Great leap into the 21st century: Prior to Deng’s efforts, China’s other well-known attempt at economic development was Mao Zedong’s infamous Great Leap Forward, started in 1958. By 1962, some 30 million people had died from starvation. Deng’s agricultural policies fared much better. He permitted the dismantling of collective farms, and farmers quickly engaged in private tilling. Profits skyrocketed, and more rural people emerged from poverty from 1980 to 1984 than even in the 15 years from 1990 to 2005. Here, reflecting the state of agriculture in the early years of the People’s Republic, a man plows a rice field in November 1954 in Hunan province.