One way in which joseph stalin’s five-year plans and mao zedong’s great leap forward are similar is that both plans were

(4) attempts to increase agricultural and industrial production.

Explanation:

According to a different source, the options that come with this question are:

(1) efforts to reduce human rights violations.

(2) policies to improve relations with the West.

(3) methods used to control population growth.

(4) attempts to increase agricultural and industrial production.

Both of these plans were attempts to increase agricultural and industrial production. Both Stalin and Zedong believed that communism was the optimal strategy to distribute goods and ensure that everyone in the country had enough resources to have a healthy life. In order for this to be achieved, however, both the Soviet Union and China needed to become more modern and better producers. Both of these programs were intended to achieve this goal.