China's path to economic prosperity has been long and circuitous. Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist Party leader, believed he could modernize China to be like America within a short period. This movement was known as the Great Leap Forward. Mao Zedong believed it was time for the reconstruction of China. China's idea of modernization similar to America by advancing its economy from agricultural one into an industrial one was an idea that was not fully developed. Mao's goals for China lacked sufficient planning. Therefore, it was unrealistic for China to become as modernized as America. The Great Leap Forward failed due to the rapid increase of industrialization, a powerful centralized government, and the commune system.
The Chinese Communist Party forced the peasants to work hard physical labor which I believe was cruel, and inhumane. The peasants lived a simple life before Mao came up with this absurd idea. Mao used propaganda to make people believe, that China was going to become prosperous. Over one hundred million people were forced to work on projects. The Chinese steel industry came to fruition, with the establishment of iron and steel furnaces in the countryside of China. The initial high goals set for steel were unrealistic due to the extenuating circumstances that would impact the industry.
Communes in China which started as a series of collective farms became multipurpose entities that ran local governments and manage all social and economic activity. In its inception, the commune was responsible for all manufacturing and agriculture and was set up to function as a single unit. It subsequently was divided into two units, the generation detachment, and the creative group. By the fall of 1958, around 750,000 agricultural workers, cooperatives, became production detachments. This lead to twenty-three thousand five hundred workers collectives being created, each averaging 22,000 members. One commune was placed in control of p...