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Great Leap Forward

British  

noun

  1. the attempt by the People's Republic of China in 1959–60 to solve the country's economic problems by labour-intensive industrialization

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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His relentless pursuit of steel production at the expense of farm work during the Great Leap Forward contributed to a famine, causing as many as tens of millions of deaths.

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 23, 2025

The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution - campaigns led by Communist China's founder to reshape the nation's economy and society - resulted in millions of deaths.

From BBC Oct. 19, 2025

Which world leader’s Great Leap Forward campaign, intended to increase food production, instead resulted in the starvation of millions?

From Slate Oct. 4, 2023

Perhaps more consequential, China also revealed that its population had shrunk last year for the first time since the Great Leap Forward, Mao’s failed economic experiment.

From New York Times Jan. 17, 2023

Thus, the colonization of Australia/New Guinea was not achieved until around the time of the Great Leap Forward.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

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