NORTHWEST CHINA FAMINE

1928 – 1930

Starting in early 1928, warfare and drought reached their destructive peaks across northern China, culminating in severe famine in roughly 300 counties. Three to ten million people died while facing the man-made disaster that had plagued the northern communities, such as the coastal Shandong Province, Henan, Shaanxi, and Gansu.

The famine that ensued was more political than natural in origin. Warlords had extensively stripped counties of livestock, grain, and cultivable food-producing areas, which were reduced to opium plantations. The Chinese National Government had been preoccupied with military conflict, dam and dike maintenance was neglected, and supplying soldiers was prioritized over supplying the workforce. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions reported that several cases of cannibalism had been confirmed when desperation reached its peak.