This article does not point fingers, but looks at who is responsible for this event. Depending on who you ask will change the response. The official records are different then the unofficial record or people’s own personal records of the event. It also is not written in many  Chinese history books. It is the rulers responsibility to nourish his people so he does take responsibility for the event publicly, but not in actuality. He used his local cadre as scapegoats for the event, most of  the blame was placed  on them and they were the ones punished and sent to jail. Many of them faced charges such as violating party policy and crime against the masses. I think that one could argue that although the cadre were the forceful hand they are also the victims in this case. Local cadre had steel quotas and orders they had to meet so they were not concerned with the conditions of the villages. If they did not meet their quotas they would face consequences as well. Intellectuals who were able to escape the villages understand their ignorance in just blindly  following Mao and the Communist party. Peasants were essentially powerless they just executed the orders of the party. They were tortured and beaten and a hunger would be  used as a means to control them.

The famine that was caused by the Great Leap is believed to be 70% man made and 30% due to nature. I think a good way of proving this to be true is that the death rates were significantly different in different parts of the country and not all leadership and villages were run the same. the quality  of the cadre might have greatly affected the village after all. In Bo many villagers die from starvation, but  in the neighboring village where there was a drought that village was able to support themselves. Then you have Villages  like Henan and Xinyang where over 2 million peasants died in each village and the death rate was higher then the national death rate. It is  in villages like these that I question could this really be a “mistake”. No one has taken responsibility for what occurred in Henan, but many local cadre were punished for Xinyang.

In the cases of many famines, cannibalism took place. Villagers would steal grain and food. There was a black market for food essentially. Villagers would be tortured, punished, and maybe killed for committing this crimes, but  they did whatever they had to do to survive  and so they all see  themselves as active victims. Problem one  of the things that makes me question the governments “mistake” in all of this is they then built mass graves to try and cover up the extent of the  famine. Why try and hide something that is evident and if it is if no fault of yours then it doesn’t seem like it should  be a secret. My last comment  on this subject is why was is so dangerous to speak of the famine during that time. With all of  the people already dying killing those that acknowledge the fact people are dying seems unnecessary.