The Great Leap Forward

Do you want to think of a good intention that had unintended consequences, and with these consequences that leaves millions of its own people dead? Well, look no further, this wiki page here will talk about the "Great Leap Forward".

## The Beginning

After the communists took over China in October of 1949 and winning the Chinese Civil War a year later, the communist leader Mao Tse Tung (Mao Zedong) would issue a two 5-year plans starting in 1953 to have China industrialize so it can compete with not just its communist ally in the USSR, but also Europe, the USA, and (especially) it's far east neighbor; Japan. This was difficult since China was behind the rest of the world with its traditions and its struggle to create a stable republic.

Tung's first 5-year plan drew inspiration from Stalin's own 5-year plans when he took over the USSR. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) under Tung ordered to have industrialization to rapidly increase in China's cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanking, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou. But this wouldn't be enough to reach the quota the CCP had set. Food production also had to increase, but that too had problems in keeping the people living in the cities fed as too the country people, very much like the USSR after the communists took over, the CCP gave farmland to the peasants where previously was owned by a local warlord, but this would change with "collectivization" where farmland would be owned by the state and the farmers would work for a steady wager. Tung believed that this was too slow for China to keep up with the west and Japan, so in 1958 he introduced the second 5-year plan; The Great Leap Forward. This is where the previously Soviet inspired plan was replaced. Agriculture and political decisions were up to the local province instead of the central government, this also distrust towards technical expertise and emphasized the ideology of Tung.

## The Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap Forward in 1958 ordered a surplus of workers in the countryside, as it can properly feed workers in the city or in the industrial areas. It also called for some kind of way for the workers in the countryside to also contribute to industrialization. In order to achieve this particular goal, the CCP have established something called "communes" where millions of peasants were forced to band together, and these communes would have anywhere from 15,000-30,000 people, these communes also meant the end of privately owned land (even for the farmer) and now the farmers had to be responsible for the collective performance of their land, this was to increase the efficiency of food production so that industry would grow together along with agriculture, and to prevent food shortages which also hindered industry in China in the past.

Not only did this provide food, but it also provided special care for children and the elderly so the farmers can do their jobs. Propaganda also served as a backing for collectivization, and it was done on a massive scale.

The country people also were encouraged to do whatever they can to keep up this pace of food production. For instance when a certain bird (a Sparrow) would come and try to eat the necessary crops, people would use metallic pots and pans and bang on them to scare them away, and if required shoot them.

For the next few months, the Chinese people enthusiastically supported the Great Leap Forward as it would supply ample food, and no matter how much work a person would've done, they would be given the same amount. The Plan also gave great power away and to the local officials in the countryside who managed their communes. Some of these farmers would leave their job in the country and move to the city to find a job in industry, as they were encouraged to do so by Tung and the CCP under the working slogan "Walking on 2 legs", some just moved into the countryside factories, some even made their very own foundries in their own backyards. This was to have Chinese steel production to greatly increase that by 1962 steel production would be around 100 Million tons.

All of this is a noble caus.............

A bad plan, and \*TERRIBLE\* execution. The Great Leap Forward? Try the "Horrible Leap Backward". Here's why.

## Disaster

By the fall of 1958, many Chinese believed that things were going fairly well. The big reason for this is that the weather in China in 1958 was unbelievably good as the rains and temperature were favorable for the huge production in agriculture and food.

By the end of the year, some commune officials were beginning to worry about the fact that the peasants were too optimistic and ate too much of the harvest. This left the food supply meant for the winter and the spring of the following year very low. This is could be because many of the peasants in the countryside didn't like working in very large communes, or if it was caused by supply or transport problems.

The steel that was made by the countryside foundries were made useless as it was made by the uneducated farmers with little to no experience in making steel as they would use every ounce of metal they could find such as pots, pans, silverware, and even metallic weapons, and would also use wooden furniture and other ounce of wood to fuel their fires. Most of this steel would be left to rust.

Over the years, the number of farmers that left their homes to find industrial jobs in the bigger towns or the cities would increase, this would also lead to a decline in farmers in the fields, and thus not enough farmers to keep up the pace of food production.

The encouragement of scaring and killing Sparrows also was counterproductive as it caused an ecological imbalance. With the Sparrow population nearly decimated, this left the crop fields dangerously vulnerable to other crop destroying pests such as locusts. There was also deep plowing and planting of seeds too deep as they were plated 5 feet deep and very close together, in fact so close together that it caused overcrowding of seeds which stunted the growth of the crops.

This is where Tung discussed scaling back the plan in 1959, he gave the day-to-day leadership of the plan to moderates within the CCP. Soon however, political opposition and suspicion began to interfere, and Tung ordered those to disagreed or criticized his policy to be purged. This would encourage local commune officials who at this point were desperate to protect their positions to support the Great Leap Forward, sometimes more keenly than they had done so before. This is where these officials became "yes-men" to Tung as they made the farmers (which were declining up to this point) to give a large portion of their food shares to the cities.

This is where the dying began.

With the aggressive collectivization, famine began to take hold in the countryside which was only made worse by bad weather in the form of draughts and floods from 1959 and 1960 which were devastating to the harvests. The commune kitchens which had abundant food in 1958 were now suffering from rations and the people received very little food, in fact there were no food in some of the kitchens. The farmers that didn't meet their work quota would not receive their ration of food., thus they wouldn't be able to work, and would starve to death. After the livestock was gone, the farmers would eventually get desperate and start to eat whatever was available such as their own pets (e.g., Cats, Dogs, Fish), Rats, tree bark, lime plaster from walls, and eventually resorted to cannibalism. The famine would eventually reach China's cities as the food supplies there also began to run low.

Despite this, China was still able to transport grain and rice all over the world. Tung even refused any kind of foreign aid, and maintained face and even was successful to convince people that his plans were working.

The Great Leap Forward, from 1959 and through the early 60s would see the biggest famine in the history of mankind as around 20 million to 60 million Chinese people would die. Despite this however, Tung was able to initiate other policies such as the "Socialist Education Movement" in 1963, and eventually the Cultural Revolution in 1966 which would see millions more Chinese people die in the span of 10 years. It wouldn't until Tung died in 1976 and the Gang of Four were arrested that China would be once more on the path of stability.

That'll do it for this page. Don't forget to check out my Games and Movies wikis as well. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.