Jaden Haynes
Professor Fa Ti Fan
HIS284
24 September 2018
Great Leap Forward
China's path to economic prosperity has been long and circuitous. Mao Zedong, the
Chinese Communist Party leader, believed he could modernize China to be like America within
a short period. This movement was known as the Great Leap Forward. Mao Zedong believed it
was time for the reconstruction of China. China's idea of modernization similar to America by
advancing its economy from agricultural one into an industrial one, was an idea that was not
fully developed. Mao's goals for China lacked sufficient planning therefore it was unrealistic for
China to become as modernized as America. The Great Leap Forward failed due to the rapid
increase of industrialization, a powerful centralized government, and the commune system.
Introduction:
The Chinese Communist Party forced the peasants to work hard physical labor which I
believe was cruel, and inhumane. The peasants lived a simple life, before Mao came up with this
absurd idea. Mao used propaganda to make people believe, that China was going to become
prosperous. Over one hundred million people were forced to work on projects. The Chinese steel
industry came to fruition, with the establishment of iron and steel furnaces in the countryside of
China. The initial high goals set for steel were unrealistic due to the extenuating circumstances
that would impact the industry.
Communes in China which started as a series of collective farms became multipurpose entities
that ran local governments and manage all social and economic activity. In its inception the
commune was responsible for all manufacturing and agriculture and was set up to function as a
single unit. It subsequently was divided into two units, the generation detachment and the
creative group. By the fall of 1958, around 750,000 agricultural workers, cooperatives, became
production detachments. This lead to twenty-three thousand five hundred workers collectives
being created, each averaging 22,000 members. One commune was placed in control of
production to ensure that the process was being carried out how Mao had envisioned it. Each
commune had certain occupations to do, such as tree planting, the activity of storerooms, or
transportation.
The Great Leap Forward brought a depression to the Chinese society. The
government lacked the farming, technology, and materials that Americans had. Millions died
due to terrible weather and diseases due to a decline in economic support from the government.
Farming required special skills, good judgment and being sensitive to things growing in the
environment, which peasants lacked. China had to buy grain abroad which was senseless and
costly. The Chinese people were overworked, and the communist leaders competed to impress
Mao with the highest yields. If they failed to meet their required quotas or destroyed materials,
they faced punishment. In 1959 they were false reports made of production being successful.
These fa...
