The Great Leap Forward

I was only 13 years old when when Mao attempted to modernize China's economy in what became known as "The Great Leap Forward." I had not heard of it before I listened to Lisa See a few weeks ago, and she mentioned it. She does intensive research on the history and culture of China before she even begins the outline for a book, and just happened to mention The Great Leap Forward, which took place from 1958-1963.

Mao's goal was to have an economy that rivaled America by 1988. He felt the Chinese people were capable of anything. He targeted industry and agriculture. Mao felt both had to grow to allow the other to grow. Thus, he reformed China into a series of 26,578 communes. The 5000 families or so in each commune gave up their ownership of tools, animals, etc, so that everything was owned by the commune. People now worked for the commune, not for themselves. All aspects of life were controlled by the commune, from schools,to nurseries, to healthcare. Propaganda was everywhere-including in the fields where the workers could listen to political speeches as they worked.

The Great Leap Forward also encouraged communes to set up "back-yard" production plants. The most famous were 600,000 backyard furnaces which produced steel for the communes. The figures for steel, coal, chemicals and timber showed huge rises though the figures started at in 1958 were low. Grain and cotton production also showed major increases in production. It seemed that Mao's impossible task could be accomplished.

However, in 1959, things started to go terribly wrong. Expectations could not be met, and in order to try to meet the expectations, shoddy work was done. Quickly produced farm machinery produced in factories fell to pieces when used. Thousands of workers were injured. Steel produced by the backyard furnaces was frequently too weak to be of any use.

Agriculture took a very bad turn in 1959. Some parts of China were hit by floods, in other areas, drought was a major problem. 1959 and 1960 resulted in starvation for many Chinese. Statistics show that between 1959-1962, 20 million people died of starvation or diseases related to starvation.

By 1959 it was obvious that the Great Leap Forward had been a failure. Some party members put the blame on Mao, so he had to resign his position, and the day to day running of the country was left to three moderates.

Today, China is blossoming in every way. They are a superpower in the world. I guess they learned that this doesn't happen overnight. It's taken several decades, but they have proven that they can be a rival for America.