Hundred Flowers Campaign
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The Hundred Flowers Campaign, also termed the Hundred Flowers Movement, (百花运动/百花運動 bǎi huā yùndòng) is the period referring to a brief interlude in the People's Republic of China from 1956 to 1957 during which the Communist Party authorities permitted or encouraged a variety of views and solutions to ongoing problems. However, it turned out to be a trap, and Mao persecuted those who had views different than the party. An ideological crackdown re-imposed Maoist orthodoxy in public expression, and the campaign ended in failure.
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Background
The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, and land reforms dominated the agenda of the new communist government. In the early 1950s, the three-anti/five-anti campaigns brought an end to private ownership of land, and further purged many people the CPC deemed to be landlords and capitalists. The accepted school of thought at the time was a branch of Marxism, which was re-interpreted by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong into the guiding ideology of the early 1950s. What would later be known as the Hundred Flowers Movement was first a small campaign aimed solely at local bureaucracies for non-communist-affiliated officials to speak out about the policies and the existing problems within the central government in a manner previously considered illegal. Premier Zhou Enlai was the head of this first campaign.
Continuous efforts were put forth by Zhou Enlai and other prominent Central Government officials, but this minimalized campaign was a failure. No one spoke out openly at all.
During a Communist Politburo Conference in 1956, Zhou Enlai emphasized the need for a bigger campaign, aimed this time at the whole sea of intellectuals within the country, for these individuals to speak out about the policies of the government, in theory allowing better governance. Mao initially had supported the idea. "The government needs criticism from its people," Zhou said in one of his 1956 speeches, "Without this criticism the government will not be able to function as the 'People's Democratic Dictatorship'. Thus the basis of a healthy government lost... We must learn from old mistakes, take all forms of healthy criticism, and do what we can to answer these criticisms."
Hundred Flowers
In the summer of 1956, Mao had found the idea interesting, and had superseded Zhou to take central control over the actual campaign. The idea was to have intellectuals discuss the country's problems in order to promote new forms of arts and new cultural institutions. Mao, however, also saw this as the chance to promote socialism. Mao believed that socialism is the only "true" form of thought, and that after discussions it would be apparent that socialism is the dominant ideology over capitalism, even amongst non-communist Chinese. In a later speech made by Mao titled On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions Among the People, Mao had openly and wholeheartedly supported the campaign, saying "Our society cannot back down, it could only progress... criticism of the bureacracy is pushing the government towards the better." Thus began the ill-fated Hundred Flowers Movement.
The name of the movement had originated from a poem: Simplified Chinese 百花齐放，百家争鸣, Traditional Chinese 百花齊放，百家爭鳴 (Pinyin bǎi huā qífàng, bǎi jiā zhēngmíng, "Let a hundred flowers bloom: let a hundred schools of thought contend." Mao had used this to signal what he had wanted from the intellectuals of the country.
The campaign publicly started in late 1956. In the beginning stages of the Movement the Central Government was still not receiving any form of criticism, although there was a significant rise in letters of conservative advice. Premier Zhou received some of these letters, and once again realized that this widely publicized campaign was not progressing. Zhou later spoke to Mao about the situation, stating that even more euphoria was needed from the central bureaucracy to lead the intellectuals into further discussion.
By the spring of 1957, Mao had announced that criticism was needed and had started to criticise those who failed to turn in healthy criticism to the Central Government. This was seen to many as a desperate measure to get the campaign going. Many intellectuals, already estimating that this was a plot of some sort, finally gave in to their fiery thoughts. In the period from June 1 to July 17, 1957, millions of letters were pouring in to the Premier's Office and other authorities, and the situation was almost out of control.
People spoke out by putting up posters around campuses, rallying in the streets, holding meetings for CCP members, and publishing magazine articles. For example, students at Peking University created a "Democratic Wall" on which they criticized the CCP with posters (Spence 1999, 541). "They protested CCP control over intellectuals, the harshness of previous mass campaigns such as that against counterrevolutionaries, the slavish following of Soviet models, the low standards of living in China, the proscription of foreign literature, economic corruption among party cadres, and the fact the 'Party members enjoy many priveleges which make them a race apart'"(Spence 1999, 540-1).
Many of these letters, as stated by Mao in early 1957, had violated the Healthy Criticism level and had reached a harmful and uncontrollable level. These letters had advised the government to "govern democratically" and "open up." Premier Zhou Enlai at first had explored and listened to many of these criticisms, but Mao refused to do this himself. The campaign raised the old apprehension that those who criticise harmfully mean an end to his leadership. By early February 1957, the campaign had become too difficult to control, and Mao viewed many of the letters received as absurd. Intellectuals and others were suggesting radical ideas such as: "the CCP should give up power," "intellectuals are virtually being tortured to live in a communist society," "there is absolutely no human rights and freedom if the CCP is to continue on ruling the country," "the country should separate with each Political Party controlling a zone of its own" and "Each political party in China should rule in transitional governments, each with a 4 year term."
The Hundred Flowers Movement was not what it was projected to be. If any new forms of cultural institutions or arts were being suggested, such proposals were overshadowed by the amount of "unhealthy" political criticism.
In July 1957, Mao ordered to halt the campaign, and Zhou had no powers to stop him. Mao's earlier speech, On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions Among the People, which was never published, was meaningfully changed and appeared later on as an anti-rightist piece itself. Some concluded that Mao knew the outcome before the campaign had even started.
After the Campaign
After the campaign was officially declared over, Mao's resentment for the intellectual population had accumulated. Continuing with an Anti-Rightist Movement he had began a few years previous, he reasoned that the intellectuals were the basis of all existing problems. Mao ordered arrests of counter-revolutionaries on the basis of their letters and punished many harshly, using torture and capital punishment without any form of trial.
Hence began some of Mao's radical ideas (see Maoism) that would last in the policies of the CCP until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.
Effects
Post-Hundred Flowers policies influenced later CCP political movements. The Hundred Flowers movement led to the condemnation, silencing, and death of many intellectuals, also linked to Mao's Anti-Rightist Movement, with death tolls possibly in the millions.
Many, especially in the West, view, somewhat contentiously, the Hundred Flowers Movement as a plot by Mao to strengthen his power. Nevertheless, Mao was unhappy with the results of the campaign, as it exposed the fact that socialism did not enjoy popular support from intellectuals. The actual intentions of the campaign, and the exact method by which Mao was involved, are still a topic of historical debate.
References
Spence, Jonathan D., The Search For Modern China 2nd edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1990. (pp. 539-543)
See also
- Politicide
- History of the People's Republic of China
- Great Leap Forward
- Anti-Rightist Movement
- List of CCP Campaignsde:Hundert-Blumen-Bewegung
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