Four Pests campaign
The Four Pests campaign was one of the first campaigns of the Great Leap Forward in Maoist China from 1958 to 1962. Authorities targeted four "pests" for elimination: rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows.
The extermination of sparrows – also known as the Eliminate Sparrows campaign – resulted in severe ecological imbalance, and was one of the causes of the Great Chinese Famine which lasted from 1959 to 1961, with an estimated death toll due to starvation ranging in the tens of millions. In 1960, the campaign against sparrows ended, and bed bugs replaced them as an official target.
Background
The eradication of the four pests together was first mentioned in Mao Zedong's 17-Point Agriculture Policy, in 1955, as a way to reduce infectious diseases and grain loss caused by pests. In January 1956, the 17-point policy was expanded into the draft of National Programme for Agricultural Development , which mentioned that "starting from 1956, we should work to eradicate rats, sparrows, flies, and mosquitoes in all areas possible across the country within five, seven or twelve years". The draft was adopted by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1957, with the timeline revised to twelve years.Among other factors, the failure of food production during the Great Leap Forward was caused by newly mandated agricultural practices imposed by the state. In December 1958, Mao Zedong created the, eight pieces of agricultural advice purportedly based on science, which were then adopted throughout China. Contrary to expectations, most of the elements decreased agricultural production.
Campaign
The "Four Pests" campaign was introduced as a hygiene campaign aimed to eradicate the pests responsible for the transmission of pestilence and disease:- the mosquitos responsible for malaria
- the rodents that spread the plague
- the pervasive airborne flies
- the sparrows—specifically the Eurasian tree sparrow—which ate grain, seed, and fruit
Activity began decreasing in the second half of 1958, due to the effects of the Great Leap Forward. In 1960, sparrows were replaced with bed bugs, and a number of city initiatives were aimed towards the campaign. However, the collapsing economy meant the campaign was rarely carried out after 1961.
In 1958, the government reported nearly 1.9 billion rats, and nearly 2 billion sparrows were killed. In 1959, the campaign reportedly killed over 1 billion sparrows, 1.5 billion rats, 100 million kilograms of flies, and 11 million kilograms of mosquitoes, though the reliability of these figures are questionable.