The Anti-Rightist Campaign

The Hundred Flowers experiment came to an abrupt end with the launching of an “anti-rightist struggle” (fan youpai douzheng) in June 1957. The Anti-Rightist Campaign also saw the conduct of inner Party rectification return to traditional principles in all respects. ^a The end of the Hundred Flowers, moreover, removed a difficult issue from the agenda of the top leadership. Although some scholarly analysis argues divisions of the spring continued with Mao still focusing on internal Party deviations while Liu Shaoqi, Peng Zhen and others emphasized sharp rebuffs to intellectual critics, this interpretation sees Mao in the forefront of the anti-rightist onslaught This did involve a major turnabout from his spring position, but the Chairman negotiated this shift without apology or apparent embarrassment. Mao not only took the key initiatives which began the readjustment, but CCP policies toward rightists and other aspects of rectification throughout summer 1957 all bore his imprint. ^b Whatever differences may have existed earlier, and whatever loss of prestige Mao may have suffered from his first major policy miscalculation of the post-1949 period, the Party rallied around him once he opted for a more orthodox course.