a248  1708  11 Sep 84
AM-China-Famine,290
China Confirms That 10 Million Died In 1958 Famine
By JEFF BRADLEY
Associated Press Writer
    PEKING (AP) - China has confirmed for the first time that more than
10 million people perished during the famine that followed the late
Mao Tse-tung's ill-conceived ''Great Leap Forward'' in 1958.
    Chinese officials had been asked in questions submitted by The
Associated Press about calculations by American demographers that
indicated as many as 30 million people died because of the food
shortages between 1958 and 1961.
    The response Tuesday from the State Statistical Bureau acknowledged
that the Great Leap into giant communes and hastily built factories
caused one of the century's worst calamities.
    Bureau spokesman Xu Gang said that in the four years of 1959-1962,
''over 10 million people died of unnatural death due to both man-made
factors and serious natural disasters.''
    Mao's sweeping experiment coincided with drought, floods and
infestations that turned poor harvests into desperate shortages.
    Asked if China accepted estimates by U.S. experts that 27 million to
30 million people died in the aftermath of the Great Leap, Xu said
the exact number of famine deaths was difficult to determine but it
was certainly more than 10 million.
    The government had not previously released specific information
about the human toll, possibly because China's top leader, Deng
Xiaoping, and other officials now in the Communist Party hierarchy did
not oppose the Great Leap.
    The official media usually refer only to ''the three years of
natural disasters,'' ''terrible damage'' and ''serious losses.''
    Professor Ansley J. Coale of the National Academy of Sciences at
Princeton University estimated 27 million deaths due to the Great
Leap, while Judith Banister, chief of the China branch at the U.S.
Census Bureau, put the figure at 30 million.
    
ap-ny-09-11 2008EDT
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