Which Chinese policy from 1958 to 1960 aimed to rapidly industrialize the economy and collectivize agriculture, ultimately contributing to a severe famine and millions of deaths?

• A. Great Leap Forward
• B. Cultural Revolution
• C. Five-Year Plan
• D. Backyard Steel Campaign

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is the state-led push to rapidly industrialize and collectivize, enacted through a policy in China from 1958 to 1960. This plan organized society around large-scale communes and promoted mass steel production through backyard furnaces, aiming to boost both industry and agriculture at an unprecedented pace. But the fast, centralized targets and mismanagement disrupted farming, drained resources away from food production, and produced faulty outcomes, contributing to a devastating famine with millions of deaths. The combination of idealistic goals, forced collectivization, and unrealistic production targets under this policy is what led to the catastrophically high human cost.

Other options don’t fit the timeframe or the scope. The Cultural Revolution began in the mid-1960s as a political campaign rather than an economic policy tied to rapid industrialization and collectivization. The Five-Year Plan refers to earlier economic planning in the early 1950s, not the 1958–1960 push described. The Backyard Steel Campaign is a feature of the same movement, but it’s understood as part of the broader policy rather than the policy itself.