What was the Four Pests Campaign?

Key Takeaways

Communist China launched the Four Pests campaign in the late 1950s, targeting rats, mosquitoes, flies, and sparrows.
The campaign was part of Mao Zedong's 'Man Must Conquer Nature' philosophy, intertwined with the Great Leap Forward.
Sparrows were targeted as 'grain thieves,' with estimates suggesting they consumed enough grain to feed 60,000 people annually.
Massive eradication efforts led to an ecological imbalance, particularly a locust boom, contributing to the Great Famine (1958-1961).
The Great Famine resulted in millions of deaths, exacerbated by policy failures, environmental factors, and state-sanctioned violence.
China reversed its sparrow policy around 1960, acknowledging inaccurate consumption estimates and later importing sparrows.

Hosts Josh and Chuck introduced the Four Pests campaign in Communist China, a listener-suggested topic.
The campaign, initiated in the late 1950s and early 1960s, specifically targeted rats, mosquitoes, flies, and sparrows.
It was linked to Mao Zedong and the Great Leap Forward, an industrialization initiative aiming to surpass the UK's output by 1973.
Mao's 'Man Must Conquer Nature' philosophy drove these large-scale eradication efforts.

Sparrows were designated as pests due to the perception they were 'grain thieves'.
Propaganda claimed sparrows consumed enough grain to feed up to 60,000 people annually.
Individual sparrows were reportedly stealing about 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds) of grain per year.
The campaign also aimed to reduce disease, addressing a 30% infant mortality rate in the 1940s.

Quantifying the eradication numbers is difficult due to unreliable statistics from communist China.
An estimated 220 million pounds of flies were reportedly killed, approximately 1.98 trillion flies based on a 10-50mg average weight.
Around 1.5 billion rats were eliminated, with projections suggesting over 0.7 billion pounds were removed.
Approximately 4.354 trillion mosquitoes, totaling 24 million pounds, were killed through citizen efforts and insecticides.

Mao's anti-pest campaign specifically targeted sparrows prior to the Great Leap Forward's full impact.
Methods included crushing eggs, destroying nests, shooting birds, and using firecrackers to drive them to exhaustion.
Citizens would make noise to prevent sparrows from landing, leading to their death from fatigue.
Once exhausted, people would kill sparrows by hand in widespread community efforts.

The elimination of sparrows, which prey on locusts, led to a surge in the locust population.
This ecological imbalance devastated crops, exacerbating the Great Famine of China (1958-1961).
Estimates for famine deaths range from 15 to 78 million people, with sparrow eradication contributing to its severity.
Mao Zedong initially denied the famine, blaming rightists and external factors while rural populations suffered disproportionately.

The Great Leap Forward diverted labor from farming into inefficient industrial projects like backyard steel production.
This reduced grain output and, combined with inflated harvest reports, led to widespread starvation in rural areas.
Dissenters reporting accurate famine numbers faced torture and death, with 6-8% of the estimated 50 million deaths attributed to state violence.
Party members exported grain to hide deficits while peasants endured severe food shortages.

China ceased killing sparrows around 1960, acknowledging the negative impact of the 'Four Pest Campaign'.
Initial estimates about sparrow grain consumption were found to be inaccurate.
Research by Zheng Zhujin revealed sparrows primarily eat insects (75%) and grain (25%, mainly in winter), benefiting crop harvests.
China subsequently imported sparrows from the Soviet Union to repopulate the species and enacted protective laws.

The 'Four Pest Campaign' has seen iterations, including successful rat eradication in the 1980s and cockroaches added in 1998.
China achieved malaria-free status in 2021 due to successful anti-mosquito campaigns.
Studies in 2023 indicate long-term health effects on Great Famine survivors, including higher rates of non-communicable diseases.
The campaign is also linked to a potential decline in the male birth rate among famine survivors.