This is just provable false though, China's economic revolution, for better or worse, happened under Mao. Humanitarian crisis were aplently, (but is that really any different from capitalist states, honduras anyone?), but the intended goal of rapid industrilisation and modernisation was successful. I'm not trying to white wash how bad of a humanitarian crisis the great leap forward was, but China is a manufacturing giant today because of the ground work laid down by Mao's reforms. To argue that socialism served no economic purpose is just false.