According to major reference summaries, the Hundred Flowers Campaign began in May 1956 as the state sought to relax controls on intellectual life and elicit criticism and advice, initially under Party supervision.
Mao Zedong used the slogan “let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend,” helping set the political and cultural frame for a controlled opening that would later become known as the Hundred Flowers Campaign.
The CCP’s 8th National Congress convened in Beijing, a major leadership and policy meeting that formed part of the broader context for subsequent “rectification” and intellectual-policy debates in 1956–1957.
Mao Zedong delivered a major speech on handling “contradictions among the people,” arguing for using democratic methods to resolve non-antagonistic disagreements and encouraging criticism within a socialist system.
In spring 1957, a “rectification” drive intensified on campuses and in institutions; contemporary scholarship notes directives and discussion in May–June 1957 as criticism became more open and consequential.
Mao drafted an internal document calling to “repulse” alleged rightist attacks, and People’s Daily ran a related editorial the same day—markers commonly cited as the start of the Anti-Rightist Campaign.
After revision, Mao’s February address was printed in People’s Daily, helping disseminate its arguments nationally during the volatile transition from invited criticism to political crackdown.
Major reference timelines place the end of the Hundred Flowers Campaign in July 1957, as public criticism was curtailed and the Anti-Rightist Campaign widened across institutions.
By late 1957, hundreds of thousands were officially labeled “rightists,” with many facing denunciation, demotion, or assignment to labor and “reform” regimes—turning the earlier invitation to criticize into a nationwide purge.
During the Anti-Rightist Campaign, large numbers of those labeled “rightists” were sent to re-education and labor sites. Jiabiangou in Gansu is documented as operating in this period (1957–1961) and becoming notorious for mass starvation deaths.
The second session of the CCP’s 8th National Congress met in Beijing in May 1958, during the continuing political aftermath of Anti-Rightist measures and on the eve of further radicalization in national policy.
While often discussed as a 1957–1958 turning point tied to Hundred Flowers, major summaries describe the Anti-Rightist Campaign as lasting into roughly 1959, with continuing political labeling and punishment beyond the initial 1957 wave.
Hundred Flowers Campaign and Anti-Rightist Movement (1956–1958)
