Mao's Great Famine Direct

: Mao ordered the extermination of sparrows, believing they ate grain. Instead, the loss of sparrows led to a locust plague that devastated crops. The Collapse: A Man-Made Disaster

As production targets became impossible to meet, local officials feared being labeled "rightists" and began over-reporting their harvests to Beijing. Mao's Great Famine

: Private farming was abolished, and villagers were forced into massive communes of up to 20,000 households. : Mao ordered the extermination of sparrows, believing

In 1958, Chairman Mao Zedong launched the , an ambitious plan to rapidly transform China from an agrarian economy into a communist industrial superpower. The goal was to surpass the industrial output of Great Britain within 15 years. To achieve this, the state implemented radical changes: believing they ate grain. Instead