|
The Great Leap forward and adverse weather conditions generated the most dreadful famine in human history. The inefficiencies of the communes and the impact on the motivation of the peasantry as well as the the large-scale diversion of farm labor into the Great Leap Forward's small-scale industry seriously disrupted Chinese agriculture still the primary economic sector. This meant that agriculture lacked the ability to adjust to adverse weather conditions. Three consecutive years of poor growing conditions and natural calamities meant that a manageable disruption morphed into a national disaster. There is no precise accounting, but over 20 million people are known to have perished, starving because of the crop failures (1959-62). The estimates we see most commonly are about 30 million. But many authors accepting the 30 million figure add that about the same number of births were lost or postponed. 【Smil】 The famine was undeniably caused by ideologically based policies. Unlike Stalin's famine created to destroy the Ukrainian peasantry (1930-31), Mao had no desire to kill millions of peasants, although he was all to willing to accept it. This Great Leap Forward famine stands along with the two World Wars as public man-made death. 【Rhodes】 Huge famine deaths in Europe were prevented by American relief efforts. America basically invented international humanitarianism to save starving Europeans. The Chinese were on heir own, in part because the Communists were unwilling to admit that they caused the greatest famine in history in t heir new worker's paradise. China was on its own. Some estimates are as high as 45 million. One historian insists that top Chinese officials were the direct cause of the famine. Mao and Zhou Enlai increased the food procurement quota demanded from from the countryside to pay for international imports. This meant that severe food shortages developed in the countryside. "In most cases the party knew very well that it was starving its own people to death." 【Dikötter, "Mao's"】 Mao was quoted as saying in Shanghai "When there is not enough to eat people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill." 【Dikötter, "Key"】 It is no accident that two of the greatest famines in world history were caused by the political leadership of the two great Communist countries--the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. China has still not honestly addressed the causes and extent of Mao's famine. Research on the Famine has been conducted outside of China, meaning China great firewall makes it inaccessible to the Chinese people.
Dikötter, Frank. "Key arguments" (2021).
Dikötter, Frank. Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–62 (2010).
Gabriel, Satya J. "Political Economy of the Great Leap Forward: Permanent Revolution and State Feudal Communes," China Essay Series Essay No. 4 (September 1998).
Rhodes R. "Man-made death: a neglected mortality," JAMA (1988), Vol. 260, No. 5, pp. 686–687.
Smil, Vaclav. "China's great famine: 40 years later," BMJ (1999), p. 319.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[The 1880s]
[The 1890s]
[The 1900s]
[The 1910s]
[The 1920s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
[The 1990s]
[The 2000s]
Navigate the Children in History Website
[Return to the Main Great Leap Forward page]
[Return to the Main PRC totalitarian crime page]
[Return to the Main PRC page]
[Return to the Main Chinese 20th history century page]
[Return to the Main Chinese history page]
[Return to the Main famine page]
[About Us]
[Introduction]
[Animals]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Climatology]
[Clothing]
[Disease and Health]
[Economics]
[Ethnicity]
[Geography]
[History]
[Human Nature]
[Law]
[Nationalism]
[Presidents]
[Religion]
[Royalty]
[Science]
[Social Class]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Children in History Home]
