Chapter 18 Anti-Rightist Movement 1957

Journalist: “What did you do to get up the Anti-Rightist Movement?”

Mao: “1956 ‘8th Congress’ I have been holding back, depressed, lying in bed all day, sullen. ‘8th Congress’ anti-progressive, criticizing the cult of the individual, delete my Mao Zedong Thought, what collective leadership, I have been thinking about regaining the initiative, the class struggle, to turn the defense into an attack. I am going to pick up the Yan’an Rectification experience, set a trap and let people in step by step. It was difficult to launch directly in the party hierarchy, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, they are in the majority, can not attack, rely on the party whole, afraid that the whole is not good. I decided to mobilize social forces, from the outside to attack.”

Journalist: “You first launched a social attack on the Party bureaucracy?”

Mao: “Yes, in the second half of 1956, as a result of the thawing and relaxation of the gas circle brought about by the lifting of the Stalinist lid, workers dared to rise up and go on strike, and more than 10,000 workers went on strike nationwide, demanding reasonable benefits. More than 10,000 students also went on strike, demanding reasonable distribution. I attributed these disturbances, as well as other shortcomings and errors in work, to the three major charges of bureaucracy, plus sectarianism and subjectivism. The whole wind is to rectify these three doctrines. I hope to mobilize the bottom to attack Liu and Zhou’s gang upwards.”

Journalist: “In 1956, you saw that the situation was not favorable to you and took a step back?”

Mao: “Yes, in 1956, in order to cope with the wave of Stalin’s repudiation and the criticism of the Democratic Party, I said, ‘Two hail: long live the Communist Party! Long live the Democratic Party!’ Which put me back on the moral high ground.

At May 2, 1956, I proposed that ‘a hundred flowers should blossom and a hundred schools of thought should contend,’ and I supported the restoration of collective leadership in the Party.”

Journalist: “How did you launch a social attack on the Party’s enemies?”

Mao: “In February 1957, I spoke to more than 1,800 people at the National Supreme State Council to address the internal contradictions within the people, most of the listeners were people outside the Party, intellectuals, and spoke for four hours to mobilize everyone to help the Party rectify the situation, the speaker is not guilty, the response was enthusiastic. The Party, however, was dissatisfied, and the Beijing authorities did not react at all, they smelled the beginning of the rectification in Yan’an.”

Journalist: “You want to do that Yan’an Rectification thing again?”

Mao; “Yes. In April 1957, I instructed to convene a forum of democrats to invite people to give their opinions on the Party’s rectification, and the following began to move a little. on May 1, I ordered the Central Committee to formally publish the rectification instructions, emphasizing that those who speak are not guilty. in mid-May, the comments became more enthusiastic and sharper, pointing not only at the bureaucrats, but also at the entire autocratic system, and implicitly at the top leaders. This caused me to think hard, ‘I’ve attacked the highest level, but it’s not me?’ I quickly wrote ‘things have changed’ and circulated it at the top. I changed my strategy, temporarily put down Liu Zhou’s gang, first to address the democrats’ intellectuals.”

Journalist: “Oh, you see the attack to the dictatorship, the attack to your head, then change to first fight the democrats’ intellectuals?”

Mao: “Yes, on May 22, 1957, I ordered the United Front Work Department to convene a forum of democrats, to mobilize everyone to ‘know everything and say everything,’ ‘those who speak are not guilty, those who hear are warned.’ Luo Longji was the first to take the bait. He spoke and demanded the establishment of a ‘vindication committee,’ and he wanted to vindicate the ‘three opponents, five opponents, and the purge.’ Then Zhang Bojun demanded the implementation of the ‘two-chamber system’ and the ‘political design institute,’ attacking the fundamental system of the country.”
Journalist: “Luo Longji, Zhang Bojun have attacked your fundamental issues?”

Mao: “Yes, on June 1, 1957, I ordered the United Front Work Department to hold a seminar again, and Chu Anping took the bait again. He said the Communist Party is the ‘party world,’ the root of sectarianism in the above, no one to give advice to the old monk. The old monk is not me?”

Journalist: “Oh, stored Anping found on the old monk?”

Mao: “Yes, on June 8, 1957, I personally wrote the editorial ‘Why is this?’ It was clear that the launch of the opinion campaign in early May was a ‘luring the snake out of its hole’ and a ‘Open Strategy,’ and from then on it officially turned into an anti-rightist campaign, catching rightists, classifying rightists, and setting targets for classifying 5% rightists. The national anti-rightist campaign was launched with a bang.”

Journalist: “Oh, you wrote an editorial and gave an order to arrest 5% of the rightists nationwide?”

Mao: “Yes, I arranged Deng Xiaoping, Peng Zhen to catch the anti-right movement, July 1, 1957, I left Beijing, went to Hangzhou, Shanghai, Qingdao and other places to get away, until August 11 back to Beijing.”

Journalist: “Oh, you arranged Deng Xiaoping, Peng Zhen to catch the rightist, you went out of Beijing to play with women in the mountains?”

Mao: “Yes, on September 20, 1957, 400 people attended the Third Plenary Session of the 8th CCP Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping summarized the anti-rightist movement, the country arrested more than 1 million rightists. I took advantage of the victory to make a closing speech entitled ‘to be a revolutionary promoter,’ accusing the anti-adventurous error, alluding to Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, began to overturn the direction of the ‘8th Congress’ sending the signal of the Great Leap Forward in 1958.”

Journalist: “The anti-rightists fought more than one million, and you took the opportunity to criticize the anti-adventurous mistakes, how to deal with the rightists?”

Mao: “Most of the rightists were sent to labor camps, and many were tortured to death. In Gansu, the rightists starved to death in thousands of labor farms. Cun Anping was sent to herd sheep, but he couldn’t bear the long period of torture and humiliation, so he finally ran away and his whereabouts were unknown.

I was so elated by my victory against the right that I issued an order: ‘It is necessary to beat him with a few sticks, but if you don’t beat him with a few sticks he will pretend to be dead.’ Under my instructions, most of the rightists were sent to labor camps, and hundreds of labor camps all over the country were dedicated to dealing with rightists, with the most rightist ones sent to labor camps in the Daxinganling Mountains in northeast China, Gansu, and Qinghai. Some rightists could not survive the criticism and committed suicide. Tens of thousands of rightists committed suicide or ‘disappeared’ nationwide. In Fujian Normal University, 17 people committed suicide to protest.

There were tens of thousands of people who went to the labor camps in the northern wilderness, and more than 500 people from the literary and artistic circles in Beijing were one of the rightist brigades, and they had to do 12 hours of hard labor every day.

Some of the rightists could not survive the labor camps and escaped, and were captured and shot. The rightist prisoners in Xinjiang who were smuggled to the Soviet Union were shot dead when they were found, and those who escaped were also sent back to the Soviet Union and shot.

During the Great Famine after 1959, a large number of rightist prisoners died of starvation in the labor camps, more than 300 rightists in Liujiang County, Guangxi died of starvation-related diseases in the labor camps, and more than 400 rightists in Shanghai went to the labor camps in Guangde County, Anhui, almost all died of starvation, and only 20 people were left alive. A group of 12 rightists from Beijing went to Daxinganling, and only one returned to Beijing alive. In Liaoning Lingyuan County, a labor camp, a squadron of 300 rightists, 227 people died.

In Guangdong, 203 rightists were escorted to the Hei Shi labor camp in Huangcheng, Gansu, and most died in 3 years. By 1993, only 10 people survived.

In 1960, more than 600 prisoners died in Ziwu Ling labor camp in Ning County, Gansu, and more than 3,000 rightists were detained in Jiuquan labor camp near Jiuquan, Gansu, from October 1957, and by December 1960, more than 2,000 died of starvation and the remaining hundreds were released.

The death rate of those sent to the Qinghai labor camp was the highest, with more than 90% starving to death and less than 10% surviving.

Journalist: “The rightists you killed were all national elites, many of whom were foreign students and celebrities from all walks of life.

Mao: “Yes, a large number of the most thoughtful national elites were destroyed by me.

There are many tragic examples of rightists. In 1957, the Hohhot Construction Bank Shang Jintang was branded as a rightist. Unable to endure the inhuman abuse, he fled with his wife into the hinterland of the Daxingan Mountains to live as a caveman. They also raised four children in the forest, like a mother hen protecting her chicks, like guarding her children in rags. They lived as savages and set up their homes on the trunks of several large trees. And on the hillside, they set up a horse-frame house. Deep ditches were dug all around, and camouflage was put on the ditches to ward off wild animals and to catch animals. No rope, with bark woven twist; no shovel, with sharp stones and sticks; no matches, with flint to burn. Dig a large pit in the house, burning dry wood, day and night.

They were no different from wild animals: they could not eat grain and salt. As the days went by, their bodies became weak and they often dozed off. They ventured out of the mountains to exchange for grain and salt, and when they met acquaintances down the mountain, they realized that the world had been a thousand years.

In 1987, a wild man was found stealing in Wuming, Guangxi. It turned out that the man was a survivor who escaped from the sinking of the river during the armed struggle of the Cultural Revolution. In order to avoid being arrested again and killed, he snuck into the mountains alone and lived as a savage for 20 years. He ate wild fruits, and when he had nothing to eat, he went out to the mountains at night to steal food. When he was found almost naked and unable to speak, the first thing he asked when he regained simple language was: Is the Cultural Revolution over? Will anyone else come to arrest me?

In the past, our Party often taught the people: ‘The old society turns people into ghosts, and the new society turns ghosts into people.’ Now, who turned people into ghosts? It is me. I am the culprit. What happened to Liu Huilan and Shang Jintang will be staged as a song and dance drama called ‘White Hair Maiden?’ And those poor children.”

Journalist: “You said in 1957 that Lu Xun had two ways out?”

Mao: “Yes, literary and artistic Huang Zongying personally heard my old friend Luo Jinan ask at the anti-rightist symposium I convened in 1957, ‘If Lu Xun were alive today, what might he be doing?’

In my estimation, Lu Xun would either be locked up in jail or writing anyway, or he would know better than to make a sound. When these words were disclosed, the cultural community was shocked by the fact that Lu Xun could not escape the calamity, not to mention the minor characters.”

Journalist: “In 1980 Deng Xiaoping did not correct the five big rightists, there is a Peng Wenying, what rightist crimes he has?”

Mao: “Peng Wenying this person can not find special rightist crimes, mainly because of his tough attitude, not a word of review, Deng Xiaoping to hard against hard, in fact, Peng 1962 persecution died, not famous in the country, people are wondering why he was the central government and Zhang Bojun, Luo Longji, etc. together, mainly because of the attitude problem. The actual Professor Peng is not a bad person, even to labor, but also for the country to design ‘rationalization proposals,’ proposed ‘train boat,’ ‘thermal lunch box,’ ‘fishing tower brick,’ ‘the first time.’ He made suggestions such as ‘fishing tower brick’ and ‘two-sided ants.’ His family of eight was forced into a small room of 15 square meters, and his son had to sleep on a bed in the toilet. His sick wife also died of shock, his salary was cancelled, and his source of living was cut off. His daughter begged him on her knees to admit it, but in order to live, he insisted that he was not wrong and did not write anything, but before he died in 1962, he wrote a ten-thousand-word letter to Zhou Enlai and me, suggesting that we should end all anti-rightist activities, remove all rightist hats, and unite to build socialism. He was a jurist who stayed in the United States in his early years and a professor of law in Shanghai, and was only 58 when he died.”