Mao Zedong and the Famine of 1959–1960: A Study in Wilfulness

@article{Bernstein2006MaoZA,
  title={Mao Zedong and the Famine of 1959–1960: A Study in Wilfulness},
  author={T. Bernstein},
  journal={The China Quarterly},
  year={2006},
  volume={186},
  pages={421 - 445}
}
In late autumn 1958, Mao Zedong strongly condemned widespread practices of the Great Leap Forward (GLF) such as subjecting peasants to exhausting labour without adequate food and rest, which had resulted in epidemics, starvation and deaths. At that time Mao explicitly recognized that anti-rightist pressures on officialdom were a major cause of “production at the expense of livelihood.” While he was not willing to acknowledge that only abandonment of the GLF could solve these problems, he did… Expand
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