@oristarA,
[The]
More than 3 million Chinese people starved to death, not because
of [the]
a food shortage, but because too [many]
much food [were]
was stored in State Grain Reserve Warehouse
s and the government refused to distribute [them]
it into the hands of victims.
There is a story saying there had been hundreds of villagers in a village who were starved
see [1]below to death during those horrid days. Well, you might ask back: Isn't this story too common to be worth telling me, is it? Oh, be a bit more patient.
Why the story is so strange is that there was a State Grain Reserve Warehouse nearby the village, and the victims preferred starving to death to [grabbing]
taking/stealing the grain from the warehouse. Upon hearing this story,
General Wang Zhen, it is said, sighed and commented: Behold! How good were our people! They would rather starve to death and were unwilling to [grab]
take/steal the food from the state warehouse!
Now we can see how stupid the comment is!
[1] "were starved to death" means that there was someone who actively sough to starve these people. "starved to death" means that, though there was some problem with food distribution, no one set out to actively starve these people.