Thirty Million people starved to death in the worst largely man-made famine in China between 1958-59.
Chairman Mao had forced peasants and workers to achieve his dream of overtaking the West within ten to fifteen years through mass production of steel and impossible quotas.
The result was a famine when the peasants in the country sides and rural areas had to produce their own food after fulfilling the quotas and providing for the urban minority first. The State sent in soldiers to ensure all grain collected by the peasants went towards the cities irrespective of whether there was anything left for the locals themselves.
By the time of his death in 1976, the total figure of those who had perished during the twenty-seven year rule of Chairman Mao was close to seventy million.