This Day in History: Mao Tse Tung (Mao Zedong) started the "Great leap forward" movement in China on this day in 1958.
The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party from 1958 to 1962. Chairman Mao launched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into a communist society through the formation of people's communes. Mao decreed increased efforts to multiply grain yields and bring industry to the countryside. Local officials were fearful of Anti-Rightist Campaigns and competed to fulfill or over-fulfill quotas based on Mao's exaggerated claims, collecting "surpluses" that in fact did not exist and leaving farmers to starve. Higher officials did not dare to report the economic disaster caused by these policies, and national officials, blaming bad weather for the decline in food output, took little or no action. In farming, Mao also promoted the theories of the now discredited Soviet agronomist Trofim Lysenko which led to less yields in crops. The Great Leap resulted in up to 55 million deaths, making the Great Chinese Famine the largest in human history.
"Socialism is the Big Lie of the Twentieth century. While it promised prosperity, equality, and security, it delivered poverty, misery, and tyranny. Equality was achieved only in the sense that everyone was equal in his or her misery.
In the same way that a Ponzi scheme or chain letter initially succeeds but eventually collapses, socialism may show early signs of success. But any accomplishments quickly fade as the fundamental deficiencies of central planning emerge. It is the initial illusion of success that gives government intervention its pernicious, seductive appeal. In the long run, socialism has always proven to be a formula for tyranny and misery." Mark Perry
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