ABSTRACT
The Anti-Rightist Campaign saw the conduct of inner Party rectification return to traditional principles in all respects. Rightist activities were reported mainly in places where intellectuals were concentrated, that is in institutions where "blooming and contending" had developed. Moreover, leading members of democratic parties were singled out as the core of rightist groups although intellectuals within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were also subject to vehement attack. The official rationale developed by Tse-tung Mao and other leaders for the Anti-Rightist Campaign pointed squarely to bourgeois intellectuals as the main target. In contrast to the anti-rightist struggle in urban units, the rural socialist education movement was implemented through work teams. Democratic Party members serving in government posts were also major victims of the anti-rightist struggle. A major aim of socialist education was to restore cadre authority vis-a-vis peasants generally as an integral part of the effort to bolster socialism in the countryside.
