How will the "Great Leap Forward" affect the people in China and Chinese communism in the long term?

Mao  launched the Great Leap Forward, an economic and
social campaign, in 1958, that aimed to industrialise China and transform it from a
backward, agrarian country to a modern nation. A policy of rapid industrialisation and
collectivisation was advocated, large amounts of funds were used to construct huge state
enterprises for steel production, peasants were encouraged to establish small-scale
backyard furnaces to produce iron and steel, and communist organisations, known as the
“People’s Communes”, were set up, where private ownership was abolished. Wooden doors
and windows were burned to fuel the fires in the furnaces and domestic household items
melted to produce metal. This was a huge waste of resources as the steel produced was
often of low-quality and thus could not be used in industrial activities. Residents of
the communes not only had to work together, they also ate together at  canteen. The
communes soon ran out of food and faced with a lack of food reserves, large-scale
famines occurred. Agricultural innovation, as advocated by Mao, also did not drastically
raise grain production. In fact, policies, such as close-cropping, only lowered
production rates. State officials, afraid of being punished, provided the central
authorities with fabricated statistics that painted a rosy picture. As a result, the
government took away more grain from the communes, which were exported to support poorer
communist states, while Chinese starved to death. The campaign was a disaster of
unprecedented proportions, resulting in a great famine that destroyed 30-40% of houses
in China saw more than 30 million people dead at the end of it. Mao’s reputation
declined and he was forced to cede the presidency to Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, who
rose in power within the Communist Party, which led to a change in policy
direction.