The Great Leap Forward began in 1958. It was Mao Zedong’s plan to catch China up with the Western world’s economy. It was supposed to turn China into an industrial superpower, but it failed terribly. By examining the casualty count, effects on China, and the reasons people died, it is clear that Mao’s Great Leap Forward was one of the worst genocides in history. Even though Mao didn’t directly want to kill anyone, he is still responsible for the deaths that his poor policy led to. Since he knew his plan caused people to die and continued anyway, it is considered genocide. Over 45 million people died from several different causes. One of the main causes of death was starvation due to the famine that this led to. Others were tortured
