ABSTRACT
The Political Consultative Conference was inspired by old precedents, for the National government had intended to pass through a transitional phase after the Kuomintang period of tutelage, and a similar conference had been held from January 10 to 31, 1946. The State Administrative Council, which was presided over by Chou En-lai, controlled about thirty ministries and other bodies, all grouped under four committees, with certain exceptions. The Campaign for the Elimination of Counterrevolutionaries grew out of the terrible law of February 21, 1951, which provoked a vast wave of arrests and trials by the people. Thereafter, and throughout the whole of 1951, "counterrevolutionaries" or suspects were hunted out, condemned, and executed at an alarming rate. The Three- and Five-Anti campaigns caused less bloodshed than the one just described but produced equally important results. The first, the Three-Anti, was launched in December 1951 after careful preparation and a trial run organized by Kao Kang in Manchuria.
