birds, chinese communist party, great famine, great leap forward, mao zedong, war on sparrows

1958: Mao Zedong’s War on Sparrows

Many bizarre (and horrific) things have been done in the name of communism in China. One of them was Mao Zedong’s war on sparrows, a campaign waged by the communist leader to eradicate Eurasian tree sparrows. Mao lumped the little brown bird along with rats, flies, and mosquitoes in the so-called Four Pests (or four ...

Rory Karsten

A Eurasian tree sparrow.