Four Pests campaign

The Four Pests campaign (Chinese: 除四害; pinyin: Chú Sì Hài), was one of the first actions taken in the Great Leap Forward in China from 1958 to 1962. Authorities targeted four pests for elimination: rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. The extermination of sparrows - also known as the smash sparrows campaign (Chinese: 打麻雀运动; pinyin: dǎ máquè yùndòng) or the eliminate sparrows campaign (Chinese: 消灭麻雀运动; pinyin: xiāomiè máquè yùndòng) - resulted in severe ecological imbalance, being one of the causes of the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961. In 1960 the campaign against sparrows ended and bed bugs became an official target. Campaign The "Four Pests" campaign was introduced in 1958 as a hygiene campaign aimed to eradicate...