This paper discusses the ‘Three Anti Campaign’ (against ‘corruption, waste, and the bureaucratic spirit’) implemented by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the early period of the Chinese People’s Republic, and seeks to analyze the following two aspects of the campaign: (a) the political techniques used by the CCP to mobilize Shanghai workers and establish firmer political control over the factories; and (b) the campaign’s process and social influence, especially in the industrial sector of Shanghai.
The ‘Three Anti Campaign’ was launched early in 1952. Directed against corruption, waste and the bureaucratic spirit of government officials, its main weight fell on the managers, administrators and technicians left over from the old regime (some of whom had served under the Kuomintang). In this campaign, a person who had embezzled more than 1,000 yuan was categorized as a
laohu (tiger), and a person who had embezzled more than 10,000 yuan was called a
dalaohu (big tiger). The primary target groups of this ‘tiger-hunting’ were the non-Communist workers and administrators of factories. In May 1952, 80.4% of
laohu were ordinary residents who were not Communist party members, and 11.3% of
laohu were technicians, including factory managers and administrators.
The political techniques the CCP used to eliminate non-Communist local leaders can be categorized as follows:
1. The allocation of
laohu arrest rates to each party branch. The CCP assigned each party branch an arrest rate for
laohu, and the factory party committee had to radicalize its political investigations to meet its quota.
2. The combination of political investigation and mass mobilization. The factory party committee mobilized workers and held ‘struggle sessions’ to put pressure on ‘suspects’ to confess their crimes.
3.The utilization of blood relations. The CCP mobilized the family members of ‘suspects’ to persuade the ‘suspect’ to admit to crimes, and some committees proclaimed that if the family members of a ‘suspect’ confessed his/her family member’s crime, a mitigated sentence would be given.
As a result of this campaign, ‘political norms’ were brought into effect in factories, and workers began to be conscious of their own political acts. Political evaluation by the CCP began to be important in the industrial workplace in the 1950s. This campaign also had a great influence on the home environment. When the Communist ideology was applied to society, this ideology turned into moral obligations (‘living and dressing plainly’, ‘serving the people’, and so on). This moralization of socialism affected the social and political behavior of people living in Mao’s China.
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