The Party issues guidance to correct excesses in commune organization

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...

The second session of the Eighth Party Congress endorsed a drive to achieve rapid industrial and agricultural growth through mass mobilization. The campaign sought to close the gap with advanced...

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

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...

The Ninth Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee adopted a policy to rebalance the national economy after the Great Leap. It prioritized agriculture and essential consumer goods, cut excessive...

From 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...