The Great Leap Forward

Categories: Social Science | Hong Kong
  • The Great Leap Forward was a plan implemented by the China to achieve rapid social and economic reform. The plan was the brainchild of communist leader Mao Zedong, and sought to utilize China's vast amounts of cheap labor to increase grain and steel production. Peasants were ordered to make steel, by smelting scrap metal in backyard furnaces, and diverting all resources to do so. The massive effort resulted in decreased crop production, famine, and effectively no usable steel. In retrospect, the movement is known as a disaster for the Chinese people and economy.
  • Fast Facts:

    1. Date: 1958-1960
    2. 20-40 million estimated deaths as a direct result of economic reform
    3. 27 million peasants relocated in collectivization efforts
    4. Estimated 3 million executions as a result of political purges
    5. 200,000-300,000 suicides estimated as a result of the Anti-Rightest Movement
    6. Contributed directly to the Great Chinese Famine and the Cultural Revolution

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