Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962

by Frank Dikotter

  11 ‘1957: Nikita Khrushchev’, Time, 6 Jan. 1958.

  12 ‘Bark on the wind’, Time, 3 June 1957.

  13 Taubman, Khrushchev, pp. 305 and 374–5.

  14 ‘N. S. Khrushchov’s report to anniversary session of USSR Supreme Soviet’, Moscow: Soviet News, 7 Nov. 1957, p. 90.

  15 Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 6, p. 635.

  Chapter 3: Purging the Ranks

  1 MacFarquhar, Origins, vol. 1, p. 312.

  2 Huang Zheng, Liu Shaoqi yisheng (Liu Shaoqi: A life), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2003, p. 322.

  3 Renmin ribao, 1 Jan. 1958, p. 1; Wu, Yi Mao zhuxi, p. 47.

  4 Renmin ribao, 8 Dec. 1957, p. 1.

  5 Renmin ribao, 25 Jan. 1958, p. 2.

  6 Jin Chongji (ed.), Zhou Enlai zhuan, 1898–1949 (A biography of Zhou Enlai, 1898–1949), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1989, p. 1234.

  7 Minutes of Nanning meeting, Gansu, 28 Jan. 1958, 91-4-107, p. 1.

  8 Li Rui, Dayuejin qin liji (A witness account of the Great Leap Forward), Haikou: Nanfang chubanshe, 1999, vol. 2, pp. 68–9.

  9 At the time the editorial was published in June 1956, Deng Tuo was the editor of the People’s Daily; he was replaced by Wu Lengxi in July 1957 and dismissed in November 1958, although he continued to write in support of the Great Leap Forward for several years; Wu, Yi Mao zhuxi, pp. 47–9; on Deng Tuo see Timothy Cheek, Propaganda and Culture in Mao’s China: Deng Tuo and the Intelligentsia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

  10 Li, Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 230.

  11 Bo Yibo, Ruogan zhongda shijian yu juece de huigu (Recollections of several important decisions and events), Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe, 1991–3, p. 639.

  12 Xiong Huayuan and Liao Xinwen, Zhou Enlai zongli shengya (The life of Zhou Enlai), Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1997, p. 241.

  13 Minutes of Nanning meeting, Gansu, 28 Jan. 1958, 91-4-107, pp. 9–10; also in Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 7, p. 59.

  14 ‘Rubber communist’, Time, 18 June 1951.

  15 Gao Wenqian, Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary, New York: PublicAffairs, 2007, p. 88.

  16 Mao’s speech on 15 Nov. 1956, Gansu, 91-18-480, p. 74.

  17 Mao’s speech on 10 March 1958 at Chengdu, Gansu, 91-18-495, p. 211.

  18 Li, Dayuejin, vol. 2, p. 288.

  19 See also Roderick MacFarquhar, The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, vol. 2: The Great Leap Forward, 1958–1960, New York: Columbia University Press, 1983, p. 57.

  20 Teiwes, China’s Road to Disaster, p. 246, quoting from a record of Liu’s statement; see also Jin Chongji and Huang Zheng (eds), Liu Shaoqi zhuan (A biography of Liu Shaoqi), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1998, pp. 828–9.

  21 Memoirs of the secretary Fan Ruoyu as quoted in Jin, Zhou Enlai zhuan, pp. 1259–60.

  22 Nathan, ‘Introduction’, Gao, Zhou Enlai, p. xiii.

  23 Teiwes, China’s Road to Disaster, p. 85.

  24 Tao Lujia, Mao zhuxi jiao women dang shengwei shuji (Chairman Mao taught us how to be a provincial party secretary), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1996, pp. 77–8.

  25 Mao’s speech on 28 Jan. 1958, Gansu, 91-18-495, p. 200.

  26 Deng’s speech on 15 Jan. 1958, Gansu, 91-4-107, pp. 73 and 94.

  27 Gansu, 9 Feb. 1958, 91-4-104, pp. 1–10.

  28 Gansu, 12 Jan. 1961, 91-4-735, pp. 75–6.

  29 Gansu, 12 Jan. 1961, 91-18-200, p. 35.

  30 Gansu, 3 Dec. 1962, 91-4-1028, p. 8.

  31 Yunnan, 20 April 1958, 2-1-3059, pp. 57–62; see also Renmin ribao, 26 May 1958, p. 4.

  32 Yunnan, 25 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3059, pp. 2–3.

  33 Mao’s speech on 10 March 1958 at Chengdu, Gansu, 91-18-495, p. 211.

  34 On these purges see Frederick C. Teiwes, Politics and Purges in China: Rectification and the Decline of Party Norms, Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1993.

  35 Ibid., p. 276; see also Zhang Linnan, ‘Guanyu fan Pan, Yang, Wang shijian’ (The anti-Pan, Yang and Wang incident), in Zhonggong Henan shengwei dangshi gongzuo weiyuanhui (eds), Fengyu chunqiu: Pan Fusheng shiwen jihianji, Zhengzhou: Henan renmin chubanshe, 1993.

  36 Thaxton, Catastrophe and Contention in Rural China, p. 116.

  37 Jiang Weiqing, Qishi nian zhengcheng: Weiqing huiyilu (A seventy-year journey: The memoirs of Jiang Weiqing), Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1996, pp. 415–16.

  38 Yunnan, 22 May 1959, 2-1-3700, pp. 93–8.

  39 Chen’s speech on 19 Dec. 1957 in Beijing, Gansu, 91-8-79, p. 179.

  Chapter 4: Bugle Call

  1 Judith Shapiro, Mao’s War against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 49.

  2 The story is told by Shang Wei, ‘A Lamentation for the Yellow River: The Three Gate Gorge Dam (Sanmenxia)’, in Dai Qing (ed.), The River Dragon has Come! The Three Gorges Dam and the Fate of China’s Yangtze River and its People, Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998, pp. 143–59.

  3 Shapiro, Mao’s War against Nature, pp. 53–4.

  4 Zhou’s speech on 19 Sept. 1961, Gansu, 91-18-561, p. 31.

  5 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Beijing, 23 July 1964, 117-1170-5, pp. 45–7.

  6 Renmin ribao, 1 Feb. 1958, p. 11; Shui Fu, ‘A Profile of Dams in China’, in Dai, The River Dragon has come!, p. 22.

  7 Yi Si, ‘The World’s Most Catastrophic Dam Failures: The August 1975 Collapse of the Banqiao and Shimantan Dams’, in Dai, The River Dragon has Come!, p. 30.

  8 Gansu, 29 Jan. 1958, 91-4-138, pp. 135–7.

  9 Gansu, 20 Oct. 1958, 91-4-263, pp. 29–30.

  10 Gansu, 9 Sept. 1958, 229-1-118.

  11 Gansu, 26 April 1959, 91-4-348, pp. 30–5.

  12 ‘ “Yin Tao shangshan” de huiyi’ (Recollections of the ‘Raising the Tao River up the Mountains’ campaign), in Qiu Shi (ed.), Gongheguo zhongda juece chutai qianhou (How important decisions of the People’s Republic were made), Beijing: Jingji ribao chubanshe, 1997–8, vol. 3, p. 226.

  13 Gansu, 18 April 1962, 91-4-1091, pp. 1–8.

  14 Shui, ‘A Profile of Dams in China’, p. 22.

  15 Beijing, 1959, 96-1-14, pp. 38–44.

  16 Jan Rowinski, ‘China and the Crisis of Marxism-Leninism’, in Marie-Luise Näth (ed.), Communist China in Retrospect: East European Sinologists Remember the First Fifteen Years of the PRC, Frankfurt: P. Lang, 1995, pp. 85–7.

  17 M. A. Klochko, Soviet Scientist in China, London: Hollis & Carter, 1964, pp. 51–2.

  18 Rowinski, ‘China and the Crisis of Marxism-Leninism’, pp. 85–7; Klochko, Soviet Scientist, pp. 51–2.

  19 Li, Private Life of Chairman Mao, pp. 247–8.

  20 Ibid., pp. 249–51.

  21 Yunnan, 9 Jan. 1958, 2-1-3227, p. 5.

  22 Renmin ribao, 15 Jan. 1958, p. 1.

  23 Yunnan, 5 Oct. 1958, 2-1-3227, pp. 109–23.

  24 Renmin ribao, 19 Jan. 1958, p. 1.

  25 Renmin ribao, 18 Feb. 1958, p. 2.

  26 Yunnan, 21 April 1958, 2-1-3260, p. 117.

  27 Li, Dayuejin, vol. 2, p. 363.

  28 Yunnan, 23 June 1958, 2-1-3274, pp. 37–9.

  29 Yunnan, 20 Nov. 1958, 2-1-3078, pp. 116–23; 22 Aug. 1958, 2-1-3078, pp. 1–16.

  30 Jiang, Qishi nian zhengcheng, p. 421.

  31 Gansu, 14 Feb. 1961, 91-18-205, p. 58.

  Chapter 5: Launching Sputniks

  1 Li, Private Life of Chairman Mao, pp. 226–7.

  2 Hunan, July 1958, 186-1-190, pp. 1–2; also July 1958, 141-2-62, pp. 1–2.

  3 William W. Whitson, The Chinese High Command: A History of Communist Military Politics, 1927–71, New York: Praeger, 1973, p. 204, quoted in MacFarquhar, Origins, vol. 2, p. 83.

  4 Hunan, 11 May 1959, 141-1-1066, pp. 80–3.

  5 Hunan, Sept. 1959, 141-1-1117, pp. 1–4; 18 Sept. 1959, 141-1-1066, pp. 5–13.

  6 As he later admitted; see minutes of the Lushan meeting, Gansu, Aug. 1959, 91-18-96, p. 570.

  7 Yunnan, 29 July 1958, 2-1-3102, p. 20.


  8 Yunnan, 4 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3101, pp. 1–35.

  9 Yunnan, Sept. 1958, 2-1-3101, pp. 36–9, 48–65, 66–84, 94–104, 105–23.

  10 Guangdong, 20 Jan. 1961, 217-1-645, pp. 15–19.

  11 Teiwes, China’s Road to Disaster, p. 85.

  12 Bo, Ruogan zhongda shijian, p. 682; the system is described by MacFarquhar, Origins, vol. 2, p. 31.

  13 Record of the Nanning meeting, Gansu, 28 Jan. 1958, 91-4-107, p. 2.

  14 Interview in Lu Xiaobo, Cadres and Corruption: The Organizational Involution of the Chinese Communist Party, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000, p. 84.

  15 Suiping, 13 Feb. 1958, 1-201-7, pp. 8 and 32; 29 Oct. 1958, 1-221-8.

  16 For an example from Chuxiong county, Yunnan, see Erik Mueggler, The Age of Wild Ghosts: Memory, Violence, and Place in Southwest China, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001, p. 176.

  17 Guangdong, 1961, 217-1-618, p. 36.

  18 Renmin ribao, 26 Nov. 1957, p. 2; 29 Dec. 1957, p. 2; 21 Jan. 1958, p. 4; 16 Aug. 1958, p. 8.

  19 Macheng, 15 July 1958, 1-1-331; 13 April 1959, 1-1-370, p. 37.

  20 Guangdong, 31 Dec. 1960, 217-1-576, pp. 54–68.

  21 Jiang, Qishi nian zhengcheng, p. 431.

  22 Bo, Ruogan zhongda shijian, p. 683; the practice came from a collective farm in Shandong.

  23 Report from the Centre, Yunnan, 3 Sept. 1958, 120-1-84, pp. 52–67.

  24 Guangdong, 31 Dec. 1961, 217-1-642, pp. 11–12.

  25 Guangdong, 7 Jan. 1961, 217-1-643, pp. 120–2.

  26 Roderick MacFarquhar, Timothy Cheek and Eugene Wu (eds), The Secret Speeches of Chairman Mao: From the Hundred Flowers to the Great Leap Forward, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, p. 450.

  27 Macheng, 15 Jan. 1959, 1-1-443, p. 10.

  28 Interview with Liu Shu, born 1946, Renshou county, Sichuan, April 2006.

  29 Interview with Luo Bai, born 1930s, Hongya county, Sichuan, April 2006.

  30 Zhejiang, 4 May 1961, J007-13-48, pp. 1–8.

  31 Macheng, 20 Jan. 1959, 1-1-378, p. 22.

  32 Hebei, 16 April 1961, 884-1-202, pp. 35–47.

  33 Guangdong, 5 Jan. 1961, 217-1-643, pp. 50–60.

  34 Li, Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 278.

  35 Minutes of conversation, Hebei, 4–5 Aug. 1958, 855-4-1271, pp. 6–7 and 13–14; see also Renmin ribao, 4 Aug. 1958, p. 1, 11 Aug. 1958, pp. 1 and 4.

  36 Hunan, 19 Oct. 1958, 141-2-64, pp. 78–82; Hunan, 18 Sept. 1958, 141-1-1066, pp. 7–8.

  37 Hunan, 19 Oct. 1958, 141-2-64, pp. 78–82.

  38 Hunan, 5 Nov. 1958, 141-1-1051, p. 124.

  39 Directive from the State Council, Gansu, 7 Jan. 1959, 91-8-360, pp. 5–6.

  Chapter 6: Let the Shelling Begin

  1 Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi (eds), Mao Zedong waijiao wenxuan (Selection of writings on foreign affairs by Mao Zedong), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1994, pp. 323–4.

  2 Lüthi, Sino-Soviet Split, pp. 92–3.

  3 Li, Waijiao wutaishang, p. 149.

  4 Harrison E. Salisbury, The New Emperors: China in the Era of Mao and Deng, Boston: Little, Brown, 1992, pp. 155–6.

  5 Li, Waijiao wutaishang, p. 151.

  6 Russian minutes in ‘Peregovory S. Khrushcheva s Mao Tszedunom 31 iiulia–3 avgusta 1958 g. i 2 oktiabria 1959 g.’, Novaia i Noveishaia Istoria, no. 1 (2001), pp. 100–8; reference on page 117.

  7 Khrushchev, Vremia, liudi, vlast’, vol. 3, pp. 76–7.

  8 Li, Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 261.

  9 Li, Waijiao wutaishang, pp. 149–50.

  10 As he recollected while addressing a plenum a few years later; see RGANI, Moscow, 18 Jan. 1961, 2-1-535, pp. 143–6; see also RGANI, Moscow, 14 Feb. 1964, 2-1-720, p. 137.

  11 Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996, pp. 225–6.

  12 Li, Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 270.

  13 Mao, Mao Zedong waijiao wenxuan, pp. 344 and 347.

  14 Roland Felber, ‘China and the Claim for Democracy’, in Näth, Communist China in Retrospect, p. 117; more recently Lorenz Lüthi, an expert on Sino-Soviet relations, has also underlined how domestic developments alone determined the timing of the shelling of Quemoy; Lüthi, Sino-Soviet Split, p. 99.

  Chapter 7: The People’s Communes

  1 Li, Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 263.

  2 Hebei, Sept. 1957, 855-4-1271, pp. 1–5.

  3 Hebei, 13 Feb. and 30 April 1958, 855-18-541, pp. 13–20 and 67–81.

  4 Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 7, p. 143.

  5 Renmin ribao, 17 April 1958, p. 2.

  6 Chen Boda, ‘Zai Mao Zedong tongzhi de qizhi xia’, Hongqi, 16 July 1958, no. 4, pp. 1–12.

  7 Speech on 19 and 21 Aug. 1958, Gansu, 91-18-495, pp. 316 and 321.

  8 Li, Dayuejin, vol. 2, p. 31.

  9 Renmin ribao, 1 Sept. 1958, p. 3.

  10 Jin and Huang, Liu Shaoqi zhuan, pp. 832–3.

  11 Renmin ribao, 18 Sept. 1958, p. 2; 24 Sept. 1958, p. 1.

  12 Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 7, p. 494.

  13 Ji Fengyuan, Linguistic Engineering: Language and Politics in Mao’s China, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004, p. 88.

  14 Speech on 21 and 24 Aug. 1958; Hunan, 141-1-1036, pp. 24–5 and 31.

  15 Renmin ribao, 3 Oct. 1958, p. 2.

  16 Renmin ribao, 6 Oct. 1958, p. 6; 13 Oct. 1958, p. 1.

  17 Hunan, 18 Sept. 1958, 141-1-1066, p. 5.

  18 John Gittings, ‘China’s Militia’, China Quarterly, no. 18 (June 1964), p. 111.

  19 Macheng, 15 Jan. 1959, 1-1-443, pp. 9 and 24.

  20 Nanjing, 10 April 1961, 4003-2-481, pp. 75–83.

  21 Hunan, 4 Feb. 1961, 151-1-20, pp. 8–9.

  22 Guangdong, 10 Dec. 1960, 217-1-643, p. 44.

  23 Interview with Li Yeye, born 1935, Langzhong county, Sichuan, April 2007.

  24 Interview with Feng Dabai, born 1930s, Langzhong county, Sichuan, Sept. 2006.

  25 Sichuan, 26 Feb. 1960, JC1-1846, p. 22.

  26 Guangdong, 10 Dec. 1960, 217-1-643, p. 45.

  27 Guangdong, 12 Feb. 1959, 217-1-69, pp. 25–33.

  28 Guangdong, 7 Jan. 1961, 217-1-643, p. 111.

  29 Guangzhou, 27 Oct. 1958, 16-1-1, p. 76.

  30 Wuhan, 3 Nov. 1958, 83-1-523, p. 126.

  31 Wuhan, 19 Sept. and 3 Nov. 1958, 83-1-523, pp. 21–5 and 126–32.

  32 Guangzhou, 27 Oct. 1958, 16-1-1, p. 76.

  33 Wuhan, 1958, 83-1-523, p. 87.

  34 Macheng, 20 Jan. 1959, 1-1-378, p. 24; 11 Dec. 1960, 1-1-502, pp. 207 and 213; 16 April 1959, 1-1-383, p. 1.

  35 Sichuan, 1961, JC1-2606, pp. 18–19.

  36 Gansu, 16 Jan. 1961, 91-18-200, p. 94.

  37 Hunan, 2–4 Sept. 1959, 141-1-1116, p. 11.

  38 Macheng, 13 May 1961, 1-1-556, pp. 2–3; also 20 Jan. 1959, 1-1-378, p. 23.

  39 Macheng, 18 April 1959, 1-1-406, p. 1.

  40 Macheng, 29 Jan. and 2 Feb. 1959, 1-1-416, pp. 36 and 49; 26 April 1958, 1-1-431, p. 37.

  41 Nanjing, 4003-1-150, 30 Dec. 1958, p. 89.

  Chapter 8: Steel Fever

  1 Yunnan, 8 Nov. 1958, 105-9-1, pp. 11–14; 11 March 1958, 105-9-6, pp. 71–4.

  2 Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 7, p. 236.

  3 Informal talks after main speeches by Mao Zedong as reported by Xie Fuzhi to the top leadership in Yunnan and Guizhou, Guiyang, 61-8-84, 28 May 1958, p. 2.

  4 Lin Keng, ‘Home-Grown Technical Revolution’, China Reconstructs, Sept. 1958, p. 12.

  5 Lin Yunhui, Wutuobang yundong: Cong dayuejin dao dajihuang, 1958–1961 (Utopian movement: From the Great Leap Forward to the Great Famine, 1958–1961), Hong Kong: Xianggang zhongwen daxue dangdai Zhongguo wenhua yanjiu zhongxin, 2008, p. 132.

  6 Guangdong, 31 Dec. 1960, 217-1-642, pp. 10–16.

  7 These different figures are all discussed in MacFarquhar, Origins, vol. 2, pp. 88–90.

  8 Gu Shiming, Li Qiangui and Sun Jianp
ing, Li Fuchun jingji sixiang yanjiu (Research on Li Fuchun’s economic thought), Xining: Qinghai renmin chubanshe, 1992, p. 115.

  9 The conversation was witnessed by Chen Yun; see Pang and Jin, Mao Zedong zhuan, pp. 824–5; see also Yunnan, 23 June 1958, 2-1-3276, pp. 1–9; Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 7, pp. 281–2.

  10 Report from the Ministry of Metallurgy, Yunnan, 23 June 1958, 2-1-3276, pp. 1–9; see also Bo, Ruogan zhongda shijian, pp. 700–1.

  11 Jin Chongji and Chen Qun (eds), Chen Yun, Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2005, p. 1143; see also Chan, Mao’s Crusade, pp. 73–4.

  12 Yunnan, 10 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3276, pp. 99–100.

  13 Yunnan, 16 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3101, pp. 105–23.

  14 Yunnan, 17 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3102, pp. 58–78.

  15 Yunnan, 20 Sept. 1958 and 5 Jan. 1959, 2-1-3318, pp. 1–5 and 10–19.

  16 Yunnan, 23 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3102, pp. 147–9.

  17 Yunnan, 25 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3101, p. 185.

  18 Yunnan, 18 Oct. 1958, 2-1-3102, pp. 160 and 230; Oct. 1958, 2-1-3102, pp. 235–73.

  19 Yunnan, 14 Dec. 1958, 2-1-3259, pp. 165–72.

  20 Yunnan, 5 Jan. 1959, 2-1-3318, p. 18.

  21 Macheng, 20 Jan. 1959, 1-1-378, p. 23.

  22 Macheng, 15 Jan. 1959, 1-1-443, p. 10.

  23 Interview with Zhang Aihua, born 1941, Dingyuan county, Anhui, Sept. 2006.

  24 Nanjing, 1958, 4003-4-292, pp. 16 and 48–52.

  25 Gansu, 20 May 1959, 91-18-114, p. 209.

  26 Guojia tongjiju guomin jingji zonghe tongjisi (eds), Xin Zhongguo wushi nian tongji ziliao huibian (Compendium of statistical material on the new China’s first fifty years), Beijing: Zhongguo tongji chubanshe, 1999, p. 3, quoted in Lin, Wutuobang yundong, p. 205.

  27 Klochko, Soviet Scientist, p. 82.

  28 Shanghai, 12 March 1959, B98-1-439, pp. 9–13.

  29 Yunnan, 16 May 1959, 81-4-25, p. 2.

  30 Yunnan, 8 Nov. 1958, 105-9-1, p. 15; also 105-9-3, pp. 9–16.

  31 Yunnan, 29 July 1958, 2-1-3102, p. 19.

  32 Yunnan, 21 April 1958, 2-1-3260, p. 116.

  33 These can only be very rough approximations, and they varied from place to place: in Hunan the number of people who did not engage in agricultural tasks increased by 40 per cent after 1958; Hunan, 4 June 1959, 146-1-483, p. 116; in Shandong only 50 per cent of the workforce worked in the fields: talk by Tan Zhenlin, Gansu, 26 June 1959, 91-18-513, p. 16.

  34 Yunnan, 29 July 1958, 2-1-3102, p. 21.