Gao joined the CCP in 1926 and during the 1930s had

Last updated: 10/11/2023

Gao joined the CCP in 1926 and during the 1930s had controlled a communist soviet in Shaanxi province where the Long March ended in 1935 In 1943 he was appointed to the Politburo of the CCP and later became Party chairman in Manchuria where he also controlled the army In 1952 he had been put in charge of the Central Planning Commission where he had supported Mao s ideas for a five year plan However he was purged in 1954 when he tried to undermine the positions of leading Communists such as Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi This was definitely aimed at communists as well as non communists a Party report issued in 1957 stated that the aim had been to purge 25 per cent of Party members and had just about achieved that target Significantly future mass campaigns also set targets for the number of offenders to be identified and punished Government leaders including Zhou had been encouraged to launch this new campaign by the success of the Resist America Aid Korea campaign By the end of December 1951 the Three Anti campaign took over from other political campaigns including an internal Party rectification campaign as an important way to curb corruption while trying to manage the developing urban economy In January 1952 Mao intervened to step up the pace of the campaign Meetings articles and cartoons in the press and displays in shop windows stressed the financial temptations that businesses used to corrupt Party and state officials Soon mass struggle meetings were held in workplaces individuals suspected of corruption were forced to confess in public and otherwise humiliated Though some struggle sessions also involved physical violence the main aim was to use a combination of peer pressure and humiliation to bring such people into line As the campaign unfolded it spread from workplaces associated with the financial and business sectors to institutions of education The Five Anti campaign 1952 While the Three Anti campaign was still taking place another campaign was launched in January 1952 against five other evils theft of state property fraud on state contracts bribery tax evasion and leaking state and economic secrets This campaign the Wufan campaign was essentially directed against the national bourgeoisie especially the