How did the Great Leap Forward change the balance of power between central and provincial authorities?

The Great Leap Forward (1958–1960) significantly altered the balance of power in China by shifting authority away from the centralized government ministries in Beijing toward provincial- and lower-level territorial Chinese Communist Party (CCP) bodies.1

Prior to this campaign, the State Council and its functional ministries held substantial power, a structure Mao Zedong criticized for being too centralized and overly reliant on the Soviet model of development. By decentralizing agricultural and political decision-making through the people’s communes, the Great Leap Forward empowered local and provincial leaders to implement policies with greater autonomy.123

However, this shift created new tensions. As provincial leaders gained influence, they became a source of resistance when Mao later attempted to scale back the program in 1959 to avert economic disaster. Furthermore, the fear of being labeled "rightist" during political campaigns often compelled local cadres to continue implementing unrealistic central directives, even as the resulting famine worsened. Ultimately, the distribution of power remained fluid, as the failure of the campaign led to intense internal party divisions regarding the appropriate balance between central expertise and local ideological mobilization.231