Was the ‘Hundred
Flowers’ Campaign a trap
laid by Mao?
L/O – To evaluate why Mao launched the Hundred
Flowers and Anti-Rightist Campaigns of 1956-57
Impact of the First Five
Year Plan
• By 1956 the rapid industrialisation of the First
Five Year Plan was putting Chinese society
under terrific strain and anger was growing
towards the CCP.
• The urban population had doubled to over
100 million which caused overcrowding, food
shortages and housing problems.
• The implementation of higher-stage
cooperatives had also deprived China’s 300
million peasants of their land rights.
The Hundred Flowers
Campaign
• Mao himself had travelled extensively around
China during the 1950s, receiving a rapturous
reception wherever he went. This convinced him
he was in touch with the people.
• Mao decided that greater freedom of expression
would allow people to constructively comment
on the problems facing Chinese society. He even
refused to punish the writer Hu Feng who
publically criticised Marxist-Leninist values.
• He believed that the intellectuals of China,
through open debate, would come to realise the
benefits of socialism for China.
The Hundred Flowers
Campaign
• In February 1957, Mao gave a speech to leading
Party workers called, ‘On the Correct Handling
of the Contradictions Among the People’.
• He argued that whilst the Five Year Plan was a
success, CCP officials had acting with heavy-
handedness in applying policy.
• Quoting from history he said: ‘Let a hundred
flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought
contend’…’Our society cannot back down, it
could only progress… criticism of the
bureaucracy is pushing the government towards
The Hundred Flowers
Campaign
• Mao immediately called on intellectuals to
criticise Central Government directly. By the
summer of 1957, millions of letters were pouring
into government offices across the country.
• People spoke out at CCP meetings, held rallies in
the streets and hung huge wall posters criticising
the First Five Year Plan.
• They protested against: Party members enjoying
privileges, economic corruption, low living
standards, the harshness of previous mass
campaigns and the slavish following of Soviet
models. Even Mao himself was criticised.
Bring every positive
factor into play,
correctly handle
contradictions among
the people
Diaodong yiqie jiji
yinsu zhengque chuli
renmin neibu maodun
( 调动一切积极因素正确处理人民内
部矛盾 )
The Anti-Rightist
Campaign
• By July 1957, the protests had become too much
for Mao. He believed it had gone beyond ‘healthy
criticism’ and had reached ‘harmful and
uncontrollable’ levels. He ordered a halt to the
campaign.
• Immediately, an ‘Anti-Rightist’ campaign was
launched to repress criticism led by Deng
Xiaoping. Leading critics were forced to retract
their statements.
• University staff, school teachers, scientists,
economists, writers and artists – many of the best
minds in China – were forced to make self-
Savagely attack and hurt the rightists elements, to protect the results of socialism!
The Anti-Rightist
Campaign
• The Party was also purged of members who had
been too open in their criticisms. By the end of
1957, 300,000 people had been labelled
‘rightists’ and had to undergo re-education
through labour.
• Thousands were sent to the countryside for
‘thought reform’. Others were sacked from their
jobs. Free speech was banned and the press
became heavily censored.
• The famous Chinese writer Ding Ling was purged
from the CCP and banned from writing.
Countless others were killed or committed
Was the Hundred Flowers a
trap?
• There is much debate about Mao’s motives
for the Campaign and historians have drawn
some sharply different conclusions about
Mao’s motives in launching the campaign:
1. One school of thought argues that he
genuinely encouraged free speech and
criticism but was shocked by the reaction
and then clamped down on his critics.
2. The other school of thought believes that
the Campaign was a deliberate plan by Mao
to flush out critics of the government and
Effects of the Hundred
Flowers
• Make sure you can remember at least 2 effects of
the campaign:
1. The Hundred Flowers campaign, and the anti-
rightist campaign into which in evolved, silenced
criticism of the communist regime for a
generation.
2. Party unity was strengthened.
3. Mao’s position was unchallengeable.
4. Intellectual life in China came to a virtual
standstill. It wasn’t until the 1980s when many
What is the
meaning of this
cartoon?
