The Failure of the Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward was Mao’s new economic plan, which took place in China in 1958. The idea of the Great Leap Forward was the rapid growth of agricultural and industrial production. It focused on improving the productivity of all Chinese workers by investing in human development and labour-intensive technology. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials believed it would bring about economic and technical development in great leaps rather than at a gradual pace. By using China’s advantage of manpower, Mao expected China to equal or exceed the industrial output of Great Britain and the United States. Virtually every Chinese citizen took part in the Great Leap Forward, from the lowliest peasant to the highest-ranking CCP members.
The initial results of the Great Leap Forward appeared promising. Labour corvées were successfully deployed to dramatically expand irrigation, roads, storage facilities, canals, and other infrastructure necessary to agricultural growth. During the winter and spring of 1958, 1959, and 1960, rural people worked on building reservoirs, digging wells, dredging river bottoms, and building irrigation channels. There were national projects, provincial projects, regional projects, and local projects being built at the same time. In 1959, Jimo County dug a thirty-three big and deep electric-powered irrigation wells for the first time. A 3,000km long Red Flag Canal was also built to bring in water from the Zhang River over rocky terrain, but took twice as many people and longer to build than expected; 10 years rather than the planned couple of months. By the mid-1970s, industrial production also dramatically increased, such as steel production, chemical fertilizers, and coal production. The figures for steel, coal, chemicals, timber, cement etc. all showed huge rises though the figures started at in 1958 were low. Grain and cotton production also showed major increases in production. 11 million tonnes of steel was produced. In addition to these
The initial results of the Great Leap Forward appeared promising. Labour corvées were successfully deployed to dramatically expand irrigation, roads, storage facilities, canals, and other infrastructure necessary to agricultural growth. During the winter and spring of 1958, 1959, and 1960, rural people worked on building reservoirs, digging wells, dredging river bottoms, and building irrigation channels. There were national projects, provincial projects, regional projects, and local projects being built at the same time. In 1959, Jimo County dug a thirty-three big and deep electric-powered irrigation wells for the first time. A 3,000km long Red Flag Canal was also built to bring in water from the Zhang River over rocky terrain, but took twice as many people and longer to build than expected; 10 years rather than the planned couple of months. By the mid-1970s, industrial production also dramatically increased, such as steel production, chemical fertilizers, and coal production. The figures for steel, coal, chemicals, timber, cement etc. all showed huge rises though the figures started at in 1958 were low. Grain and cotton production also showed major increases in production. 11 million tonnes of steel was produced. In addition to these