View source for Anti-Rightist Campaign

{{Short description|1957–59 Chinese political campaign under Mao Zedong}}
{{distinguish|Anti-Right Deviation Struggle|Anti-rights movement}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title         = Anti-Rightist Campaign
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| caption       = The slogan "carry out the anti-rightist struggle to the end" on display at the 1957 National Day parade on [[Tiananmen Square]].
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| location      = [[China|People's Republic of China]]
| target        = Political opponents, alleged [[right-wing politics|right-wing figures]]
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| date          = 1957–1959
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| type          = [[Political repression]]
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| injuries      = 
| victims       = 550,000 <small>(Official figures)</small><br>1–2 million <small>(Estimates)</small>
| perpetrators  = [[Mao Zedong]]<br>[[Deng Xiaoping]]<br>[[Peng Zhen]]
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{{Mao Zedong series}}
{{History of the People's Republic of China}}
The '''Anti-Rightist Campaign''' ({{zh|s=反右运动|t=反右運動|p=Fǎnyòu Yùndòng}}) in the [[People's Republic of China]], which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged "[[Rightists]]" within the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) and the country as a whole.<ref>{{Cite journal |date= |year=1996 |title=The Anti-Rightist Movement and Its Ideological and Theoretical Consequences |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2753/CLG0009-4609290436 |journal=Chinese Law & Government |language=en |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=36–45 |doi=10.2753/CLG0009-4609290436|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Sun|first=Warren|date=2011-07-01|title=Chinese Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957-) (CD-ROM). Editorial Board of the Chinese Anti-Rightist Campaign CD-ROM Database|journal=The China Journal|volume=66|pages=169–172|doi=10.1086/tcj.66.41262814|issn=1324-9347}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Sha|first=Shangzhi|date=|title=从反右运动看中国特色的政治斗争|url=http://www.yhcqw.com/36/8945.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125014337/http://www.yhcqw.com/36/8945.html|archive-date=2020-11-25|access-date=2020-07-18|website=[[Yanhuang Chunqiu]]}}</ref> The campaign was launched by Chairman [[Mao Zedong]]. [[Deng Xiaoping]] and [[Peng Zhen]] also played important roles.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Chung |first=Yen-lin |date=2011 |title=The Witch-Hunting Vanguard: The Central Secretariat's Roles and Activities in the Anti-Rightist Campaign |journal=[[The China Quarterly]] |volume=206 |issue=206 |pages=391–411 |doi=10.1017/S0305741011000324 |issn=0305-7410 |jstor=41305225 |s2cid=153991512}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Wang |first=Ning |date=2020-04-28 |title=Victims and Perpetrators: Campaign Culture in the Chinese Communist Party's Anti-Rightist Campaign |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/754167 |journal=Twentieth-Century China |language=en |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=188–208 |doi=10.1353/tcc.2020.0019 |issn=1940-5065 |s2cid=219045783 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> The Anti-Rightist Campaign significantly damaged [[democracy in China]] and turned the country into a ''de facto'' [[one-party state]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last1=King |first1=Gilbert |author-link=Gilbert King (author) |title=The Silence that Preceded China's Great Leap into Famine |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-silence-that-preceded-chinas-great-leap-into-famine-51898077/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014232813/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-silence-that-preceded-chinas-great-leap-into-famine-51898077/ |archive-date=2019-10-14 |access-date=2019-11-28 |website=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian Magazine]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2005|title=PETITIONING FOR REDRESS OVER THE ANTI-RIGHTIST CAMPAIGN|url=https://www.hrichina.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/CRF.2.2007/CRF-2007-2_Petitioning.pdf|website=Human Rights in China|access-date=2020-07-18|archive-date=2021-06-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624155315/https://www.hrichina.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/CRF.2.2007/CRF-2007-2_Petitioning.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last=Liu|first=Zheng|date=2004-07-15|title=反右运动对人民代表大会建设和工作的损害|url=http://www.people.com.cn/GB/14576/28320/35193/35204/2641764.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609214209/http://www.people.com.cn/GB/14576/28320/35193/35204/2641764.html|archive-date=2020-06-09|access-date=2020-07-18|website=[[People's Daily|Renmin Wang]]|language=zh}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Du|first=Guang|date=2007|title="反右"运动与民主革命——纪念"反右"运动五十周年|url=https://www.modernchinastudies.org/us/issues/past-issues/97-mcs-2007-issue-3/1015-2012-01-05-15-35-22.html|access-date=2020-07-18|website=Modern China Studies|language=zh}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=Mu|first=Guangren|date=|title=反右运动的六个断面|url=http://www.yhcqw.com/31/8067.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124093045/http://www.yhcqw.com/31/8067.html|archive-date=2020-11-24|access-date=2020-07-18|website=[[Yanhuang Chunqiu]]}}</ref>

The definition of rightists was not always consistent, often including critics to [[Left-wing politics|the left]] of the government, but officially referred to those intellectuals who appeared to favor [[capitalism]], or were against one-party rule as well as forcible, state-run [[collectivization]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Vidal|first1=Christine|date=2016|title=The 1957-1958 Anti-Rightist Campaign in China: History and Memory (1978-2014)|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01306892/document|url-status=live|journal=Hal-SHS|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191128050256/https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01306892/document|archive-date=2019-11-28|access-date=2019-11-28}}</ref> According to China's official statistics published during the "[[Boluan Fanzheng]]" period, the campaign resulted in the political persecution of at least 550,000 people.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name="silence">{{cite web|title=Uneasy silences punctuate 60th anniversary coverage|url=http://cmp.hku.hk/2009/09/10/1740/|publisher=China Media Project|access-date=2009-09-30|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611085558/http://cmp.hku.hk/2009/09/10/1740/|archive-date=2010-06-11}}</ref> Some researchers believe that the actual number of persecuted is between 1 and 2 million or even higher.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Wu|first=Weiguang|date=2007|title=中共"八大"与"反右"运动|url=https://www.modernchinastudies.org/us/issues/past-issues/97-mcs-2007-issue-3/1013-2012-01-05-15-35-22.html|access-date=2020-07-18|website=Modern China Studies}}</ref> Deng Xiaoping admitted that there were mistakes during the Anti-Rightist Campaign, and most victims received rehabilitation after 1959.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Qi|first=Yiming|date=2014-05-06|title=邓小平对"大跃进"的理解和认识--邓小平纪念网|url=http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2014/0506/c69113-24980847.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140711001257/http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2014/0506/c69113-24980847.html |archive-date=2014-07-11 |access-date=2020-07-18|website=[[People's Daily|Renmin Wang]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2009-05-11|title=1957年反右运动|url=http://www.hrhl.pku.edu.cn/rqal/zgrqal/9874.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200718072601/http://www.hrhl.pku.edu.cn/rqal/zgrqal/9874.htm |archive-date=2020-07-18 |access-date=2020-07-18|website=[[Peking University]]}}</ref>

== History ==

===Background===
The Anti-Rightist Campaign was a reaction against the [[Hundred Flowers Campaign]] which had promoted pluralism of expression and criticism of the government, even though initiation of both campaigns was controlled by Mao Zedong and were integrally connected.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hundred Flowers Movement|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095950572|access-date=2020-07-18|website=Oxford Reference|language=en}}</ref> Going perhaps as far back as the [[Long March]] there had been resentment against "rightists" inside the CCP, for example, [[Zhang Bojun]].<ref name="ZBJ">[http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20041102_1.htm The International PEN Award For Independent Chinese Writing] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070517085836/http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20041102_1.htm |date=2007-05-17 }}, EastSouthWestNorth, retrieved 2007-01-19.</ref>

While the Hundred Flowers Movement was going on, in 1956, [[Khrushchev]] published the ''[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences]]'', which along with the ensuing riots in [[1956 Poznań protests|Poland]] and [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungary]], had a large impact on China, where similar social unrest began to take place.{{r|:2|p=394}}

=== Definition of "Rightists" ===
Defining "rightists" was not always consistent. Rightists included critics of the [[Left-wing politics|governmental left]], but officially referred to intellectuals who appeared to favor [[capitalism]], or were against one-party rule and forced, state-run [[collectivization]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":0" /> Rightists could be categorized as "active rightists" ({{lang|zh-Hans-CN|主动右派}}) and "passive rightists" ({{lang|zh-Hans-CN|被动右派}}). The "active rightists" could further be divided into three groups: "right-wing intellectuals", "revisionists" and "[[Human rights defender|rights defenders]]."<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Zeming |date=2007-12-15 |title=The “Active Rightists” of 1957 and Their Legacy: “Right-wing Intellectuals,” Revisionists, and Rights Defenders |url=https://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/2553 |journal=China Perspectives |language=fr |volume=2007 |issue=4 |doi=10.4000/chinaperspectives.2553 |issn=2070-3449}}</ref>  

"Right-wing intellectuals" consisted of influential democratic personalities before 1949, such as [[Zhang Bojun]] and [[Luo Longji]], who championed constitutional change and changing the method of government. "Revisionists" included Party intellectuals such as [[Li Shenzhi]] and [[Liu Binyan]]. It also included students such as [[Lin Xiling]], who denounced [[cult of personality]] and were in favor of changes consistent with democracy. "Rights defenders" would cite the [[Constitution of China]] to condemn government violations of [[Civil and political rights|political rights]], of [[Individualism|individual freedoms]], and of [[Economic, social and cultural rights|economic and social rights]]. "Rights defenders" also criticized the absence of freedom in the fields of science, culture, and art at a time when academic fields such as law, political science, and sociology had been suppressed.<ref name=":8" />

Contradictory to common belief, the Anti-Rightist Campaign did not only impact intellectuals: it extended to members of every [[social class]], including teachers, employees and [[Cadre (politics)|cadre]].<ref name=":0" /> Individuals were also labelled rightists due to [[political faction]] conflicts, grudges, and/or the mismanagement of interpersonal relations. Officials and intellectuals took advantage of the campaign to attack peers and competitors.<ref>{{Citation |last=Wang |first=Ning |title=The Anti-Rightist Campaign and Political Labelling |date=2017-09-15 |work=Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness: Political Exile and Re-education in Mao's China |pages=17-47 |editor-last=Wang |editor-first=Ning |url=https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501713187.003.0002 |access-date=2025-06-13 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-1318-7}}</ref> The official number of those labeled rightists was 552,877, but did not include people labeled as "center-rightists," "anti-socialist elements" or "counterrevolutionaries." It also did not include members of victims' families or those who suffered other sanctions without ever being labeled. Total estimates range from the consensus of 1 million, to 3 million, or even 5 million, if the people suppressed during the [[Socialist Education Movement]] is taken into account.<ref name=":0" />

===First wave===
During the Hundred Flowers Movement, some ideas that were not tolerated by the Party were gradually raised. One example of public rightist remarks came from Huang Xinping, a high school teacher in [[Tianjin]] who said, "why can we not have a system that allows each party to take turns being in power?"<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chen |first1=Zeming |title=The "Active Rightists" of 1957 and Their Legacy: "Right-wing Intellectuals," Revisionists, and Rights Defenders |journal=[[China Perspectives]] |date=15 December 2007 |volume=2007 |issue=4 |page=42 |doi=10.4000/chinaperspectives.2553 |url=http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/2553|doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Chu Anping]] called for greater representation of non-CCP members in the national government on June 2 1957.<ref name="anpingSpeech">{{cite web |title=向毛主席和周总理提些意见 |url=https://www.marxists.org/chinese/reference-books/dissident-1956-1957/27.htm |website=www.marxists.org |access-date=17 June 2025}}</ref><ref name=":8"/> By January 1958, he had been attacked as a rightist and purged from his positions.{{cn|date=June 2025}}

The first wave of attacks began immediately as the Hundred Flowers Campaign drew to a close in June 1957.<ref name=":0" /> At the time, Mao began to view criticism during the Hundred Flowers as a threat to the rule of the party. In mid-May, Mao began writing ''Things Are Beginning to Change'', an article that was not completed until June 11. In the article he said, "why is such a torrent of reactionary, vicious statements being allowed to appear in the press? to let the people have some idea of these poisonous weeds and noxious fumes so as to have them uprooted or dispelled."{{r|:2|p=398}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mao |first1=Zedong |author-link=Mao Zedong |title=Things Are Beginning to Change |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-5/mswv5_61.htm |access-date=14 January 2023 |website=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref>  On June 8, 1957, Mao drafted an inner-party document, ''Muster Our Forces to Repulse the Rightists' Wild Attacks'', saying that "some bad capitalists, bad intellectuals, and reactionary elements in society are mounting wild attacks against the working class and the Communist Party in an attempt to overthrow the state power led by the working class."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mao |first1=Zedong |title=Muster Our Forces to Repulse the Rightists' Wild Attacks |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-5/mswv5_63.htm |website=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |access-date=14 January 2023}}</ref> On the same day, ''[[People's Daily]]'' published an editorial ''What is this for?'', expressing the same view as the inner-party document.{{r|:2|p=400}} These marked the beginning of the Anti-Rightist Campaign.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tsai |first1=Wen-hui |title=Mass Mobilization Campaigns in Mao's China |journal=[[American Journal of Chinese Studies]] |date=1999 |volume=6 |issue=1 |page=42 |jstor=44288599 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44288599 |access-date=14 January 2023 |issn=2166-0042}}</ref> By the end of the year, 300,000 people had been labeled as rightists, including the writer [[Ding Ling]]. Future premier [[Zhu Rongji]], then working in the State Planning Commission, was purged in 1958.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Four other prominent figures faced labels as rightists; one recovered, rose to premier|url=https://www.scmp.com/article/590364/four-other-prominent-figures-faced-labels-rightists-one-recovered-rose-premier|access-date=2020-07-18|website=South China Morning Post|date=25 April 2007 |language=en}}</ref> Most of the accused were intellectuals. The penalties included informal criticism, [[re-education through labour|hard labor]], and in some cases, [[Capital punishment in China|execution]].<ref name=":0" /> For example, [[Jiabiangou]], a notable [[labor camp]] in [[Gansu]], held approximately 3,000 political prisoners from 1957 to 1961, of whom about 2,500 died, mostly of starvation.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wu|first=Yenna|date=April 2020|title=Cultural Trauma Construction of the Necropolitical Jiabiangou Laojiao Camp|url=https://complitlang.ucr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Cultural-Trauma-Construction-of-the-Necropolitical-Jiabiangou-Laojiao-Camp.pdf|journal=American Journal of Chinese Studies|volume=27|issue=1|pages=25–49}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=French |first=Howard W. |author-link=Howard W. French |date=2009-08-24 |title=Survivors' Stories From China |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/books/25french.html |access-date=2021-07-01 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

One main target was the independent [[legal system]]. Legal professionals were transferred to other jobs; judicial power was exercised instead by political cadres and the police. Until the Hundred Flowers Campaign, China's [[Political-Legal Research|top legal journal]] consisted of propaganda articles, study of the [[law of the Soviet Union]], and practical instruction on trivial matters such as document preparation. During the Hundred Flowers Campaign, articles expanded their discourse with topics such as proposing new rules of [[Evidence (law)| evidence]] and suggesting that the CCP was bound by the law. The Chinese Political Science and Law Association hosted speeches in Beijing May 1957 which criticized nearly every aspect of the PRC's legal system. Criticism came from outside the party and high ranking party members. In January 1958, Wu Defeng, Vice-president of the Chinese Political Science and Law Association, responded to the criticism with emphasis on the centrality of the party and its connection to the [[mass line]]. During the Anti-Rightist Campaign, China's legal journals either terminated publication or reverted to exclusively publishing propaganda pieces. The legal profession reflected a larger shift in public expectation which placed more emphasis on [[class struggle]] and being red first and expert second. Class struggle, foundational in Mao's China, began as opposition to the landlords and capitalists, but under the Anti-Rightist movement Mao re-targeted this struggle against anyone with intellectual opposition to the party. This shift laid the foundation for further targeting of intellectuals in the [[Cultural Revolution]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Rickett |first=W. Allyn |author-link=W. Allyn Rickett |date=1982 |title=The New Constitution and China's Emerging Legal System in Perspective |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23889661 |journal=Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=22 |pages=99–117 |issn=0085-5774 |jstor=23889661}}</ref>

===Second wave===
The second part of the campaign followed the [[Lushan Conference]] of July 2 – August 16, 1959, a meeting of top party leaders. The meeting condemned the PRC's [[Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China|defense minister]], General [[Peng Dehuai]], a critic of the [[Great Leap Forward]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The Lushan Meeting and the Assertion of Absolute, Total Control by Mao Zedong|url=https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/lushan.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910082742/http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/lushan.htm|archive-date=2019-09-10|access-date=2020-07-18|website=San Jose State University}}</ref>
=== Punishments ===
In 1957, rightists received widespread condemnation. A portion of those persecuted admitted to their "crimes" and agreed to go through labor reform to purge their "reactionary" minds and grow through difficulties.<ref>{{Citation |last=Wang |first=Ning |title=Beijing Rightists on the Army Farms of Beidahuang |date=2017-09-15 |work=Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness: Political Exile and Re-education in Mao's China |pages=48–81 |editor-last=Wang |editor-first=Ning |url=https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501713187.003.0003 |access-date=2025-06-13 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-1318-7}}</ref> Punishments included imprisonment, reform [[internment]] through labor camps ([[laogai]]), internment in farms, [[re-education through labor]], banishment to the countryside, layoffs, short-term imprisonment in work units, working under [[surveillance]], and salary cuts.<ref name=":0" /> The [[Lake Khanka|Xingkaihu]] labor camp was established due to the lack of prison facilities from the large-scale persecution during the Anti-Rightist campaign and was directly managed by the [[Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau|Beijing Public Security Bureau]]. The CCP mixed [[Political prisoner|political prisoners]] with criminals in the labor camp, which allowed the police to utilize criminal prisoners to surveil and discipline the political prisoners.<ref>{{Citation |last=Wang |first=Ning |title=Political Offenders in Xingkaihu Labour Camp |date=2017-09-15 |work=Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness: Political Exile and Re-education in Mao's China |pages=82-110 |editor-last=Wang |editor-first=Ning |url=https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501713187.003.0004 |access-date=2025-06-13 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-1318-7}}</ref> In Beidahuang, labor camp authorities made maneuvers that benefited themselves and were hyperactive, which contributed to severe food scarcity and heavy volumes of work for the exiled. This gave rise to a large death toll for the exiles. The exiles also received physical abuse and some committed suicide.<ref>{{Citation |last=Wang |first=Ning |title=Life and Death in Beidahuang |date=2017-09-15 |work=Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness: Political Exile and Re-education in Mao's China |pages=111–138 |editor-last=Wang |editor-first=Ning |url=https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501713187.003.0005 |access-date=2025-06-13 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-1318-7}}</ref> On the [[Tuntian|army farms]] and in the Xingkaihu labor camp, a number of intellectuals attacked others to promote themselves and to display their loyalty to the authorities.<ref>{{Citation |last=Wang |first=Ning |title=Inner Turmoil and Internecine Strife among Political Exiles |date=2017-09-15 |work=Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness: Political Exile and Re-education in Mao's China |pages=139–160 |editor-last=Wang |editor-first=Ning |url=https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501713187.003.0006 |access-date=2025-06-13 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-1318-7}}</ref> Many rightists and political exiles still identified with the Party's ideology and acquiesced to the idea of ideological reform through labor. They worked hard to show penitence and reach self-atonement. Some became self-afflicted.<ref>{{Citation |last=Wang |first=Ning |title=Inner Turmoil and Internecine Strife among Political Exiles |date=2017-09-15 |work=Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness: Political Exile and Re-education in Mao's China |pages=139–160 |editor-last=Wang |editor-first=Ning |url=https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501713187.003.0006 |access-date=2025-06-13 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-1318-7}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Wang |first=Ning |title=Conclusion |date=2017-09-15 |work=Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness: Political Exile and Re-education in Mao's China |pages=184–194 |editor-last=Wang |editor-first=Ning |url=https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501713187.003.0008 |access-date=2025-06-13 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-1318-7}}</ref>  

A number of people were executed.<ref name=":4" /> Administering several provinces in the southwest, Deng proved so zealous in killing alleged counter-revolutionaries that even the chairman felt obliged to write to him. Mao urged Deng Xiaoping to slow down the campaign's body count, saying:
{{Blockquote|quotetext=If we kill too many, we will forfeit public sympathy and a shortage of labor power will arise.|quotesource=<ref>Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life
By Alexander V Pantsov & Steven I Levine</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/number-two-capitalist-roader|title=Frank Dikötter - Number Two Capitalist Roader|date=27 June 2023 }}</ref>}}

==Legacy==
In a 2018 study by Zhaojin Zeng and Joshua Eisenman, analysing 144 counties within [[Anhui]], [[Henan]], and [[Jiangsu]], it was found that the economic harm caused by the Anti-Rightist campaign continued for decades, even into 2000, compounded by existing issues with human capital at the time. The higher the percentage of the population were declared Rightists, the worse the economic outcomes would be in each county. Literacy rates were affected well into 1982, and academic performance at the high school level, as well as in compulsory education, continued to be affected into 2000. Counties that were previously Laoqu were found to have purged fewer Rightists than others because the party secretaries were local to the area. Negative correlations between the [[Great Chinese Famine|famine]] of the [[Great Leap Forward]] and China's economic performance in 1982 were also found, and distinguished from the Anti-Rightist Campaign, confirming a 2017 study by Elizabeth Gooch; additionally, it was found that the effects were more significant compared to the [[Cultural Revolution]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zeng |first1=Zhaojin |last2=Eisenman |first2=Joshua |date=September 2018 |title=The price of persecution: The long-term effects of the Anti-Rightist Campaign on economic performance in post-Mao China |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X18301323 |journal=[[World Development (journal)|World Development]] |volume=109 |pages=249–260 |doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.04.013 |url-access=subscription |access-date=22 January 2024}}</ref>

==Rehabilitation==
{{See also|Boluan Fanzheng|Reforms and Opening Up}}After Mao's death in 1976, many of the convictions were revoked during the Boluan Fanzheng period. At that time, under leader [[Deng Xiaoping]], the government announced that it needed capitalists' experience to get the country moving economically, and subsequently the guilty verdicts of thousands of counterrevolutionary cases were overturned — affecting many of those accused of rightism and who had been persecuted for that crime the previous twenty two years.<ref name="WuWu2002">{{cite book |author1=Wu |first=Harry |author-link=Harry Wu |url=https://archive.org/details/troublemakeronem00wuho/page/68 |title=Troublemaker: One Man's Crusade Against China's Cruelty |author2=Vecsey |first2=George |author-link2=George Vecsey |date=December 30, 2002 |publisher=Times Books |isbn=0-8129-6374-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/troublemakeronem00wuho/page/68 68–] |url-access=registration}}</ref> This came despite the fact that Deng Xiaoping and [[Peng Zhen]] were among the most enthusiastic prosecutors of the movement during the "First Wave" of 1957.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

==Censorship in China==
In 2009, leading up the 60th anniversary of the PRC's founding, a number of media outlets in China listed the most significant events of 1957 but downplayed or omitted reference to the Anti-Rightist Movement.<ref name="silence"/> Websites were reportedly notified by authorities that the topic of the movement was extremely sensitive.<ref name="silence"/>

==Famous rightists==
*[[Zhang Bojun]], China's "number one rightist"
*[[Luo Longji]], China's "number two rightist"
*[[Huang Qixiang]]
*[[Chen Mingshu]]
*[[Chen Mengjia]]
*[[Zhu Rongji]], later Premier of China
*[[Wu Zuguang]], playwright
*[[Qian Weichang]]
*[[Gu Zhun]]
*[[Long Yun]], former warlord of [[Yunnan]]
*[[Chu Anping]]

==See also==
*[[Great Leap Forward]]
*[[Anti-Right Deviation Struggle]]
*[[Great Purge]]
*[[Cultural Revolution]]
*[[De-Stalinization]]
*[[List of CCP Campaigns]]
*[[Sufan movement]]
*[[Yan'an Rectification Movement]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040302233013/http://ss.uno.edu/SS/Bs/Chap1/Chap_1_Final_.html An Overview of Democracy Movements in China]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080528010135/http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.2.2007/CRF-2007-2_Petitioning.pdf Petitioning for redress over the anti-rightist campaign] – Human Rights in China (HRIC), 2005
{{Mao Zedong}}{{China national security}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Anti-Rightist Campaign| ]]
[[Category:Campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party]]
[[Category:Political repression in China]]
[[Category:Political and cultural purges]]
[[Category:Maoist terminology]]
[[Category:Maoist China]]
[[Category:Cold War history of China]]
[[Category:Communist repression]]
[[Category:1950s in China]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses in China]]
[[Category:Persecution of intellectuals in China]]
[[Category:State terrorism]]
[[Category:Mass killings by communist regimes]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 1950]]
[[Category:Persecution of Christians]]