Li Xing creator text xu| 1999 continuing ng p.3457-465 This article attempts to provide explanations and arguments to posit that Maoist socialism was a great leap forward in terms of its objectives and overall achievements despite heavy human cost as well as miscellaneous policy failures and dislocations. Maoist socialism should be analysed and conceptualised from an international geopolitical perspective in understanding the limitations and constraints on China's development environment, strategies and alternatives. More importantly, it paved a solid foundation indispensable to the rapid ongoing economic advance which is largely due to the linkage with rather than the departure from the strong comparative advantages accumulated during the period of socialism. Reproduced Socialism Economic and social development Economic and Political Weekly 180718