ABSTRACT
To understand the starting points of the Great Leap Forward (GLF) famine management, one must look into the city's food supply system. Tianjin city has historically been one of the most important industrial and commercial cities in China. The city had to rely on itself in supplementary food production and that city leaders were taking this opportunity to improve food supplies seriously. After the Party Central Committee had urgently ordered an increase in the agricultural workforce, Tianjin leaders made quick plans to reduce the population in urban areas and thus the number of mouths to feed in the city. A Tianjin ribao article reporting on the city activities to help the areas even used the term 'refugees' for the only time during the GLF famine when it referred to those suffering from the officially recognized flood. Moderation in the GLF, however, proved to be short-lived as the general political atmosphere changed drastically soon after this.
