Socialist Chinese Policy Caused the Worst Famine in Human History. Capitalism Ended It.

Did Capitalism Save Communist China? presented by Helen Raleigh

How did one of the world’s poorest countries—China—become, in thirty years, one of the world’s richest? There’s a one-word answer. Capitalism.

Here’s how it happened.

In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (aka the CCP), defeated the Nationalist party in a brutal civil war. The leader of the CCP, Mao Zedong, promised the Chinese people that he would create a new China, a socialist paradise where the benevolent state would take care of every citizen's needs from shelter to education to employment. No more greedy businessmen. Factories would be owned by their workers. No more evil landowners. The state would own all property on behalf of the people. No more hunger. Everyone could eat as much as they want at public cafeterias.

To transform China into this heaven-on-earth, Mao launched radical socialist reforms: industries were nationalized, private businesses were eliminated, and land was confiscated. But rather than turning China into a heaven on earth, these policies turned China into a hell-on-earth. Healthcare was cheap but there was a chronic shortage of doctors, hospitals, and modern medicine. No one was unemployed because the government gave each person a job. But if you didn't like the job you were assigned, well, that was just too bad. Your government-assigned job was tied to your food ration. No work, no food.

Speaking of food, it wasn’t long after Mao took power that widespread food shortages began happening. My own parents had to get up at 3 o'clock in the morning to stand in long lines outside of a grocery store to get a pound of sugar or several ounces of cooking oil. Often, they got nothing.

Every year was worse than the last. Between 1958 and 1962, China experienced the worst famine in human history. An estimated 45 million Chinese starved to death, victims of their own government’s murderous stupidity. Among the lives lost were my uncle, my grandaunt and her family of five, and my dad's maternal grandmother.