The Great Leap Forward refers to an economic and social campaign that startedin the 1950s with the purpose of transforming China from an agrarian economy into a modern society. It was an effort made by the Communist Party of China (CPC) under the leadership of Mao Zedong, also known as Mao Tse-tung, to change China into a society capable of competing with other Western industrialized nations, within a short time period.