Mao's Four Pests Campaign: Ecocide and Famine in China

Launched in 1958 as part of the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong's Four Pests Campaign aimed to eliminate rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. Sparrows were targeted for consuming grain, with an estimated 1.5 billion killed. Citizens, including children, were mobilized to beat pots and pans to exhaust birds until they collapsed. The campaign ignored scientists like ornithologist Cheng Tso-hsin, who warned of ecological destabilization. Without sparrows, insect populations like locusts exploded, devastating crops. This contributed to the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961), which killed 15 to 45 million people. In 1960, sparrows were replaced by bedbugs, but the damage was done. The campaign was a political success but an ecological disaster, reflecting Mao's ideology of dominating nature.