Anti-Rightist Campaign

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Anti-Rightist Campaign
The slogan "carry out the anti-rightist struggle to the end" on display at the 1957 National Day parade on Tiananmen Square.
Location	People's Republic of China
Date	1957–1959
Target	Political opponents, alleged right-wing figures
Attack type	Political repression
Victims	550,000 (Official figures) 1–2 million (Estimates)
Perpetrators	Mao Zedong Deng Xiaoping Peng Zhen

History of the People's Republic of China
1949–1976: Mao era Revolution Land Reform Movement Proclamation Korean War Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns First five-year plan Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence Bandung Conference Sufan movement Hundred Flowers Campaign Anti-Rightist Campaign Canton Fair Great Leap Forward Great Chinese Famine Two Bombs, One Satellite Seven Thousand Cadres Conference Socialist Education Movement Third Front Cultural Revolution UN representation Richard Nixon visit
1976–1989: Deng era Gang of Four Boluan Fanzheng 1978 Truth Criterion Controversy New Enlightenment Reforms and Opening Up Special economic zones China–United States relations Three Communiqués Four Modernizations Sino-Vietnamese War Beijing Spring Strike Hard Against Crime Campaign Sino-British Joint Declaration Campaign against spiritual pollution Bourgeois liberalization Opposition 863 Program 1986 Chinese student demonstrations Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
1989–2002: Jiang era Shanghai Stock Exchange Pudong New District Deng's southern tour 1992 consensus One country, two systems Handover of Hong Kong Handover of Macau 1998 floods US bombing of the Belgrade embassy Persecution of Falun Gong China Western Development Hainan Island incident APEC China 2001 Accession to the WTO Forum on China–Africa Cooperation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
2002–2012: Hu era 2002–2004 SARS outbreak Shenzhou 5 Visit of Lien Chan South–North Water Transfer Project Qinghai–Tibet railway 2008 Sichuan earthquake Three Links with Taiwan 2008 Summer Olympics Expo 2010 BRICS Three Gorges Dam West–East Gas Pipeline High-speed rail
2012–present: Xi era Anti-corruption campaign Belt and Road Initiative Chang'e 3 Supercomputing APEC China 2014 Meeting with Ma Ying-Jeou 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit Xiong'an 9th BRICS summit Persecution of Uyghurs Xinjiang internment camps China–United States trade war China International Import Expo Space program 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests 2020 Hong Kong national security law COVID-19 pandemic 2020–2021 reform spree 2022 Winter Olympics
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The Anti-Rightist Campaign (simplified Chinese: 反右运动; traditional Chinese: 反右運動; pinyin: Fǎnyòu Yùndòng) in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged "Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole.^[1][2][3] The campaign was launched by Chairman Mao Zedong, but Deng Xiaoping and Peng Zhen also played an important role.^[4][5] The Anti-Rightist Campaign significantly damaged democracy in China and turned the country into a de facto one-party state.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

The definition of rightists was not always consistent, often including critics to the left of the government, but officially referred to those intellectuals who appeared to favor capitalism, or were against one-party rule as well as forcible, state-run collectivization.^{[4][8][10][11]} According to China's official statistics published during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period, the campaign resulted in the political persecution of at least 550,000 people.^[6][11][12] Some researchers believe that the actual number of persecuted is between 1 and 2 million or even higher.^[2][11][13] Deng Xiaoping admitted that there were mistakes during the Anti-Rightist Campaign, and most victims have received rehabilitation since 1959.^[11][14][15]