Milestones
Great Chinese Famine
Also Known As Three Years of Natural Disasters
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The famine of 1959 to 1961 in the People's Republic of China, the deadliest in recorded history. Estimates of the dead run from 15 to 55 million, with newer scholarship concentrating on 30 to 46 million excess deaths; the number is genuinely uncertain and carried here as a range. Its causes were made, not weathered: Great Leap Forward communes, discredited agronomy imposed from above, extreme grain requisitioning against inflated harvest reports, the sparrow campaign, and a planning system that punished truthful accounting, with drought and flood arriving on top.
Facts
Milestone YearThe famine ran from 1959 to 1961. LocationPeople's Republic of China 1 Sources
Open Questions (1 open question)
How much of the Great Chinese Famine's death toll came from Great Leap Forward policy failures as against genuine natural disaster, and how many people actually died?
Death toll estimates range roughly from 15 to 55 million depending on source and method; researcher Basil Ashton notes weather worsened the harvest but says it is impossible to assess how much responsibility belongs to policy against drought and flooding, and the government's own account emphasizes natural disaster over policy.
What would resolve this Full access to Chinese demographic and agricultural archives from 1958 to 1962 and an accepted method for separating policy-driven from weather-driven crop loss.
Demography and Chinese economic historyGreat Leap Forward (Wikipedia)
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