1. The Great Leap Forward (1958-61) Emboldened by the economic success of the First Five Year Plan, Mao Zedong’s fledgling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launches a series of reforms meant to industrialize China by cannibalizing rural agricultural resources (inspired by Stalin’s Russia)

2. False reporting by CCP officials of high grain yields causes over- taxation by the State The grain tax is higher in some regions than the land actually produces Natural disasters destroy entire regions of agriculture Rural families are left to consume bark and weeds to survive Warehouses full of grain awaiting export are left to rot in the cities

3. An estimated 30-45 million people starve to death as a result of CCP policies That’s the combined populations of the 30 largest cities in the United States all dying in less than three years China was only able to reverse the chaos when Mao walked away from the responsibility and his successors, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, instituted further reforms to save China (until Mao returns in the Cultural Revolution)