The Great Leap Forward was Mao Zedongs boldest endeavor as Chairman of the Communist Party of China. In attempt to modernize Chinas economic, social, and political framework, Mao induced a nation-wide famine prompting the death of forty-five million people. Maos vision of a superpower economy to rival that of Americas and Englands inspired the implementation of this catastrophic program. Although his intentions were seemingly altruistic and contributive to the betterment of China, the program did not reap the results the people of China were expecting. The Great Leap Forward resulted in what was, essentially, mass murder; the death of a population greater than that of Canadas, all of which are attributed to the actions of Chinas notorious Chairman Mao.1Mao envisioned a rejuvenated and brilliant China. He longed for China to realize its full potential. China underwent an astounding 1,828 famines from 108 BCE to 1911 CE. due to natural disasters.2 However, none affected China on as large a scale as the famine prompted by the Great Leap Forward, nor did they result in a greater death toll, comparatively. The Chinese people were enticed by Maos tantalizing promises; his guarantee that food would grace their plates for all the days of that brighter future, and that worrying about the adequacy of their food supplies, or rather, lack thereof, would become a thing of the past, in particular.Mao established and implemented his program accompanied by the encouragement of the very citizens he planned to exploit. His promises attracted the complete support of the general public. In Odd Arne Westads novel, Restless Empire, Westad states, Large numbers of people wanted to believe in Maos new revolution and worked themselves to exhaustion for its success.3 Maos new revolution was comprised of arrangements including a free-food-supply system in the rural peoples communes, so people could eat all they wanted without having to pay.4 This hypothetical system was undeniably a dream come true to the rural Chinese people who could barely scavenge half of a meal each day. However, the allure of an abundant food supply and a starvation-free China may have gripped the attention of its people, but the plan took a turn for the worse in its transition from theory to reality.

1 Akbar, Arifa, Mao's Great Leap Forward 'killed 45 million in four years The Independent2 Trueman, Chris, The Great Leap Forward, History Learning Site, 2005 accessed 10/23/143 Arne Westad, Odd, Restless Empire (New York: Basic Books, 2012) 3354 Zhisui, Li The Private Life Of Chairman Mao, (New York: Random House) 274

1The crucial mistake of the Great Leap Forward was that the the program in its entirety was far too idealistic. The years preceding its implementation, China conformed to the Soviet model in its economic policies, and thus, adopting a centralized structure with a primary emphasis on industry. However, with the introduction of the program, Mao redirected the nations energies to mobilizing Chinas working class and equally distributing consumer goods. This transition was influenced by Karl Marxs political ideology, Socialism. Consequently, the Great Leap Forward of 1958 to 1961 was the direct result of what is a traditional Marxist-Leninist set of ideals. When Mao directed peasants to cultivate their crops within the confines of the communes, he established unrealistic quotas that could not possibly have been reached. Regardless, Mao and his party extorted the grains of the rural peoples despite the grain shortages, in order to satisfy and sustain the urban population and themselves, leaving the actual laborers with meager quantities of nutriment for their own selves. The ginormous communes and public dining halls were encouraged by Mao, and both aspects contributed to the severe nature of the famine when it struck China. Because of the quixotic quotas, rumors about impossible feats in agricultural were spread: Watermelons as big as houses had been produced in Shaanxi and there had been a 600 percent increase in potato growing in Henan.5 These rumors were dispatched by the Maoist state in effort to diffuse a false sense of hope among the Chinese people, prompting expectations to rise across the nation. These expectations placed a great deal of pressure on the farmers cultivating the produce and upon the commune leaders who were responsible for the crop-yield reports. This resulted in the government [setting] quotas for agricultural produce that could be exported out of the provinces based on entirely inflated production figures.6 The people were not even permitted to address or complain about the outlandish production figures because a complaint would be classified as a bourgeois reaction for which they could be sent to prison, or even be executed. Due to this fearful castigation for expressing the slightest bit of concern, local CCP leaders lied about output to curry favors with their bosses7 This simply resulted in an increased number of provinces not receiving the amount of food that they required to sustain themselves. 5 Arne Westad, Odd, Restless Empire (New York: Basic Books, 2012) 335 6 ibid7 Arne Westad, Odd, Restless Empire (New York: Basic Books, 2012) 335

2Due to these unrealistic quotas and the lack of incoming nutriment, people all over China were dying of starvation. The quantity of food that was supposed to be delivered to each province was exponentially lower than what was required of it in order to keep its inhabitants alive. The communes that the people resided in were meant to possess kitchens to accommodate the workers appetites, but there was not even anymore food to be cooked. Food became a valuable and limited resource, and a meal was as precious as gold. Maos insistence on the peoples production of steel contributed to the increase of death by starvation. People would attempt to create steel by haphazardly constructing backyard furnaces. Not only did this decrease food production since field workers were now focusing their energies on steel production, the steel they made was often so poorly forged that it could not be sold in the market or used for anything.8People during the years of the Great Leap Forward were not only dying from hunger but also from the cruel and iniquitous rule of the Maoist state. The total death count during the era of the Great Leap Forward was approximately 45 million, but between two and three million deaths were the result of government-induced torture and execution. Simply stating that Mao governed China with stringent policies would be an understatement. During the Great Leap Forward, a worker named Wang Ziyou had dug up a potato from unauthorized territory in utter desperation; he was truly starving. Upon being sighted, his actions were reported to central leadership. Consequently, one of Ziyous ears was brutally lacerated; his legs were tightly bound by iron wire; a ten-kilogram stone was dropped onto his back; finally, he was branded with a hot iron. Such was the consequence of scavenging a single potato.8 However, the cruelty did not end at torturing the individual in question. Fathers were forced to bury their sons alive if the boys were caught stealing handfuls of grain.9 This was not an uncommon occurrence, for many had dared to challenge the order of the state.King Fairbank, John The Great Chinese Revolution: 1800-1985, (New York: Harper & Row) 3049 Dikotter, Frank, The Great Leap Backwards, Maos Greatest Famine, October 20 2010 Accessed 10/23/14

3Throughout the duration of this era, ChairmanMao was particularly authoritarian in his assessment of traitors and their supporters. A multitude of Maos loyal followers who stood beside him for years were deemed traitors for simply inquiring about the program and its effectiveness. Marshal Peng Duhuai, a commander in the Korean War was denounced and branded as a counter-revolutionary by Mao just because Dehuai wrote a poem about the current situation of the Great Leap Forward: The millet is scattered over the ground. The leaves of the sweet potato are withered. The young and old have gone to smelt iron. To harvest the grain there are only children and old women. How shall we get through next year?10 The content of Dehuais poem was entirely valid. How could China possibly make it to the following year if only children and women could work on the fields? This rhetorical question was enough to insult Mao; he was not appreciative of this feedback. Thus, Dehuai was deemed to be a counter-revolutionary, regardless of the fact that he once led China into battle during the Korean War.Mao was the primary contributor to the disastrous result of the Great Leap Forward, which became the greatest man-made catastrophe in human history, mainly because Mao and the other leaders would not beat a retreat even when the results of their campaign were plainly visible.11 He was provided with multiple opportunities to halt his senseless campaign; yet, his ego and his overly-idealistic vision kept him going. The heartbreaking outcome of that vision were the deaths of forty-five million Chinese people, starved, tortured, and executed. Maos uncompromising rule and his irrational quotas manufactured the killing machine that was the Great Leap Forward, a program that, ironically enough, was intended to propel China and its people towards a modernized future.10 Ministry of Defense Singapore, Personality Profile: Marshal Peng Dehuai, www.mindef.gov.sg accessed 10/23/1411 Arne Westad, Odd, Restless Empire (New York: Basic Books, 2012) 336 4Chenyang Li Professor Kelly510/24/2014The Great Leap of Death6