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China under Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong was the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, which took control in 1949, until his death in September of 1976. During this time, he instituted several reform efforts, the most notable of which were the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. In January of 1958, Mao launched the 5 year plan, the latter part of which was known as the Great Leap Forward. The plan was intended to expedite production and heavy industry as a supplement to economic growth, similar to the soviet model, and the defining factor behind Mao’s “Chinese” Marxist policies.

Mao spent ten months of 1958 touring the country in order to gain support for the Great Leap Forwards and inspect the progress that had already been made. What this entailed was the humiliation, public castigation and torture of all who questioned the leap. The five-year-plan first instituted the division of farming communities up into communes The Chinese National Programme for Agricultural Development(NPAD) began to accelerate their drafting plans for the countries industrial and agricultural outputs. The draft plans were initially successful as the Great Leap Forwards divided up the Chinese workforce and production soared (albeit briefly). Eventually the planners developed even more ambitious goals, such as replacing the draft plans for 1962 with those for 1967, and the industries developed supply bottlenecks and could not meet the growth demands. Rapid industrial development came in turn with a swelling of urban populations. In 1959 due to the furthering of collectivization, heavy industry production and the stagnation of the farming industry that did not keep up with the demands of population growth in combination with a year of unfortunate weather in farming areas, only 170 million tons of grain were produced, far below what the population needed. Mass starvation ensued, and was only made worse by 1960, as even less grain was produced at 144 million tons. The government instituted rationing, but between 1958 and 1962 it is thought that around 10 million people died of starvation alone. The famine did not go unnoticed, Mao was fully aware of the major famine sweeping the countryside but rather than try to fix the problem, he blamed it on counterrevolutionaries who were “hiding and dividing grain…” Mao even symbolically decided to abstain from eating meat in honor of those who were suffering.

Due to the widespread famine across the country there were many reports of cannibalism and horrific stories including that of a farmer from Hunan who was forced to kill and eat his own child. When questioned, he said he did it "out of mercy." An original death toll estimate of the whole even ranged from 15-40 million. According to Frank Dikötter, a chair professor for humanities at the University of Hong Kong and author of Mao’s Great Famine, a book detailing the Great leap forward and the consequences of a strong armed economic reform, the total death count of the famine between 1958 and 1962 was upwards of 45 million. Of the death count, 6-8% of those who were killed prematurely by the government were often tortured first 2% committed suicide and 5% died in Mao’s labor camps for those labelled as “enemies of the people.” In an article from the New York Times, Dikötter also references severe punishments for slight infractions such as being buried alive for stealing a handful of grain or losing an ear and being branded for digging up a potato. Higher up the chain of command, a chairman in an executive meeting in 1959 expressed apathy to the widespread suffering “When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.”

Despite the major famine and the democide that killed millions, Mao pushed on with his plans. In 1959, the defense of ministry, Peng Dehuai, suggested that Mao follow a more moderate approach to the Great Leap Forwards. Mao stripped him of his position and placed him under house arrest. After this Mao developed a devout group of high ranking followers who were afraid of defying him. This supreme position and the failure to deviate from a doomed five-year-plan ultimately brand Mao as responsible to the crimes against humanity.