China - Great Leap Forward

What happened to China was a complete result of internal issues dealing with Mao. However, they stemmed from a desire to be better than everyone else. I'm talking specifically about the Great Leap Forward. Mao wanted to use, what seemed like good ideas to push China to be surpass the U.S. but ironically hurt them even more. Mao wanted to do this with industrialization and agriculture. He thought that he could take advantage of China's vast numbers and collectively work together to achieve his goals. Many things changed under Mao's command. Private farming ended, and anyone who chose to take part in their own farming was counter revolutionary. Instead, they were groups of farming communities (Communes) where no specific person owned the tools. They all would work together to produce as much grain as possible which would be taken by the government to feed other people, like those in cities who do not grow any of their own food. The government did a good job of convincing each commune to produce as much grain as they could by almost pitting the communes against each other. Mao also established communal kitchens. Like the farming communes, it involved no one owning their own tools such as pots, pans, kettles etc. Instead these were all taken by the government to help them create steel. Instead of cooking at home, people would go to a public kitchen where they would all be fed the same meal. The consequences of all this were much greater than any benefits that were intended by Mao. It, along with the droughts and flooding of the Yellow river, led to extreme famine where about 2 million Chinese people died.