In 1958 Mao Zedong ordered all the sparrows to be killed because they ate too much grain. Read more: https://t.co/OWkhr3VL7U
— Fascinating (@fasc1nate) February 4, 2023
From History Defined.
Four Pests
Four Pests was viewed as a way to stop the spread of disease by eradicating the country’s four major pestilence-causing pests. This hygiene campaign targeted mosquitoes, rodents, flies, and sparrows.
While the first three were known to spread disease, sparrows were targeted due to their suspected consumption of the country’s grain. This was inconvenient as the Chinese government was focused on increasing the production of the precious food supply.
Farmers during The Great Leap Forward
A law was quickly passed in 1959 requiring Chinese citizens to participate in targeting sparrows.
People hit pots and pans together to prevent sparrows from resting in their nests all over the country. Nests were destroyed and any bird found was killed, forcing them out of their natural habitat, searching for safer areas.
The Polish Embassy in Beijing refused to participate in the targeting of the species, becoming a refuge for any remaining sparrows. As the birds’ defenders, the Polish refused entry into the embassy, but it did not stop the Chinese in their efforts.
After surrounding the embassy and drumming for two days, the sparrows died of exhaustion within the embassy walls. Polish personnel recounted clearing the embassy of dead sparrows with shovels.
For Chairman Mao Zedong, it seemed his Four Pest campaign was working efficiently. Mao was convinced he was saving the country four pounds of rice per sparrow annually. Instead, he created an even more devastating ecological issue for rice crops.
Sparrows worldwide are natural predators of many insects, including crop-damaging locusts. Locusts didn’t make Mao Zedong’s pest list since the sparrows consumed them along with the grain, controlling the insect population. Removing sparrows as the predator in its ecosystem would soon prove devastating for China
