Three-anti/five-anti campaigns
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The Three-anti Campaign (1951) and Five-anti Campaign (1952) (Chinese: 三反五反, Sān fǎn-Wǔ fǎn) were reform movements originally issued by Mao Zedong a few years after the founding of the People's Republic of China in an effort to rid Chinese cities of corruption and enemies of the state. The end result turned into a series of campaigns that consolidated Mao's power base by targeting political oppositions and capitalists, especially wealthy capitalists.[1]
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[edit] The Three-anti campaign
The Three-anti Campaign was launched in Manchuria at the end of 1951. It was aimed at members within the Communist Party of China, former Kuomintang members and bureaucratic officials who were not party members.[2]
The 3 antis imposed were:
- corruption （反对贪污）
- waste （反对浪费）
- bureaucracy （反对官僚主义）[3]
[edit] The Five-anti campaign
The Five-anti campaign was launched in January 1952. It was designed to target the capitalist class. The Communist party set a very vague guideline of who could be charged, as it became an all out war against the bourgeoisie in China.[2] Deng Xiaoping warned the people "not to be corrupted by capitalist thinking".[3]
The 5 antis imposed were:
- bribery （反对行贿）[2]
- theft of state property （反对盗骗国家财产）
- tax evasion （反对偷税漏税）
- cheating on government contracts （反对偷工减料）
- stealing state economic information （反对盗窃国家经济情报）.
Some 20,000 cadres and 6,000 trained workers began spying on the business affairs of fellow citizens. The media encouraged compliance with the government policies. Up to 15,000 trained propagandists were working in Shanghai by late 1951.[2] By February 1952 parades of anti-Capitalist activists went door-to-door to visit business leaders. It created immense psychological pressure. Shanghai wards were setup to receive criticism letters from any employees. As many as 18,000 letters came in the first week of February 1952, and 210,000 came in by the end of the first month. Cadres of party members would join in on the attack. Some big companies would voluntarily make 1,000 confessions a day to try to protect itself from the government.[2] A prime example was the Dahua copper company owner who originally over-confessed by claiming to have illegally obtained 50 million yuan. His employee continued to criticize the owner to greater crime until he reconfessed to having obtained a staggering 2 billion yuan.[2]
[edit] Aftermath
The victims of the antis campaigns were mostly terrified and humiliated, a few were killed, and others were sent to labor camps around China. Generally the Three-Antis Campaign came with harsher punishments. All found guilty of their confessed or unconfessed crimes were forced to pay fines to the government. There were hundreds of thousands of suicides that were a direct result of these campaigns.[4] So many people jumped to their deaths from skyscrapers in Shanghai that they acquired the nickname 'parachutes'.[5]
The Communist party revealed it was not going to protect private businesses anymore. Chinese capitalists would be threatened like foreign capitalists.[2] The Korean War that originally added opportunities in Northern China led to more capitalists. Many of them eventually borrowed money from the same government to pay off government fines, creating a complex financial pattern.[2] A series of anti campaigns were launched by the Chinese government for years to follow.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Dillon, Michael. [1998] (1998). China: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary. Routledge publishing. ISBN 0700704396
- ^ a b c d e f g h Spence, Jonathan D. [1991] (1991). The Search for Modern China. WW Norton & Company publishing. ISBN 0393307808
- ^ a b Lawrence, Alan. [2003] (2003). China since 1919: Revolution and Reform: a Sourcebook. Routledge. ISBN 0415251427
- ^ Short, Philip (2001). Mao: A Life. Owl Books. pp. 437. ISBN 0805066381. http://books.google.com/books?id=4y6mACbLWGsC&pg=PA437&dq=mao+while+the+worst+among+them+should+be+shot&ei=ipaVSYquJpLmyQTiieWsDw.
- ^ Chang, Jung and Halliday, Jon. Mao: The Unknown Story. Jonathan Cape, London, 2005. p. 342
- ^ Fisac, Taciana and Fernández-Stembridge, Leila. [2003] (2003). China Today: Economic Reforms, Social Cohesion and Collective Identities. Routledge publishing. ISBN 0415312671
