[Son House]

Great Leap Forward

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward

The Great Leap Forward ... of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China’s vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern communist society through the process of agriculturalization, industrialization, and collectivization.

[HangnJudge]

Frank Dikötter estimated the total death toll between 1958 and 1962 to be “at least 45 million people”, who were “worked, starved or beaten to death”

From Chairman Mao
“When there is not enough to eat people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.”

2.5 million people were beaten or tortured to death and 1 to 3 million committed suicide