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A century of the Communist Party of China: the Great Leap Forward
In his ongoing series, CARLOS MARTINEZ looks at how a failed set of policies aimed at modernising China’s economy and agriculture became so notorious — and misunderstood
A worker installs a flag-shaped flowers decoration with a Communist Party's logo in Beijing, Wednesday, June 16, 2021.

TO this day, the most popular method for casually denigrating the People’s Republic of China and the record of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is to cite the alleged crimes of Mao Zedong who, from the early 1930s until his death in 1976, was generally recognised as the top leader of the Chinese Revolution.

After all, if the CPC was so dedicated to improving the lot of the Chinese people, why did it engage in such disastrous campaigns as the Great Leap Forward (GLF) and the Cultural Revolution?

The GLF, launched in 1958, was an experimental programme designed to achieve rapid industrialisation and collectivisation; to fast-track the construction of socialism and allow China to make a final break with centuries-old underdevelopment and poverty; in Mao’s words, to “close the gap between China and the US within five years, and to ultimately surpass the US within seven years.”

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