page_title: Great Chinese Famine
section_title: Four Pests Campaign
hierarchical_section_title: Great Chinese Famine / Causes of the famine / Great Leap Forward / Four Pests Campaign
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Feldsperling English: Tree Sparrow
context_page_description: The Great Chinese Famine was a period in the history of the People's Republic of China which was characterized by widespread famine between the years 1959 and 1961. Some scholars have also included the years 1958 or 1962. The Great Chinese Famine is widely regarded as the deadliest famine and one of the greatest man-made disasters in human history, with an estimated death toll due to starvation that ranges in the tens of millions.
  The major contributing factors in the famine were the policies of the Great Leap Forward and people's communes, in addition to some natural disasters such as droughts which took place during the period. During the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference in early 1962, Liu Shaoqi, the second Chairman of the PRC, formally attributed the famine 30% to natural disasters and 70% to man-made errors. After the launch of Reforms and Opening Up, the Communist Party of China officially stated in June 1981 that the famine was mainly due to the mistakes of the Great Leap Forward as well as the Anti-Rightist Campaign, in addition to some natural disasters and the Sino-Soviet split.
context_section_description: Additionally, in the Four Pests Campaign, citizens were called upon to destroy sparrows and other wild birds that ate crop seeds, in order to protect fields. Pest birds were shot down or scared away from landing until dropping in exhaustion. This system failed and resulted in an explosion of the vermin population, especially crop-eating insects, which consequently had no predators.
caption: The Eurasian tree sparrow was the most notable target of the Four Pests Campaign
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