Chinese government policies, including a plan to modernize the mainly agrarian Chinese economy and society to one that was communist and based on industry, coupled with a few years of severe drought and flooding that reduced harvests, led to widespread famine and the death of thirty million or more rural Chinese people.
From 1958 to 1961 the people of China endured one of the most devastating famines in modern history. Although no official figures are available, an estimated thirty million Chinese perished. The famine was fueled by a policy that believed population-control programs were sinister capitalist ploys and by the belief that Communist nations would always enjoy an abundance of food. All doubters in China were assailed as misguided disciples of Thomas Robert Malthus. The famine had three distinct characteristics. First, it went almost unmentioned in China and was unnoticed worldwide. Second, the causes of the famine rested squarely on the wrongheaded agricultural policies of the Communists. Third, uncertainty persists about who should bear responsibility for causing and prolonging this human-made disaster.
In the early 1950’s, China had well-trained scientists knowledgeable in soil science and agriculture, but two trends combined to erode this reality: the Anti-rightist Campaign
Stalin had supported scientific quacks who claimed to be experts, but Mao went a step further and claimed that peasant knowledge was superior to that of trained experts. As a result, outlandish experiments of all types were deemed successful and then promoted throughout China.
The first blow to Chinese agriculture began with the promotion of backyard steel furnaces. Mao proclaimed that China could quickly match, then surpass, British steel production
In 1959, the hardship intensified as agricultural methods conformed to the reckless urgency of the mentality of the Great Leap Forward
Furthermore, chemical fertilizers were seldom used. Instead, the Chinese followed the advice of Russian biologist and agronomist Trofim D. Lysenko
The nationwide effort to kill all sparrows
The fragmentary reports that emerged after the famine painted a relentlessly grim picture of malnutrition, disease, and hopelessness in the face of harangues to work even harder. Once starvation set in, the weakened survivors were unable to bury the dead, adding to the widespread horror. All this went unmentioned in the press, which continued to portray a land of abundance and to predict a glorious future for China. One leader, the venerable Peng Dehuai, confronted Mao. At a meeting in Lushan in 1961, Peng scolded Mao for ignoring the suffering of the peasants. After a brief period of shock, Mao counterattacked viciously, ruining the career of Peng and choosing Lin Biao to replace him, but with disastrous results.
By late 1961 the Chinese economy was in grave disarray, and Mao agreed to a modest retreat from the harmful policies. Local leaders and groups of peasants used the retreat to undo much of what had been ordered. Rural hardship did not end, but the monumental suffering of those horrific years subsided. Unlike the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976, which continues to be widely discussed in China, the famine was rarely examined, and its lessons went unlearned. Even more troubling is that Chinese environmental policies still reflect a reliance on accelerated economic development; the consequences of these policies for the environment remain afterthoughts.
Famine did not return to rural China, but widespread hardship remained. The result was a mass exodus of peasants to the cities, creating massive social dislocation. What was billed as a peasant revolution in modern China produced a society that disregards the plight of peasants and plunders nature.
For two hundred years, famines have resulted largely from human actions and not from natural causes. The famine in China from 1958 to 1961 is a glaring example of a human-made disaster. By 1958, China had been able to feed its massive population. Unwise policies and stubborn reluctance to admit blunders disrupted Chinese agriculture with horrific results.
Some evaluations of the famine portray Mao as the sole culprit. Certainly his attitudes and his demand for blind obedience played a role. Other evaluations stress near-universal attitudes that asserted that nature was expendable and that development was worth any cost. Both approaches overlook the fact that China had become a major actor on the world stage by 1958, and the Sino-Soviet split and other tumultuous events surely distracted Mao from domestic problems.
Disputes over who or what is to blame for the famine may never be solved, but much more disturbing is the dearth of contemporary reporting on the famine and the paucity of historical studies. Famine in China and worldwide remains devastating and misunderstood, a sad result of human indifference to suffering.
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Becker, Jasper. Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s Secret Famine. London: John Murray, 1996. Perhaps the only book-length account of the Chinese famine in English. -
Shapiro, Judith. Mao’s War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Two chapters of this scholarly work on Mao Zedong and the natural environment are relevant to the 1959-1961 famine. -
Smil, Vaclav. China’s Past, China’s Future: Energy, Food, Environment. New York: Routledge, 2004. A study of the relationship between the environment and food production in China, with a chapter on famine and a chapter titled “Can China Feed Itself?” -
Yang, Dali L. “Surviving the Great Leap Famine: The Struggle over Rural Policy, 1958-1962.” In New Perspectives on State Socialism in China, edited by Timothy Cheek and Tony Saich. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. Yang does an excellent job of placing the famine in the context of international events.
Oxford Committee for Famine Relief Is Founded
Famine Decimates Bengal
United Nations Holds Its First Conference on Food and Agriculture
Mao Zedong Proclaims a Communist People’s Republic in China
China Begins Its First Five-Year Plan
Asian Flu Pandemic Kills Millions Worldwide
Mao’s Hundred Flowers Campaign Begins
Mao’s Great Leap Forward Brings Chaos to China
Cultural Revolution Begins in China
Drought Extends the Reach of the Sahara Desert