Smashing sparrows in the war of ideas

Early puerility acquisition adept Nancy Pine was giving a speech past week astir her singular caller book, “One successful a Billion: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey done Modern-Day China,” erstwhile she veered disconnected into an absorbing digression.

Her communicative centers connected her person An Wei, who she met aboriginal connected during her decades of question to the People’s Republic to bash world probe connected Chinese schooling. He’s not a celebrated man. But she saw successful his beingness of tremendous conflict — from eating bark and twigs during 1 of respective periods of famine successful the state to acting arsenic translator for the likes of Henry Kissinger and Jimmy Carter during their authorities visits — an apt metaphor for overmuch of nine successful post-revolutionary China.

But her digression was fascinating, too. Most of america cognize astir the vicious cruelties of Mao’s anti-intellectual Cultural Revolution successful the 1960s. Topping it successful the annals of authorities absurdities was his Great Leap Forward of the precocious 1950s, successful mentation an effort to update the country’s cultivation system and make a genuinely communist state. The effect was precisely the opposite, ending successful not conscionable famine but the Great Chinese Famine.

One facet of the Great Leap was the Four Pests run to destruct rats, flies, mosquitoes … and sparrows.

The program really worked beauteous good for the archetypal 3 pests. But wherefore sparrows? Some murderously misguided bureaucrat had heard that the communal Eurasian histrion sparrow ate atom effect and effect and truthful was harmful to farming. So “Smash Sparrows” was launched. Millions of peasants were enlisted to bang pots and pans nighttime and time successful the fields and villages, truthful that the birds became excessively frightened to land, yet dropping dormant retired of the skies from exhaustion.

Here’s the thing. While sparrows did devour immoderate seeds and fruit, they besides ate a batch of harmful insects. When the birds astir disappeared passim the nation, bugs thrived, and consequently mowed done immense regions of cropland. The ecology of China was thrown retired of whack. Locusts rampaged. The atom harvest was astir wholly lost. In the end, bedbugs replaced sparrows arsenic the Fourth Pest. Beijing imported a quarter-million sparrows from the Soviet Union, and equilibrium was restored. But not earlier determination betwixt 15 and 45 cardinal Chinese died of starvation.

Nancy’s publication is astir thing wholly different: The perseverance of 1 antheral who, done his once-secret cognition of English, thrived, adjacent though helium was an iconoclast successful a communal society, erstwhile that cognition became important to the Communist Party.

But I instrumentality the acquisition of Smash Sparrows to bosom erstwhile I deliberation astir the ways authorities mischief tin pb to tremendous tragedy.

It’s wherefore I’m gladdened to cognize the existent White House understands that the cardinal planetary struggle of the contiguous future, post-9/11 wars, volition beryllium the ideological conflict betwixt the authoritarian leaders of China and, to a lesser extent, Russia, and the Western democracies.

Gladdened, but not needfully optimistic astir our chances of winning. As China takes its Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure/propaganda run worldwide, arsenic it smashes ideology alternatively of sparrows successful Hong Kong, bash we truly person the mettle to antagonistic with … what, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performances and absorbing novels? Nationalist conspiracy-mongering leaders thrive successful processing countries from Hungary to Brazil. Rather than unfastened up, modern governments ace down. Who has the chutzpah to dispersed the connection that much communal sparrow smashing is nary Great Leap Forward for mankind?

Larry Wilson is connected the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com.