May Seventh Cadre School

May Seventh Cadre Schools (simplified Chinese: 五七干校; traditional Chinese: 五七幹校) were a system of rural communes throughout mainland China established during the Cultural Revolution. The aim was to train Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Cadres to have a thorough understanding of the rural proletarian work ethic— for government cadres to work towards a communal good while purging their more bourgeois elements. This was achieved through two means: through manual agricultural labour and close study of Marxist and Maoist texts.

From 1968 to 1976, millions of people— government cadres, doctors, artists, writers, scientists, teachers, and academics— were sent to these rural communes throughout the country. While most individuals were socially and politically pressured to attend, there were also those who volunteered, and others who applied but were rejected. The aim was to integrate with and learn from poor and lower-middle class peasants.

Unlike the Laogai or Laojiao labour camps, the May Seventh Cadre Schools were not intended as a system of penal servitude. Rather, it was a means of ideological reformation for cadres and intellectuals, some of whom fell under the categories of "capitalist roaders," "reactionary academic authorities," or "rightists".

By 1975, there were approximately 3,000 operational cadre schools in China, at least one in nearly every province.