Historical Organization
People’s Communes
People’s Communes
Details
Organization Timeline
The Central Committee endorses rural People’s Communes
📅 29 August 1958A resolution promoted large communes combining administration, production and social services. Communes could coordinate irrigation, infrastructure and rural industry, but they also enabled the...
The Party issues guidance to correct excesses in commune organization
📅 10 December 1958A follow-up resolution addressed problems emerging from the rapid formation of communes and clarified their economic organization. The need for correction reflected the gap between the Great Leap’s...
Famine conditions spread as grain procurement exceeds rural availability
📅 31 December 1959The Great Leap famine began amid collapsing harvests, labor dislocation, exaggerated reports and state procurement that left many rural communities without adequate food. Estimates of excess deaths...
Central leaders meet to revise the rules of rural People’s Communes
📅 15 March 1961From 15 to 23 March, a central work conference discussed and adopted draft commune regulations, later known as the “Sixty Articles for Agriculture.” The revisions strengthened the production team as...
State begins dismantling the people’s commune system
📅 12 October 1983A central decision initiated the conversion of communes into township governments and village-level economic organizations. It separated administration from production and expanded household...