The Chinese People's Liberation Army launched an artillery bombardment on Kinmen, and the Republic of China armed forces stationed there returned fire. This military conflict is historically known as the August 23 Artillery Bombardment, also referred to as the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.
The CCP implemented the Great Leap Forward policy. During this period, the climate was normal, and there were no large-scale wars or epidemics, yet at least 45 million Chinese people died abnormally, with causes of death including starvation, overwork, and beatings by cadres.
During the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward, widespread large-scale cannibalism incidents broke out in places such as Xinyang, Tongwei in Gansu, Anhui, and Sichuan.
During the Great Leap Forward, local authorities at every level falsely inflated grain output figures. The central government collected grain based on these figures, ultimately triggering the great famine of 1958 to 1962, with various estimates putting abnormal deaths at between 15 million and 55 million people.
To provide fuel for "backyard furnaces", about 30% to 40% of rural houses were demolished during the Great Leap Forward, leaving people with nowhere to shelter from the wind and rain.
In 1958, the People's Liberation Army again carried out large-scale artillery bombardment of Kinmen and other coastal islands controlled by Taiwan.