In 1958 Mao broke with the Soviet model and announced a new economic program the “Great Leap Forward aimed at rapidly raising industrial and agricultural production. Giant cooperatives (communes) were formed, and backyard factories” dotted the Chinese landscape. The results were disastrous. Normal market mechanisms were disrupted agricultural production fell behind and China’s people exhausted themselves producing what turned out to be shoddy unsalable goods. Within a year starvation appeared even in fertile agricultural areas. From 1960 to 1961 the combination of poor planning during the Great Leap Forward and bad weather resulted in famine.

The already strained Sino-Soviet relationship deteriorated sharply in 1959 when the Soviets started to restrict the flow of scientific and technological information to China. The dispute escalated and the Soviets withdrew all of their personnel from China in August 1960. In 1960 the Soviets and the Chinese began to have disputes openly in international forums.