Rewind
1962
Newsweek wrote that “in enigmatic Red China, one fact becomes increasingly clear: Mao’s Great Leap Forward has fallen short.” After three years of famine and environmental damage caused by disastrous policy and weather, the world was left asking, “Does the breakdown in China’s agriculture and industry herald the downfall of the Red regime?” Sixty years later, China has grown its industrial economy into the largest global exporter, but fears of food shortages have returned this summer due to a combination of widespread flooding, insect infestations, the global pandemic and high demand.