The famine in China is one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the twentieth century. Mao Zedong wanted to transform China's agricultural economy into an industry. In this context, the industries were taken over by the state. On the other hand, the villages of China were brought together under collective farming and communes were formed. According to some estimates, 20-25 thousand communes were formed. And these communes were run completely under the military.
Barracks were built to house the farmers. Every day men and women had to work in the field. Mao instructed the farmers to produce iron ore instead of growing crops on the land. As per the instructions, the farmers were put in small furnaces to become self-sufficient in iron and steel. But the targets set for industry and agriculture were not actually achieved. Meanwhile, the reports given to the provincial leaders from the commune were completely false. This false report reached Mao, who mentioned the success of production. Seeing the rise in production, Mao would direct the excess of production to the cities. As a result of sending the extra portion, there was nothing left to eat in the communes. On the other hand, Mao's demand for surplus production and false reports have led to one of the worst famines in history.
People are still shocked to hear about the famine in China. The pain of hunger takes on a manifest shape. It took the lives of millions of people. Human corpses could be seen lying here and there in the countryside. People used to pick insects, tree trunks, bark and leaves to survive. They hunted and ate whatever the animals found in the area. At one stage no dogs, cats or cattle could be seen in the villages. All are hunted and eaten to satisfy hunger.
There are so many horrible stories that the dying man himself told his neighbor to bury him. In many cases, there have been suicides in the family. Village after village was littered with piles of corpses. The situation was so dire that no dog or other wild animal was left to eat the corpses. Everything was hunted and eaten to escape the pain of hunger. The situation became so dire that people began eating corpses.
One has to wonder what people did for a handful of food. Nothing was left out, starting with the garbage. Some even ate their own children! Many exchanged their wives and children with others. The pain of hunger made people cannibals. The leaders of the commune have played a silent role despite knowing about this terrible famine due to the man-made food shortage. This famine is the result of how horrible the results of their false reports can be.
Meanwhile, Mao Zedong declared that those who would oppose his views and plans were against socialism. He was also reluctant to accept the views of experienced planners and engineers on 'The Great Leap Forward'. But he knew about the resulting famine. Yet he was reluctant to criticize his plan. He sees it as the success of his plan. Although there was no noticeable success at all. Surprisingly, the Chinese famine was then kept completely secret from the people of China's urban areas and the world.
The book "Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine", written by Chinese journalist Yang Jie Singh, is still banned in China. He mentions the deaths of 36 million people in the book. In some areas, 40 percent or more of the population died. The villages of China seemed to have become a place of death. The corpses were scattered all around, a horrible atmosphere arose. People used to go through horrible days eating the flesh of dead bodies. But during this famine, the people did not get the support of the communist leaders, but Mao turned down the Red Cross's call for help.
Such a famine was kept secret to keep its image intact with the outside world, including the ruling party. In addition, direct descriptions of refugees who fled to Hong Kong were released two decades later. Even the 1997 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica did not list the Chinese famine as one of the worst in the last 200 years.
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