The Great Leap Forward, which was got its name when
Mao Zedong referred to his policies as "the great leap forward" that would take
The People's Republic of China from
socialism to
true communism, also included several other
disastrous policies in addition to the
steel production mentioned above.
One was a policy urging citizens to kill birds believed to be spreading disease. Citizens and even towns as a whole were rewarded depending on how many of the designated birds they managed to kill. However, the birds marked for death by the government were the predators of many of the insects that plagued crops all over China. Whether or not the widespread killing of the birds actually prevented the spread of the diseases they were believed to have carried is not known, but what is known is that the death of birds exacerbated the famine that was brought on by the other polices of Mao Zedong.
Another failed policy was the massive farming project. The government encouraged farming communes to produce massive amounts of grain and rice by turing it into a sort of competition. However, the goals set forth by the government were so astronomical that the headmen of many of the villages lied about the amount of grain they had produced out of a desire for their village to be rewarded by the government. The government officers took the collective word of the lying headmen rather than investigating to see whether or not they had really produced as much grain and rice as they had claimed. This led to the above-mentioned steel policy that caused farmer's to abandon their fields for steel work since the government believed they had enough of a surplus of food to undertake such a project.
Suprisingly, Chairman Mao was not only able to come out on top of this situation, but, as some might argue, became even more popular by having the Chinese Red Army distribute food held on reserve throughout the countryside, thus endearing him once more to the Chinese peasantry. He did accept partial responsibility, but only at the urgings of president Liu Shaoqi.