In 1950 communist China, Mao was like a God. Unlike in India, where the government decisions can be questioned, no one could challenge the Mao statement.
Mao thought sparrows ate most of the food grains and have to be eliminated. He started the operation "Sparrow Smash". It is estimated that about 60 crore sparrows were killed, almost ending the species in China. Although official figures were never out.
Did it solve the food grain issue then?
Actually, it made the situation worst.
What Mao forgot, was that the sparrows, did not only eat the food grains, they also ate the mosquitoes and locust.
That year China had the worst locust attack destroying most of the food grains. Without the sparrow soldiers, there was no one to stop the locust attacks. This created a man-made famine situation. Millions of Chinese perished due to aftermaths of "smash sparrow campaign" which was, in turn, a part of "Great leap forward".
To divert the attention of Chinese people from it, Mao found India to be the soft target. One of the reasons for the 1962 war was "Great leap forward". China occupied the Indian area of "Askai Chin" about 48000 square kilometres of land.
During the covid-19, to divert the attention, Did China tried to do similar things in Ladakh?
This time, "They forgot it is not the India of 1962".
PC: locust-> India Today
Mao-> Wikipedia
Hi