In total, over 3 million CCP members were purged or penalized during the campaign.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last1=Wu |first1=Shihong |last2=Gao |first2=Qi |date=2017-08-09 |title=邓小平与共和国重大历史事件（17） |trans-title=Deng Xiaoping and the major historical events of the People's Republic of China (17) |url=http://cpc.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0809/c69113-29460152.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240606202826/http://cpc.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0809/c69113-29460152.html |archive-date=2024-06-06 |access-date=2024-12-28 |website=[[People's Daily|People's Net]] |publisher=Guangan Daily}}</ref>