In 1958 the Chinese Government made several decisions (known as "The Great Leap Forward") that either caused or worsened 3 years of famine. For instance, farmers were made into steelworkers removing knowledge from the fields. At the same time, agriculturally unsound policies like "close planting" and "deep plowing" where dictated by the government. This led to millions of deaths over the three year period.

Here is another question on this sub which asks the question more succinctly, but sadly received no reply's.