The “great leap forward” is the term used to describe china’s aspirations to utilize its massive population to improve agriculture and industry from

Mao Zedong Mao was a revolutionary political and communist leader. His policies were that of great military strength and a powerful economy. Mao supposedly built the foundation of the modern Chinese economy.

The great leap forward tarnished Mao’s name. Mao was accused of costing china millions of lives, throwing china into famine, and causing severe economic downturns. Food rationing was irresponsibly planned, resulting in starvation in rural areas. Ultimately, over 30,000,000 people died as a result.

Mao asserted that extensive rationing, economic growth, and agricultural growth would have to go in parallel otherwise catastrophe would fall upon china. Hence he introduced collectivization, and heavy duty farming machinery. Mao split up the Chinese population into massive “communes” which were impossible to escape, the aim was to make these areas self sufficient. Those who went against the communes, were labeled as dangerous and violence was used against them.

Mao’s ambitions for mass population included surpassing the U.K’s steel production quota..within one year. Mao encouraged everyone in the communes to set up a backyard furnace, and produce their own steel using scrap metal. Forests were destroyed, people began burning peasant doors and shacks for fuel, and ultimately many people within the communes became homeless because of this. The resulting steel was pig iron of negligible economic expense.

Mao had many unimplemented theories about the biology of plants. He decided that seeds of the same class do not compete for resources, this was incorrect. It was also claimed that the deeper the seed was planted, the stronger the root system, however this only results in plants that failed to even grow. Mao also asserted that fertilizer should be concentrated only on fertile land, leaving the moderate land unfarmed. All of these factors resulted in a great decrease in agriculture rather than an increase.

Mao had hoped that with all of efforts to increase grain he would be able to pay back his debt of 1.9 Billion Yuan to the USSR. When the harvests didn’t meet Mao's hopes, local officials decided it would be better to lie about their grain figures rather than be victims of Mao’s wrath. Mao incorrectly believed that the grain production was rocketing, and he ordered peasants to give the state more of their own grain (assuming that they had received more). This resulted in peasants giving more than they could spare, and numerous deaths followed.

Peasants suffered greatly, and they could no longer rent or take out loans because of the new system of communes. Peasants in communes were ultimately forced to work intolerable hours to meet Mao’s ambitious goals. They had no time for funerals, weddings, or parties. Because of the high harvest quotas, peasants, even when they did harvest successfully, were forced to give nearly all of their grain. Many peasants were tortured and killed for not giving enough grain to the state.

Because of huge expansions in the steel industry, the successful harvest of 1958 was neglected, and some farms were left to rot. This effectively brought in huge swarms of locusts after Mao’s other movement, killing millions of sparrows. This diminished the future harvest greatly, making the harvest of 1960 unsuccessful. China ultimately had to rely on food imports from Canada and Australia to keep up with food demand.

The leap has been called “the Great Leap Backward” due to its failing nature. Famine victims are between 20-43million Public officials were further tried and executed for giving incorrect information about progress in order to please Mao. Mao stepped down from power and for a while refused to be seen in public. De-collectivization was issued, but too late to save millions of peasants for starvation and the aftermath of the economic disaster of the leap.