What is Four pests campaign?
[[File:Tree-Sparrow-2009-16-02.jpg|right|thumb|250x250px|The [[sparrow|Eurasian tree sparrow]] was the most notable target of the campaign.]] [[File:Kill bird and insect.jpg|thumb|1958 poster,<br>'Exterminate the four pests!']] The '''Four Pests Campaign''' ({{zh|c={{linktext|除|四|害}}|p=Chú Sì Hài}}) was one of the campaigns of [[China]], against four [[Pest|pests]]: namely [[Rat|rats]], [[flies]], [[Mosquito|mosquitoes]] and [[Sparrow|sparrows]]. It was part of a campaign called the [[Great Leap Forward]], which wanted to boost Chinese [[economy]], in the mid-20th century. The campaign started in 1958. The extermination of sparrows is also known as '''Smash Sparrows Campaign''' ({{zh|c={{linktext|打|麻|雀|运|动}}|p={{linktext|Dǎ| Má|què| Yùn|dòng}}}}) or '''Eliminate Sparrows Campaign''' ({{zh|c={{linktext|消灭麻雀运动}}|p={{linktext|Xiāo|miè| Máquè| Yùndòng}}}}). It caused severe [[ecological]] imbalance; it was one of the causes of the [[Great Chinese Famine]]. [[Mao Zedong|Mao]] had been told that sparrows ate [[grain]] (amongst other things), which was true. But they also ate [[Locust|locusts]]. And locusts ate nothing but grain. The cause of the famine which followed was that, without sparrows, locusts multiplied hugely and ate so much grain that a great famine followed in China. In 1960. [[Mao Zedong]] ended the campaign against sparrows and redirected the fourth focus to [[Bedbug|bed bugs]]. Only after Mao died, in 1976, did the official Chinese press agency announce that sparrows were more useful than harmful.<ref name=nowak>{{cite journal|journal=Der Ornithologische Beobachter|volume=99|pages=49–70|year=2002|title=Erinnerungen an Ornithologen, die ich kannte (4. Teil)|first=Eugeniusz|last=Nowak|url=http://m.ala-schweiz.ch/images/stories/pdf/ob/2002_99/OrnitholBeob_2002_99_49_Nowak.pdf|language=de|access-date=2018-02-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180222170414/http://m.ala-schweiz.ch/images/stories/pdf/ob/2002_99/OrnitholBeob_2002_99_49_Nowak.pdf|archive-date=2018-02-22|url-status=dead}}</ref><