[rawgabbit]

"Local officials lied about food production and greatly exaggerated output figures to gain promotions."

Were any of these officials who played fast and loose with truth ever punished and stripped of their ill-gotten promotions? The only person "punished" because of the Great Leap Forward, from my memory, was Peng De Huai who stood up to Mao and was eventually killed during the Cultural Revolution.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peng_Dehuai#Persecution_during...

"After Peng still refused to "confess," his jailers began routinely beating him and broke several ribs,[106] injured his back, and damaged his internal organs,[107] especially his lungs. Peng's violent "interrogations" lasted over ten hours a day, but his interrogators were replaced every two hours to keep them from developing any sympathy for Peng, a practice pioneered by the Stalinist secret police in the 1930s. Peng was "interrogated" that way over 130 times.[106]"