Great Leap Forward

1958-01-01 - 1962-01-01

Industrialization campaign in China from 1958 to 1962 led by the Chinese Communist Party under Chairman Mao Zedong, aiming to transform the agrarian country into an industrialized society through people's communes. Procurement quotas set from false production reports and enforced collectivization caused the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961, with 15 to 55 million deaths. After the 1962 Seven Thousand Cadres Conference, Mao ceded day-to-day leadership to Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, and the campaign's failures helped trigger the later Cultural Revolution.