Great Leap Forward (jan 1, 1958 – jan 1, 1962)

Description:

China's 5 year economic plan of collectivization & industrialization (grain & steel)

Goal: centralize economic control & modernize the country

Result: estimated 30 and 45 million Chinese citizens died due to famine, execution and forced labor

Peasantry required to have furnaces behind their communes & melt metals to make steel
with no expertise or proper tools, which ultimately created useless “pig iron”.

People resorted to eating tree bark, dirt and cannibalism.

Farmers who failed to meet grain quota, tried to get more food, or attempted escape were tortured and killed along with their families.

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