The Party’s “general line” launches the Great Leap Forward

Mao’s speech considered the balance between heavy and light industry, coastal and inland investment, central and local authority, and state, collective and individual initiative. It acknowledged the...

The Congress declared that socialist transformation of ownership was largely complete and made the development of productive forces a central task. It recognized the tension between an advanced...

By year’s end, private industry and commerce had largely been reorganized into state-private or collective forms. The rapid transition expanded state influence over investment, employment and...

Mao’s speech on contradictions among the people invited criticism and debate, partly in response to concerns about bureaucratism and the relationship between party and society. Intellectuals,...

A People’s Daily editorial signaled the start of a campaign that labeled many critics as rightists. People were dismissed, demoted, sent to labor or silenced. The campaign narrowed the space for...

A resolution promoted large communes combining administration, production and social services. Communes could coordinate irrigation, infrastructure and rural industry, but they also enabled the...

A 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...

Senior leaders met to discuss economic conditions and the Great Leap. Peng Dehuai’s criticism of exaggerated claims and rural hardship was treated as a political challenge, and he was purged. The...

The 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...

Moscow notified Beijing that Soviet specialists would be recalled, disrupting projects, industrial schedules and technical cooperation. The split compounded an already severe economic crisis after the...