In 1959 as the process of communalising agriculture and the forced industrialisation of the Great Leap ForwardThe Great Leap Forward A catastrophic economic and social campaign led by Mao Zedong prior to the Cultural Revolution. Its massive failure and the resulting famine weakened Mao’s position within the party, providing the primary motivation for him to launch the Cultural Revolution to regain absolute control. The Great Leap Forward was an attempt to rapidly transform China from an agrarian economy into a socialist industrial society through collectivization and the construction of “backyard furnaces” for steel production. It resulted in one of the deadliest man-made famines in human history.
Read more led to catastrophe on an unprecedented scale, Mao was challenged at the Lushan Conference by Peng Duhai, who denounced him in ways the few party members had ever dared. Mao was temporarily marginalised from leadership of the state but not the party and Deng Xiaoping and Lui Shaoqi were the beneficiaries. These events set up Mao’s political comeback in the mid 1960s and his vengeance on