“Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land.” That was the slogan for the Hundred Flowers Campaign launched in the People’s Republic of China by Chairman Mao from 1956 to 1957. Initially launched as a small campaign led by Premier Zhou Enlai, it was aimed at intellectuals who had been previously denied of the right to speak up against the government and its policies, to allow for more balanced governance. However, the first campaign failed as very few intellectuals dared to speak out openly.
Taking interest and seeing the usefulness of it, Chairman Mao took over the campaign in 1956. He also saw it as a chance to promote socialism. When the campaign was publicly launched in late 1956, the government received little criticism. The intellectuals were afraid of the consequences that would arise if they were to voice up against the government. The government had demonstrated their power to change policies in the blink of an eye many times before. When Premier Zhou Enlai and Chairman Mao realized that the campaign was not getting as much response as they had intended, Mao announced that criticism of the government was preferred and started to pressurize the intellectuals for healthy criticism of the government. The intellectuals immediately responded and within months, criticism of the government came pouring in from various channels, in the form of letters, rallies, posters and many more. Chairman Mao saw the criticisms that were voiced as harmful and uncontrollable, and by July 1957, the campaign was ordered to a halt and the Anti-Rightist Movement was implemented instead.
Then arises the question, was the intent of the Hundred Flowers Campaign purely to allow the people to voice their opinions in order to have more balanced governance? Or was it an entrapment from the very beginning?
For over a decade, Chairman Mao and the CCP have been known for their socialist stand. They were not tolerant of intellectuals and have been suppressing them ever since they came into power. Believing in equality for all, they relied more on the support of the peasants and were more in favour of them. Only a few months before the campaign was implemented, Mao had condemned them as counter-revolutionaries. So why the sudden warmth towards the intellectuals, allowing them to speak up for once? The implementation of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, and the fact that it was closely followed by the Anti-Rightist Movement, aroused suspicions about the original intent of the Campaign.
There have also been viewpoints which speculate otherwise. Some say that he was too overconfident that after his many reforms, the intellectuals had come to realize the advantages of a socialist country, and when criticisms of the government became too much to handle, he had to stop the campaign at once. Mao despised the intellectuals, but at the same time they were valuable to China’s development and Mao was not ignorant of that. He would not have wanted to completely eradicate the intellectuals, not when they played an important role in shaping public opinion. Besides that, Mao had seen the fall of Stalin in Russia and realized that China would not stand such dictatorship and totalitarian regime. The Hundred Flowers Campaign was said to be a step to introduce some freedom of speech into China and to prevent the fall of Mao as Stalin had fallen.
Nevertheless, the abrupt halt of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, followed by the implementation of the Anti-Rightist Movement, where many of the intellectuals were persecuted, tortured and executed, discouraged the intellectuals from criticizing Mao and the CCP. Without contributions from the intellectuals, who might have had valuable opinions in the development of China, the development of China might have been slowed down. The failure of the Hundred Flowers Campaign also made the CCP realize the level of resentment the people had against the government. As a result, the government turned back to peasantry support and this remained so until the last decade or so. The failure of the campaign also saw the implementation of many CCP policies which might have played a part in hindering the development of China.
One of the many Hundred Flowers Campaign Posters
Author: Nur Hafizah
Credits:
Article on the Hundred Flowers Campaign by John M. Jackson
Wiki Page on The Hundred Flowers Campaign
General Information on The Hundred Flowers Campaign
Hundred Flowers Campaign Cartoon
Hundred Flowers Campaign Poster
