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In 1957, a nationwide political campaign was initiated in China. Initially, this campaign involved Mao Zedong trying to mobilize non-Party people to help the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rectify certain shortcomings. However, the campaign soon became a political purge in which outspoken individuals were hunted out and labelled Rightists before being subjected to various forms of political persecution. Eventually over half a million Chinese people suffered. These persecuted people retained the stigma right up until the 1980s. The pivotal role of Chairman Mao Zedong in this witch-hunt-like political campaign is widely known. What is less understood is how Mao managed to see his destructive policies so faithfully and fervently implemented. In other words, to what individuals and institutions did Mao turn to realize his ambitions?
The simple answer is that Mao turned to Deng Xiaoping and the Central Secretariat (Zhongyang shujichu ), an institution whose establishment Mao had proposed in the 1956 Eighth Party Congress. However, the behaviour of Deng and his Central Secretariat colleagues in the infamous political campaign of 1957 has received little research attention.1 Based on newly available materials and recent interviews, this study attempts to remedy this. The investigation also represents a case study on how the Central Secretariat operated and functioned in CCP decision-making and policy-implementation prior to the Cultural Revolution.
The Central Secretariat's Power and Operations
Functions and power
The Central Secretariat was established in the mid-1930s. The influence of this political body peaked in 1945 when its chairman was concurrently elected chairman of the Central Committee and the Politburo, responsible for both decision-making and the daily affairs of the Party Centre. In 1956, a six-man Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) replaced the original Central Secretariat as the supreme policy-making organ, and simultaneously a new Central Secretariat was established.
Regarding the functions and power of the newly created Central Secretariat, in 1956 its head Deng Xiaoping stated: "It is responsible for dealing with the day-to-day affairs of the Party Centre under the leadership of the Politburo and the PSC.â[euro]2 However, its real power was much greater than that of its predecessor, the Secretary General meeting (Zhongyang mishuzhang huiyi ), set up in 1954 with Deng Xiaoping as its head, using the...