How Far Do I Agree That the Hundred Flowers Campaign Was a Trick.

Mao travelled the length and breadth of China during the 1950’s. The massive amount of support that he got where ever he went convinced him that he was in touch with the people. He took this opportunity to give some greater freedom of expression to his people and he encouraged constructive criticism of how he and his party were transforming china into a proletarian state. He also gave intellectuals a greater say in debate which was unusual as Mao hated them. It was quite possible that Mao was affected by the attack on Stalin by Khrushchev who publicly said that Stalin was evil and wrong; Mao did not want this backlash himself .perhaps the hundred flowers campaign closed the gap between his people and him, the people would not make a comparison of him and Stalin and it would make him seem that he really cared what the people thought. In early 1957 the party and Mao prepared themselves for criticism which let ordinary every day people be able to say where the CCP had gone wrong. After the initial thoughts of people being classed as anti party were dismissed people flocked in their hundreds to criticise the party top government officials and even as far as Mao himself on the grounds of corruption, inefficiency and not being realistic. After this Mao changes direction and stops the hundred flowers campaign and everything goes backwards it was not a time of expression but a time of great oppression and was replaced altogether with the anti-rightist movement. Those people who had spoken out the most about the regime were forced to retract there statement and many University staff, writers, school teachers and economists some of the finest minds in china were forced to retract there statements and were humiliated in front of their peers and were forced to enter re-education classes where they were broken down and re built with the information about the CCP. Even high ranking government officials were not safe as Zhou Enlai found out when he was forced