Which campaign did Mao Zedong launch in 1958 to rapidly transform China's economy and mobilize mass effort, often with disastrous results?

• A. The Great Leap Forward
• B. The Long March
• C. The Hundred Flowers Campaign
• D. The Cultural Revolution

Answer: (A)

The concept being tested is rapid, mass-driven economic transformation driven by central planning and mobilization of the population. Mao’s push in 1958 aimed to overhaul industry and agriculture quickly by organizing people into large collective units and pressuring them to meet ambitious targets, even if it meant sacrificing practical limits or accuracy.

This is best illustrated by the Great Leap Forward. It was intended to accelerate China’s development by creating communes, expanding collective farming, and pushing for huge increases in steel and other output through mechanisms like backyard furnaces. The plan treated production targets as political imperatives, leading to widespread misallocation and inefficiency. The consequences were severe, including a massive famine and economic disruption, underscoring how the approach prioritized symbolic progress and mass participation over sustainable, well-planned growth.

Other campaigns occurred in different periods and focused on different aims. The Long March was a 1934–35 strategic retreat that shaped leadership and myth rather than economic mobilization starting in 1958. The Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956–57 invited criticism and then cracked down on dissent, not a nationwide economic transformation drive. The Cultural Revolution began in 1966 as a political and ideological upheaval intended to reform society and the party, not the immediate industrial-agricultural mobilization campaign launched in 1958.