The Great Leap Forward (simplified Chinese: ???; traditional Chinese: ???; pinyin: D?yu?j靚) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China (CPC); 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 rapid industrialization; and collectivization. Mao Zedong led the campaign based on the Theory of Productive Forces; and intensified it after being informed of the impending disaster from grain shortages.

Chief changes in the lives of rural Chinese included the introduction of a mandatory process of agricultural collectivization; which was introduced incrementally. Private farming was prohibited; and those engaged in it were labeled as counter revolutionaries and persecuted. Restrictions on rural people were enforced through public struggle sessions; and social pressure.

The Great Leap ended in catastrophe; resulting in tens of millions of excess deaths. Estimates of the death toll range from 18 million to at least 45 million.

In subsequent conferences in 1960 and 1962; the negative effects of the Great Leap Forward were studied by the CPC; and Mao was criticized in the party conferences. Moderate Party members like Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping rose to power; and Mao was marginalized within the party; leading him to initiate the Cultural Revolution in 1966.