ABSTRACT
The springboard for what would be called the Great Leap Forward was the second session of the Eighth Party Congress, which met in May 1958. In effect it marked a victory for Mao after a struggle that he had been waging since at least late 1957 to get the party to change its economic policies. Nor did that struggle end once the Great Leap was announced, as was made clear by the continuing purge of recalcitrant mid-and lower-level party offi cials during the start-up period of the new campaign. At any rate, Liu Shaoqi, Mao’s designated successor, recognizing the wisdom of falling in line with the Great Helmsman’s wishes, formally announced the Great Leap during
that May meeting. It was the most far-reaching and radical program to be unleashed in China since 1949. The goal was nothing less than to mobilize China’s entire 600-million-plus population in military-like fashion to overcome the limitations of economic scarcity by “leaping” over the mountain of physical constraints, and striding forward from there along the high road to a Communist utopia.
