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The Hundred Flowers Campaign (百花运动) period refers 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. Subsequently an ideological crackdown re-imposed Maoist orthodoxy in public expression.

Background

After the founding of the PRC in 1949, 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 bureaucracy. Premier Zhou Enlai was initially the head of this first campaign.

Despite continuous efforts put henceforth by Zhou Enlai and other prominent central bureaucratic officials, 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 criticize the central government. 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."

After the Campaign

After the ill-fated campaign was officially declared over, Mao's hate for the intellectual population had accumulated. Continuing with an Anti-Rightist Movement he had started only years past, he reasoned that the intellectuals were the basis of all existing problems. Mao had ordered arrests of counter-revolutionaries on the basis of their letters and punished many harshly, as far as using torture and capital punishment without any form of trial.

Hence also 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

Although the effects are only roughly clear, it is clear that the CCP will continue on some of the post-Hundred Flowers policies into new political movements. The Hundred Flowers movement also led to the death and condemnation of many intellectuals in the many years to come, many also linked to Mao's Anti-Rightist Movement, with death tolls possibly rising to the millions.

It is also seen by many, especially those from the West, that the Hundred Flowers Movement was simply a plot by Mao to strengthen his power, but more and more evidence point out that it was only partially true. Nevertheless, it is apparent that Mao had not liked the results of the campaign regardless, as the idea of socialism did not show much significant support from many intellectuals. The after-effects of the campaign was only a part of the silencing of intellectuals that would continue for another decade or so.

See also

• History of the People's Republic of China
• Great Leap Forward
• Anti-Rightist Movement
• List of CCP Campaigns

• People's Republic of China