Central Committee of the Communist Party of China | Notice on the "Criteria for Classifying Rightists"

Notice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the "Criteria for Dividing Rightists"

(October 15, 1957)

Shanghai Bureau, provincial, municipal and autonomous region party committees, central ministries and commissions, party committees, party committees of state organs, and general political departments (this can be sent to county party committees and party organizations equivalent to county levels):

Since the beginning of the anti-rightist struggle, many localities and departments have drawn up some criteria for classifying rightist elements and asked the central authorities to review and approve them. Taking into account the actual needs of the struggle, the central authorities believe that it is necessary to formulate a unified standard, so as to avoid any misweight in the division of rightist elements by all units. I will now send to you the "Criteria for Dividing Rightist Elements," which has been discussed and adopted by the Central Committee, and I ask you to immediately reach all units engaged in the struggle against rightists and study them carefully, and use this as a criterion when dividing rightist elements. Also note that:

(1) The national struggle against rightists is generally carried out healthily, and the rightists classified are generally appropriate, but there are cases where there are too many and less ones. However, in the advanced stage of the movement, after effectively correcting the right-leaning sentiment of warmthism, some units have relaxed the criteria for rightists, so that at most some of the rightist situations need more attention. No matter whether there are more or fewer divisions, they should be corrected in a timely and truth-seeking manner in accordance with correct standards. However, in units that are too much divided on the right and need to be corrected, they must pay attention to protecting the enthusiasm and sense of justice of the masses and activists, so as not to give people the erroneous impression that the struggle against the rightists has gone too far. Some center-right elements have spoken and done something unfavorable to socialism, but they are not rightist enough, and if they are fighting as rightists, do not declare in public that their criticism is wrong, because existing wrong words and deeds should be criticized. However, they should be reclassified internally as center-rightists, treated as center-rightists, and pay attention to more education and struggle, and at the appropriate time, they can declare that they have repented because of minor circumstances and take off their rightist hats.

(2) In order to correctly divide right-wing elements and achieve the goal of neither too many nor too few, in addition to appropriate standards, it is also necessary to have appropriate examination and approval procedures. Any list of rightists identified by each unit as a rightist must be reported to the leading organ of the Party at the county level or above for examination and approval. The list of high-ranking intellectuals, rightists among important democrats, and other rightists with special circumstances must be reported to the leading organs of the Party at the provincial level or above for examination and approval.

(3) In addition to conscientiously examining the list of rightist elements reported by their units, higher-level leading organs must also educate party members and the masses to attach great importance to careful study and specific analysis of the actual situation, and vigorously guard against exaggeration and one-sidedness. At the same time, it is also necessary to regularly take the initiative to carefully check and access the detailed materials of rightist elements in the units to which they belong, promptly correct the errors of being broad and strict, and cite specific figures and materials as examples of the boundaries between extreme rightists, general rightists, and center-right elements, so as to effectively help subordinates grasp the criteria for correct division.

Cpc central committee

October 15, 1957

Criteria for dividing rightists

(i)

Any person whose speech or deeds fall into the following qualities shall be classified as right-wing:

(1) Oppose the socialist system. Oppose the socialist revolution in the cities and villages, and oppose the basic social and economic policies of the Communist Party and the people's government (such as industrialization, unified purchase and marketing, etc.); negation of the achievements of the socialist revolution and socialist construction; Adhere to the capitalist position, advocate the capitalist system and bourgeois exploitation.

(2) Oppose the dictatorship of the proletariat and democratic centralism. attacking the struggle against imperialism and the foreign policy of the people's government; attacks on the struggle to purge counter-revolutionaries; negating the achievements of the "Big Five"; opposing the transformation of bourgeois elements and bourgeois intellectuals; attacking the personnel system and cadre policies of the Communist Party and the people's government; It demands the replacement of socialist political-legal and cultural education with bourgeois political-legal and cultural education.

(3) Oppose the leading position of the Communist Party in the political life of the country. opposing the leadership of the Communist Party over economic and cultural undertakings; With the aim of opposing socialism and the Communist Party, maliciously attacking the leading organs and leading personnel of the Communist Party and the people's government, slandering workers' and peasants' cadres and revolutionary activists, and slandering the revolutionary activities and organizational principles of the Communist Party.

(4) To split the unity of the people for the purpose of opposing socialism and opposing the Communist Party. inciting the masses against the Communist Party and the people's government; inciting divisions among workers and peasants; inciting divisions among ethnic groups; Slander the socialist camp and incite divisions among the peoples of the socialist camp.

(5) Organizing and actively participating in small groups opposed to socialism and the Communist Party; conspiring to overthrow the leadership of the Communist Party in a department or grassroots unit; Inciting riots against the Communist Party and the people's government.

(6) Giving ideas to rightists who have committed the above-mentioned crimes, soliciting contacts, communicating information, and reporting to them the secrets of revolutionary organizations.

(ii)

A person shall be classified as a far-right element if:

(1) Careerists, leaders, masterminds and backbone elements in rightist activities.

(2) Elements who put forward programmatic opinions against the Party and socialism and actively advocate such views.

(3) Elements who carry out particularly bad and resolute anti-party and anti-socialist activities.

(4) Elements who have always been anti-communist and anti-people in history and who actively carried out reactionary activities in this rightist offensive.

(iii)

A mistake should be corrected by criticism in any of the following circumstances, but should not be classified as a rightist:

(1) They do not oppose socialism and the leadership of the Party from a fundamental standpoint, but only express dissatisfaction with the partial work system, partial policies that do not belong to fundamental principles, problems in work, academic problems, individual organizations of the Communist Party, individual functionaries, and those who criticize, even if their opinions are wrong and their wording is sharp, should not be classified as rightists; Similarly, those who are not opposed to socialism and the Party's leadership in their fundamental position, but who are only ideologically wrong, should not be classified as rightists.

(2) People who have ideas similar to the right, but have not published or disseminated them, and who have already thought that they were wrong, have automatically reviewed, or have accidentally said things similar to the right, and have now admitted their mistakes, and who have historically not been anti-party and anti-socialist, should not be classified as rightists.

(3) Those who make erroneous statements about the socialist economic and political system or the leadership of the Communist Party, but do not actively publicize them, and it turns out that they are not motivated by hostility, and who have been corrected and expressed their willingness to change, should not be classified as rightists.

(4) Those who once blindly echoed the rightist's anti-party and anti-Duhui words and deeds, or were once hoodwinked into joining the rightist clique, or were once used by the rightist, and after understanding the rightist's mistakes, quickly stood on the right position, and broke with the rightist, should not be classified as rightists.

(5) Those who have taken a reactionary position in history and have not changed significantly now, but those who did not carry out reactionary activities during the period of rightist attacks should not be classified as rightists.

(6) Any suspected element between rightist and center-right elements shall not be classified as rightist until sufficient material has been found to identify them as rightists, and they shall not be treated in the same way as rightists.