GREAT LEAP FORWARD

Economic and social campaign attempt to modernize China’s economy in 1958. The effort was created by the Communist Party of China (CPC) led by Mao Zedong, also called Mao Tse-tung, aiming to change the country into a society able to compete with other industrialized countries such as the United States, within five years. The second Five-Year plan was announced between 1958 and 1963. Millions of Chinese citizens were moved to communes to work in manufacturing or on farms, and private farming was not permitted. But after three years, the Great Leap Forward was stopped in 1960.