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 Proclamation Korean War Land Reform Movement Zhen Fan Three-anti and Five-anti Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence Bandung Conference Sufan Hundred Flowers Anti-Rightist Canton Fair Two Bombs, One Satellite Great Leap Forward (Great Chinese Famine) Seven Thousand Cadres Conference Socialist Education Movement Third Front Cultural Revolution Restoring legitimate seat in the UN 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China
1976–1989
Transition and Deng era Arrest of the Gang of Four Boluan Fanzheng 1978 Truth Criterion Controversy Message to Compatriots in Taiwan [zh] Reforms and Opening-up Four Special Economic Zones Establishment of China-US Relations (Three Communiques) Four Modernizations Sino-Vietnamese War Beijing Spring Strike Hard Anti-crime Campaign Sino-British Joint Declaration Campaign against spiritual pollution Bourgeois liberalization Anti-bourgeois liberalization 863 Program 1986 Chinese student demonstrations Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration Revolutions of 1989 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
1989–2002
Jiang and the third generation Shanghai Stock Exchange Pudong New District Deng Xiaoping's southern tour 1992 consensus One country, two systems Hong Kong Macau 1998 China floods Embassy in Belgrade Bombed Persecution of Falun Gong China Western Development Hainan Island incident Bidding Beijing 2008 APEC China 2001 Joining WTO Forum on China–Africa Cooperation Shanghai Cooperation Organization
2002–2012
Hu and the fourth generation 2002–2004 SARS outbreak Shenzhou 5 South–North Water Transfer Project Qinghai-Tibet Railway Sichuan earthquake Beijing Olympics Shanghai 2010 Expo BRICS Three Gorges Dam West–East Gas Pipeline Chinese High-speed Railway Liaoning Aircraft Carrier
2012–present
Xi and the fifth generation Anti-corruption campaign Belt and Road Initiative Chang'e 3 China Supercomputing APEC China 2014 Celebration of 70th anniversary of victory of Anti-Japanese War [zh] 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit Xiong'an New Area BRICS summit Xiamen 2017 Xinjiang internment camps Persecution of Uyghurs in China China–United States trade war SCO Summit 2018 Qingdao [zh] China-Africa Cooperation Forum Summit Beijing 2018 [zh] China International Import Expo Chinese Space Station 2019–20 Hong Kong protests COVID-19 pandemic Hong Kong national security law 2020–2021 reform spree Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games
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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]