China’s Great Famine (1959-1961): Extent of Famine
The full extent of the famine wasn’t known to the world until 1982 when China conducted its first reliable population census. This census revealed single-year age distributions, which allowed experts to estimate the number of extra deaths between 1959 and 1961. Initially, American researchers estimated between 16.5 to 23 million deaths. Later studies provided more detailed insights, suggesting between 23 to 30 million extra deaths, while some Chinese documents hinted at numbers closer to 40 million. However, the true toll will never be known because the official Chinese figures from that time didn’t accurately reflect the drop in births and the increase in deaths, and it’s difficult to reconstruct these vital statistics accurately.
It’s common for death tolls in major famines to have large margins of error. This applies even to events that receive significant attention. For instance, an attempt to understand the extent of illness, death, and malnutrition during the 1991-2 famine in Somalia failed despite 23 separate field studies. Similarly, recent estimates of the additional deaths in Iraq due to economic sanctions after the Gulf War have sparked controversies.
China’s Great Famine (1959-1961)
Around forty years ago, China faced the world’s biggest famine. It happened from around 1959 to 1961, and sadly, about 30 million Chinese people died because of it. Additionally, nearly the same number of births didn’t happen or were delayed. The famine was mostly caused by ideological reasons. It’s considered as significant as the two world wars in terms of public deaths caused by humans, according to Richard Rhodes, an expert.
Now, after two generations, China has become economically successful and can provide enough food. In this article, we take a look at a detailed explanation of China’s Great Famine (1959-1961).
Contact Us