The ridiculous reason behind Mao Zedong’s decision to kill 600,000,000 sparrows

Science Nilgun Salim
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The leader of the Chinese Republic ordered his militants and civilians to kill all the sparrows because they eat large amounts of grains.

This ‘campaign’ was launched in China in 1958 and the late leader believed these innocent creatures were a genuine threat to his state’s economy.

Without realizing, Mao generated a real national disaster. Due to his improper management of the natural disasters from China, no less than 45 million of inhabitants died of starvation.

The Chinese people killed 600,000,000 sparrows. The impressive number generated the most alarming increase in the number of insects. Believing that the mass killings of these birds will protect the national economy, Mao found that the adverse effect destroyed every single crop from the country.

Among other feeding resources, sparrows eat insects, in particular, locusts. Once they have removed any trace of these birds, the invasion of locusts destroyed all the grain crops.

The production of cereals from most rural areas was destroyed by insects, creating a nationwide famine. 78 million Chinese people died in that period.

The Great Famine is a painful subject for the Chinese, who prefer to repress their memories of that period.

Seeing the havoc he caused, Mao stopped the sparrow campaign. According to the Chinese people, the situation was so serious that parents started to eat their own children or vice versa. But, however, the production could hardly be improved and the rice crops are still damaged.