Human Saga

The Great Leap Forward and the Great Chinese Famine

1958–1962·Social & demographic·East Asia (China)·
1958–1962Date
Social & demographicCategory
9Empires active
Date
1958–1962
Category
Social & demographic
Region
East Asia (China)
Era
Contemporary
Significance

The Great Leap Forward was a campaign launched by Mao Zedong in 1958 to transform China rapidly from an agrarian society into an industrialised socialist economy through mass collectivisation into people's communes and decentralised industry such as backyard steel furnaces.

Disastrous policies diverted labour from farming, mandated unworkable agricultural techniques, and relied on inflated production reports, causing agricultural output to collapse. The result was the Great Chinese Famine, among the deadliest famines in recorded history. Scholarly estimates of excess deaths range widely, with mainstream figures of roughly 15 to 45 million, commonly cited around 30 million or more. Compounding the catastrophe, China continued exporting grain and local officials concealed shortages. The famine discredited aspects of Mao's leadership, leading him to cede day-to-day economic management to pragmatists such as Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. Resentment over this loss of authority contributed directly to Mao's launching of the Cultural Revolution a few years later.

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Further reading

If you read one book

Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962

Yang Jisheng

The definitive insider history of the famine, by a Chinese journalist.

Get it on Amazon →

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