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The Socialist Education Movement (, abbreviated 社教运动 or 社教運動), also known as the Four Cleanups Movement () was a movement launched by
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 1963 in the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Mao sought to remove reactionary elements within the bureaucracy of 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 ...
(CCP), saying that "governance is also a process of socialist education."
Chinese researchers have pointed out the movement resulted in at least 77,560 deaths, with 5,327,350 people being persecuted. In the movement, the relationship between
CCP Chairman 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) ...
and
Chinese President 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 ...
, Chairman Mao's potential successor, deteriorated. Socialist Education Movement is regarded as the precursor of the
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 ...
, during which President Liu was persecuted to death as a "traitor" and "
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 ...
".
Goals
The goal of the movement was to cleanse politics, economy, organization, and ideology (the four cleanups). It was to last until 1966. What this movement entailed was that intellectuals were sent to the countryside to be re-educated by peasants (see
Down to the Countryside Movement
The Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement, often known simply as the Down to the Countryside Movement, was a policy instituted in the People's Republic of China between mid 1950s and 1978. As a result of what he perceived to ...
). They still attended school, but also worked in factories and with peasants.
Aftermath
The campaign is described by Donald Klein in the
Encyclopedia Americana
''Encyclopedia Americana'' is a general encyclopedia written in American English. It was the first major multivolume encyclopedia that was published in the United States. With ''Collier's Encyclopedia'' and ''Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclo ...
2007 (Grolier Online), as a "nearly complete failure." Mao's dissatisfaction over this program's inefficacy set the stage for the
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 ...
(1966-1976).
When the Cultural Revolution began, rural regions had not yet completed the Socialist Education Movement, and the committees in charge of it converted into Cultural Revolution leading groups.
See also
*
Thought reform in the People's Republic of China
Thought reform in China (), also known as ideological remolding or ideological reform, was a campaign of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to reform the thinking of Chinese citizens into accepting Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought (Maois ...
, 1951-1952
*
List of campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party This is a list of political campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the founding of the party in 1921 after the First World War.
See also
* History of the People's Republic of China
* Timeline of Chinese history
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This ...
*
List of massacres in China
The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in China. The massacres are grouped for different time periods.
Imperial China (before 1912)
Republic of China (since 1912)
1912–1937
1937–1945 (Sino-Japanese War)
1945 ...
*
Seven Thousand Cadres Conference The Seven Thousand Cadres Conference ( zh, s=七千人大会, t=七千人大會), or 7000 Cadres Conference, was one of the largest work conferences ever of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which took place in Beijing, China from 11 January - 7 Feb ...
*
Taoyuan Experience
Taoyuan Experience (), or Peach Garden Experience, refers to the summary of the Four Cleanups Movement led by Wang Guangmei from November 1963 to April 1964 in the Taoyuan Production Brigade of Luwangzhuang Commune, Funing County, Hebei Province. ...
References
The Socialist Education Movement People's Daily
The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...
website, in
Simplified Chinese
Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to:
Mathematics
Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one, that is simpler (usually shorter), for example
* Simplification of algebraic expressions, ...
{{Cultural Revolution
Political repression in China
Campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party
Maoist terminology
Cold War history of China
Maoist China
Persecution of intellectuals
Liu Shaoqi