Cleansing the Class Ranks (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

: 清理阶级队伍), or Cleansing of Class Ranks Campaigns, was a political mass movement during the

Chinese Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. The primary purpose of the Cleansing movement was to eliminate "class enemies who have sneaked into the revolutionary organization", namely "traitors, spies,

capitalist roader In anti-capitalist Mao Zedong thought, a capitalist roader (; also ) is a person or group who demonstrates a marked tendency to bow to pressure from bourgeois forces and subsequently attempts to pull the Revolution in a capitalist direction. If a ...

counter-revolutionaries A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revoluti ...

and members of the

Five Black Categories The "Five Black Categories" () referred to the following five political identities. These groups were: * Landlords () * Rich farmers () * Counter-revolutionaries () * Bad influencers bad elements"() * Right-wingers () During the period of the ...

". The campaign particularly targeted purported supporters of

Liu Shaoqi Liu Shaoqi ( ; 24 November 189812 November 1969) was a Chinese revolutionary, politician, and theorist. He was Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee from 1954 to 1959, First Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1956 to 1966 and C ...

, who were referred to as "stubborn bourgeois power holders". On May 13, 1968,

Yao Wenyuan Yao Wenyuan (January 12, 1931 – December 23, 2005) was a Chinese literary critic, a politician, and a member of the Gang of Four during China's Cultural Revolution. Biography Yao Wenyuan was born in Zhuji, Zhejiang, to an intellectual fa ...

submitted a document ("《北京新华印刷厂军管会发动群众开展对敌斗争的经验》", ''The experience of the Military Management Committee of Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory in mobilizing the masses to carry out the struggle against the enemy'') to

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

, in which Yao wrote "this document summarizes some of the policies in cleansing the class ranks". On May 19, Mao commented on the document, "Wenyuan: I suggest nationwide circulation and publication of this document; it is the best-written piece among all relevant files I have seen." As a result, the Cleansing the Class Ranks campaign was launched on May 25, 1968. Many of those targeted by the campaign were members of the revolutionary committees and other popular organizations that had emerged during the Cultural Revolution. They were not ideologically homogeneous, as well as being staffed by many people who turned out to be incompetent or opportunistic, and so attracted the hostility of

Jiang Qing Jiang Qing (19 March 191414 May 1991), also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman o ...

and others in her radical faction who drove forward the Cleansing the Class Ranks campaign. Systematic torture, trial by suspicion, conviction by forced confessions, massacres and other forms of mass killings all took place during the Cleansing. Around 30 million people are estimated to have been persecuted, with an estimated death toll of 0.5-1.5 million. After the Cultural Revolution, the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

as well as the Chinese government admitted that many of the cases in the Cleansing movement were "unjust, false, mistaken" cases.

References

{{Cultural Revolution Cultural Revolution 1968 in China Campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party

See also

References