In 1958 Mao Zedong ordered all the sparrows to be killed because they ate too much grain. This caused one of the worst environmental disasters in history | The Vintage News

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[–]Canbot 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

The Chinese government wanted to reduce the Chinese population. This "oopsie dasie" gave them exactly what they wanted. How convenient.

By 1958 everyone understood that birds eat bugs and bugs are agricultural pests. If the government wanted to create an artificial famine and prepare an excuse that everyone would instantly buy because they all already understand that bugs destroy crops this would be the perfect premise. If they simply said the bugs came out of nowhere people would demand answers and investigations. They would forever be in fear of it happening again. With this story it is one and done. No questions asked. It was just an honest mistake.

I don't think it killed off enough people for the government's liking so they implemented the one child policy.

Inb4 hur dur prove it.