Anti-Rightist Campaign
Following the Hundred Flowers Campaign that encouraged criticism of the Party, Mao launched the Anti-Rightist Campaign, labelling an estimated 550,000 to 700,000 intellectuals and officials as "rightists," the majority of whom were sent to labour camps or dispatched to the countryside.
The Hundred Flowers Prelude
In 1956 Mao Zedong launched the Hundred Flowers Campaign, inviting intellectuals and citizens to voice criticism of the Party with the slogan "let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend." The initiative produced an unexpected outpouring of criticism directed at Party cadres, bureaucratic privilege, and even the one-party system itself. Mao later claimed he had deliberately drawn out critics to expose them, though many historians consider the reversal an improvised response to the scale of dissent.
The Crackdown
In June 1957 the campaign abruptly reversed into the Anti-Rightist Movement. Anyone who had spoken critically was liable to be labelled a "rightist." The campaign operated through a quota system: localities and work units were assigned targets for the number of rightists to be designated, resulting in large numbers of people with mild criticisms — or who had never spoken at all — being counted to meet the quota. An estimated 500,000 to 700,000 people received the designation, including writers, professors, scientists, lawyers, and Party members. Labelled rightists lost their jobs, were demoted, sent to labour reform camps (laogai), or dispatched to remote rural areas. Many spent years or decades in harsh conditions; some died. A substantial portion were not formally rehabilitated until 1978–1980.
Long-term Impact
The Anti-Rightist Campaign had a chilling effect on Chinese intellectual life that lasted for decades. It established that open criticism of the Party carried severe personal risk, effectively silencing the educated class during the critical years of the Great Leap Forward when honest reporting might have mitigated the famine. Deng Xiaoping, serving as General Secretary of the CCP, was the principal organisational head of the campaign and personally oversaw many of the designations — a historical role that stands in striking contrast to his later leadership of the rehabilitation process and the reform and opening-up era.
Narrative Comparison
| Source | Narrative |
|---|---|
| PRC Official Narrative (post-1981) | In 1957, certain individuals used the Hundred Flowers Campaign to mount organised attacks on the Party and the socialist system, and it was therefore correct to conduct the anti-rightist struggle to protect socialism. However, the scope of the campaign was too broad in its later stages, and many people were wrongly labelled as rightists. The Party Central Committee rehabilitated the vast majority of wrongly designated rightists after 1978, fully reflecting the Party's spirit of seeking truth from facts and its courage in self-correction. This historical lesson demonstrates that during the period of socialist construction it is essential to correctly distinguish and handle contradictions among the people, and to prevent the over-extension of class struggle. |
| Western Academic Assessment | Western historians broadly characterise the Anti-Rightist Campaign as a deliberate political purge rather than an improvised response to out-of-control criticism. MacFarquhar's research revealed that the campaign's quota system — in which localities were required to meet numerical targets for rightist designations — resulted in large numbers of people with no connection to political criticism being arbitrarily caught up, exposing the campaign's essential nature: not the precise targeting of dissent, but the systematic elimination of an independent intellectual class. The long-term consequences were severe: during the years when the Great Leap Forward most required honest reporting of conditions on the ground, the surviving intellectual class fell into total silence, accelerating the scale of the 1959–1961 famine; independent legal, journalistic, and academic culture virtually disappeared from China for more than two decades thereafter. The rehabilitations of 1978–1980 were largely formal corrections; many of those rehabilitated continued to carry qualifications such as 'committed errors, but treatment was excessive,' meaning political reputations were never fully restored. (MacFarquhar, 1974; Teiwes, 1979) |
Key Milestones
- People's Daily "Why Is This?" Editorial Formally Launches the Anti-Rightist Campaign
The People's Daily published the editorial "Why Is This?", denouncing critics as attempting to overthrow Party leadership and formally launching the Anti-Rightist Campaign. Local party committees immediately received instructions to begin identifying "rightists" within work units at every level, completing the reversal of the Hundred Flowers Campaign.
- Mao's "Situation in the Summer of 1957" Extends the Campaign to Party Cadres
Mao Zedong circulated within the Party the speech "The Situation in the Summer of 1957," extending the scope of targeting from non-Party intellectuals to dissenting cadres within the Party, further expanding the campaign's scale. The quota system was more widely enforced at this stage, with units at every level required to designate a certain proportion of rightists, leading to widespread arbitrary labelling.
- Rightist Designation Essentially Complete; Mass Dispatch to Labour Reform Begins
The nationwide designation of rightists was essentially complete, and localities began dispatching those labelled as rightists to the countryside, labour reform camps, or designated sites of compulsory labour. The intellectual community, press, universities, and democratic parties were most severely affected; a considerable number of people lost their health or their lives in the labour reform that followed over the subsequent years and decades.
- CCP Central Committee Begins Rehabilitation; Vast Majority of Rightists Gradually Corrected
The CCP Central Committee began the systematic rehabilitation of those wrongly designated as rightists; by 1979–1980 the vast majority of registered rightists had received formal corrections. However, the rehabilitations were largely formal: some individuals carried qualifications such as "committed errors, but treatment was excessive," meaning their political reputations were never fully restored. A small number — including Zhang Bojun — were maintained as rightists and never rehabilitated.
Last verified: