Attack of political opponents of Mao Zedong, the state bureaucracy, elimination of political enemies and consolidation of power
The Three-anti Campaign (1951) and Five-anti Campaign (1952) (Chinese: 三反五反; pinyin: 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 result turned into a series of campaigns that consolidated Mao's power base by targeting political opponents and capitalists, especially wealthy capitalists.[1]
The Three-anti Campaign was launched in Northeast China at the end of 1951. It was aimed at members within the Chinese Communist Party, former Kuomintang members and bureaucratic officials who were not party members.[2]
The Five-Antis Campaign occurred in the midst of the Korean War and was a key campaign in the Communist Party's effort to eliminate private property.[4]: 163 It both extracted funds from the private sector to support China's involvement in the war and further restrained the power of Chinese capitalists.[4]: 163
oppositional towards theft of state property (反盗骗国家财产)
oppositional towards tax evasion (反偷税漏税)
oppositional towards cheating on government contracts (反偷工减料)
oppositional towards stealing state economic intelligence (反盗窃国家经济情报).
An estimated 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 set up 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 themselves 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 employees continued to criticize the owner for greater crime until he reconfessed to having obtained 2 billion yuan.[2]
Aftermath
Many private business owners were fined during the Five-Antis campaign or prosecuted on charges such as tax evasion, bribery, misappropriation of public property, stealing state economic information, or cheating on labor materials.[4]: 163 As the Communist Party later acknowledged, the amount of illegal income attributed to those punished was often overestimated, and some of those punished were forced to confess, suffered physical violence, or were executed.[4]: 163–164
According to Mao, "We must probably execute 10,000 to several tens of thousands of embezzlers nationwide before we can solve the problem."[5] There were hundreds of thousands of suicides (though it is debatable whether many of these were voluntary) that were a direct result of these campaigns.[6] The campaigns negatively impacted the economy of big cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, forcing many businessmen to commit suicide.[7][8][9][10] In Shanghai alone, from January 25 to April 1, 1952, at least 876 people committed suicide.[8][9][10]
Through these campaigns, the Communist Party demonstrated that it would no longer protect private business, and that Chinese capitalists would receive treatment no better than foreign.[2] The Korean War initially provided opportunities in Northern China, giving rise to a new class of capitalists, many of whom would be prosecuted under the Marxist policies of the Communist Party. Many of these people eventually borrowed money from the government to pay off government fines, creating a complex financial pattern.[2] A series of anti campaigns were launched by the Chinese government in the following years.[11]
^Lawrence, Alan. [2003] (2003). China since 1919: Revolution and Reform: a Sourcebook. Routledge. ISBN0-415-25142-7
^ abcdDong, Madeline Yue (2022). "Nationalizing Food Provision in Beijing". In Altehenger, Jennifer; Ho, Denise Y. (eds.). Material Contradictions in Mao's China. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN978-0-295-75085-9.
^Chen, Theodore Hsi-En; Chen, Wen-Hui C. (March 1953). "The 'Three-Anti' and 'Five-Anti' Movements in Communist China". Pacific Affairs. 26 (1): 3–23. doi:10.2307/2752900. JSTOR2752900.
^Fisac, Taciana and Fernández-Stembridge, Leila. [2003] (2003). China Today: Economic Reforms, Social Cohesion and Collective Identities. Routledge publishing. ISBN0-415-31267-1
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