Effectively unreported by the world press at the time, the famine that swept China from 1958 to 1962 cost perhaps thirty-six million dead from starvation and related causes. In addition, because without food women cease to menstruate, perhaps another forty million babies were not born. So the total population loss was well over seventy million. The suffering was overwhelmingly rural, with farmers turning, among other things, to elm bark, wild herbs, egret droppings, and even guanyintu—a kind of fine clay—in the desperate quest for food. Impossible choices were forced on families about whom to feed and whom to let die. The living became too weak even to bury the dead. Cannibalism spread despite iron cultural taboos.
Party officials, however, did not suffer: Even cadres in areas where farmers were dying had their own well-supplied canteens, and Mao Zedong continued to dine well, rumors of his having adopting a minimal diet in solidarity to the contrary. Lavish celebrations were given by Party officials. This was also the time that some of the luxurious provincial and state guesthouses, designed for Mao’s use, were built—all sandalwood, silk embroidery, and comfort.
Astonishingly, China’s food warehouses were full during this entire period; grain, as well as pork and egg exports to the rest of the world, continued. Had even half of grain reserves been released, no one would have died.
Until recently, when
