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• January – A new economic policy, stressing the importance of agriculture is officially adopted by the Chinese Communist Party.
  
• April – The Beijing government turns down an offer of grain subsidy from the Soviet Union.
  
• April to May – Liu Shaoqi visits his home area in Hunan and sees first-hand the terrible effects of the Great Leap Forward.
  
• May – Liu Shaoqi publicly blames the Communist Party for the famine in China.
  
• June – Facing food shortages in urban areas, the Beijing government decides to send 20 million people from the cities to the countryside over a period of two years.
  
• August – Food requisitions from the peasants are lowered.
  
• August - The Berlin wall in erected.
  
• September – Food rationing in mainland China is limited to less than 1500 calories per person per day.
  
• October - Outer Mongolia (Mongolia) is admitted to the United Nations.
  

1961

MODERN HISTORY OF CHINA

Objective chronological listing of significant events leading up to modern China.