In 1958 Chairman Mao launched the Great Leap Forward. By mobilizing the «masses» Mao wanted to take a shortcut to communism and overtake the U.S., the Soviet Union and everyone else. The leap ended three years later with millions and millions dead.
At a Central Committee meeting in 1962, Mao admitted his shortcomings: «The situation in our country has not been very good for the past few years, but now it is starting to take a turn for the better. In 1959 and 1960 a number of things were done wrongly, mainly because most people had no experience to enable them to understand the problems. The most serious fault was that our requisitioning was excessive. When we did not have very much grain, we insisted on saying that we had. Blind commands were issued in both industry and agriculture.»
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