The Great Leap Forward

Why did we choose this event?

It showed how suffering could be created even when attempting to improve on something (i.e. the economy)

• Even though something may be done for the 'right' reason, it can still spiral out of control and result in mass suffering
• It shows how something that benefits one person can cause suffering for another
• It's a good example of moral suffering - Mao/the Communist Party believed that what they were doing would create a better economy, but it backfired on them, which was the result of their intervention

Who was involved?

• Mao Zedong + the Communist Party (CPC)
• Former chairman of the Communist Party of China
• Chinese citizens
• Were forced to work and were affected greatly

What happened?

• 1958 ~ early 1960s
• In 1958, Mao introduced a five-year plan that would attempt to modernize China's economy
• Emphasized the importance of agriculture and industry and how they needed each other
• Emphasized manpower (not relying on use of machines)
• People were sorted into communes
• 1 commune contained around 5,000 families, and everyone had to be in a commune
• Everyone who was able to work had to

• By the end of 1958, 700 million people were sorted into

26.5 thousand communes

• People worked hard in construction sites and on farms
• They made backyard furnaces, which produced steel
• Production (of cotton, grain, steel, etc.) greatly increased as a result

Everything seemed like it was going according to plan

What happened?

• However, things started to go wrong in 1959
• The workers in communes were given impossible tasks
• If they retaliated, they were arrested
• Machinery produced was of poor quality and fell apart quickly
• The steel the backyard furnaces produced was too weak to build construction, which had been its original purpose
• The furnaces were using too much coal, which caused problems for China's coal-reliant trains
• People who had been working with the backyard furnaces had been unable to work in farms
• Food was not being harvested
• Furthermore, the weather in 1959 was much worse than the weather in 1958 (floods, drought, etc.)
• Not enough food was harvested
• Between 1959-1962, an estimated 20 million people starved to death
• The Great Leap Forward was a failure

Who was to blame?

• Mao Zedong is mostly responsible for the death of 45 million
• He admits that the problems have occurred in his period
• More than 45 million people died from the Great Leap
• Many Peasants died from starvation due to decline in agricultural industry
• However, he blames most of difficulties on natural disasters and bad weather
• He also admits issues with policy errors which he took responsibility of

Failure During Mao's Era

• Over 45 million deaths due to failure in Mao's policies
• Living standards did not increase at all
• Some argue Life expectancy have increased too much while Living standards did not increase at all
• Overall decline in agricultural production
• Grain production did not increase at all during Mao' period

Was Mao's Era Actually a Failure?

• About 45 million to 70 million people are estimated to have died during Mao's era
• However, there were some successes depicting that Mao is not fully responsible for the deaths and damage
• Life expectancy had increased approximately 30 years during Mao's rule
• Agriculture
• Food production per capita grew from 204 kg to 328 kg
• Land used for food production (per hectare) increased by 145.9%
• Total food production increased 169.6%
• Industry
• Industrial production increased by 11.2% per year

Moral or Natural Evil?

• This event could be considered as both Moral and Natural Evil

Moral Evil:

• Mao Zedong had thought of the various policies
• The policies ended up failing at the end, leading to a disaster
• Mao admits there were some policy errors that other politicians made

Natural Evil

• There were floods, droughts and other natural disasters that hit China after the policies were enforced by Mao

How could this affect belief in God?

• People might think 'if God exists, why are we suffering?'
• Many believe God made all human beings equal
• But why do some people have to suffer more than others?
• People may stop believing in God if they feel as if they are being treated unfairly, or if everything is falling apart

On the other hand . . .

• People may believe that their suffering is

happening for a reason

• If they persist, they may be rewarded

for their hard work

Sources

Great Leap Forward (1958-1961). chineseposters.net, https://chineseposters.net/themes/

great-leap-forward.php. Accessed 9 Oct. 2018.

Ball, J. Did Mao Really Kill Millions In The Great Leap Forward?. Monthly Review, 21 Sept.

2006, https://monthlyreview.org/commentary/did-mao-really-kill-millions-in-the-great-leap-forward/

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, A. Augustyn, G. Young, Y. Chauhan, J. Higgins, and Z.

Xia. Great Leap Forward Definition, Facts, & Significance. Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 July 2016, https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Leap-Forward.

Trueman, C. The Great Leap Forward - History Learning Site. History Learning Site, 26 May

2015, https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/china-1900-to-1976/the-great-leap-forward/.