The
Four Pests Campaign (
Chinese:
除四害;
pinyin:
Chú Sì Hài) was one of the campaigns of
China, against four
pests: namely
rats,
flies,
mosquitoes and
sparrows. It was part of a campaign called the
Great Leap Forward, which wanted to boost Chinese
economy, in the mid-20th century. The campaign started in 1958.
The
Eurasian tree sparrow was the most notable target of the campaign.
1958 poster,
'Exterminate the four pests!'
The extermination of sparrows is also known as
Smash Sparrows Campaign (
Chinese:
打麻雀运动;
pinyin:
Dǎ Máquè Yùndòng) or
Eliminate Sparrows Campaign (
Chinese:
消灭麻雀运动;
pinyin:
Xiāomiè Máquè Yùndòng). It caused severe
ecological imbalance; it was one of the causes of the
Great Chinese Famine.
Mao had been told that sparrows ate
grain (amongst other things), which was true. But they also ate
locusts. And locusts ate nothing but grain. The cause of the famine which followed was that, without sparrows, locusts multiplied hugely and ate so much grain that a great famine followed in China.
In 1960. Mao Zedong ended the campaign against sparrows and redirected the fourth focus to bed bugs. Only after Mao died, in 1976, did the official Chinese press agency announce that sparrows were more useful than harmful.
[1][2][3][4] The government took measures to increase the sparrow population in the province of
Shandong.