Is this true In 1958, in an attempt to introduce a more '...
“is this true In 1958, in an attempt to introduce a more 'Chinese' form of communism, Mao launched the 'Great Leap Forward'. This aimed at mass mobilisation of labour to improve agricultural and industrial production. The result, instead, was a massive decline in agricultural output, which, together with poor harvests, led to famine and the deaths of millions. The policy was abandoned and Mao's position weakened. In an attempt to re-assert his authority, Mao launched the 'Cultural Revolution' in 1966, aiming to purge the country of 'impure' elements and revive the revolutionary spirit. One-and-a-half million people died and much of the country's cultural heritage was destroyed. In September 1967, with many cities on the verge of anarchy, Mao sent in the army to restore order.”
Summary
The Great Leap Forward, launched in 1958, did aim to mobilize labor for higher agricultural and industrial output, but it caused a severe decline in production, a catastrophic famine, and the deaths of tens of millions. The Cultural Revolution began in 1966 to reassert Mao’s authority, resulted in roughly one to two million deaths and widespread cultural destruction, and Mao ordered the army to intervene in September 1967 to restore order.
Sources 59 searched
- The Cultural Revolution - The National Archives
The Cultural Revolution in China was a social and political movement from 1966 to 1976. Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), initiated it with the aim of reasserting his authority and strengthening the revolutionary ...
- China's great famine: 40 years later - PMC - NIH
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- China’s Cultural Revolution, Explained - The New York Times
The Cultural Revolution had roots in the 1958-61 Great Leap Forward, the collectivization of agricultural and industrial output that precipitated a famine that left as many as 45 million dead.
- A Grim Chronicle Of China's Great Famine : NPR
From his research, Yang estimates that 36 million died during the famine. Most deaths were caused by starvation, but the figure also includes killing during ideological campaigns. Some Western scholars have put the toll as high as 45 million.
- China's Great Famine: the true story | China | The Guardian
Half a century on, the government still treats the famine as a natural disaster and denies the true death toll. "The root problem is the problem of the system. They don't dare to admit the system's problems …
- Introduction to the Cultural Revolution | FSI - SPICE - Stanford
The “Great Proletarian Cultural ... catastrophic Great Leap Forward, in which more than 20 million people died, Chairman Mao Zedong decided to take a less active role in governing the country....
- Great Leap Forward - Wikipedia
In addition, dozens of dams constructed ... in the 1975 Banqiao Dam failure, with estimates of its death toll ranging from tens of thousands to 240,000. The core goal of the Great Leap Forward was to increase industrial and agricultural outputs by using mass mobilization to raise ...
- China's Great Leap Forward - Association for Asian Studies
Estimates of deaths directly related to the famine range from a minimum of twenty-three million to as many as fifty-five million, although the figure most often cited is thirty million.15 While there is evidence to suggest that extreme ...
- Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?
Of course, to make such points is to go against the mainstream western view that the Great Leap Forward was an disaster of world historical proportions. But what is the basis for this view? One way those who believe in the 'massive death toll' thesis could prove their case would be to find credible qualitative evidence such as eye-witness or documentary evidence. The qualitative evidence that does exist is not convincing however. Chinese history scholar Carl Riskin,believes that a very serious famine took place but states 'In general, it appears that the indications of hunger and hardship did not approach the kinds of qualitative evidence of mass famine that have accompanied other famines of comparable (if not equal) scale, including earlier famines in China.'
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