The Great Chinese Famine (Chinese: 三年大饥荒; lit. 'three years of great famine') was a famine that occurred between 1959 and 1961 in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Some scholars have also included the years 1958 or 1962. It is widely regarded as the deadliest famine and one of the greatest man-made disasters in human history, with an estimated death toll due to starvation that ranges in the tens of millions (15 to 55 million), with newer estimates concentrated around 30 to 46 million excess famine deaths. The most stricken provinces were Anhui (18% dead), Chongqing (15%), Sichuan (13%), Guizhou (11%) and Hunan (8%).
The major contributing factors in the famine were the policies of the Great Leap Forward (1958 to 1962) and people's communes, launched by Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong, including inefficient food distribution within the nation's planned economy; the state's extremely high grain confiscation rates for foreign exports; the use of poor agricultural techniques and poor irrigation projects; the Eliminate Sparrows Campaign which significantly disrupted the Chinese ecosystem; over-reporting of food production and political suppression from the CCP; and the rapid transition of millions of farmers to industrial labor, iron production, and steel production.
During the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference in early 1962, Liu Shaoqi, then President of China, formally attributed 30% of the famine to natural disasters and 70% to man-made errors (三分天灾，七分人祸).
Why this event still matters
Historical incidents shape the rules that protect people today — building codes, evacuation policy, warning systems and inspection regimes almost always trace back to a specific disaster. Studying Great Chinese Famine alongside current events is how preparedness improves.
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