Cleansing the Class Ranks

{{Short description|Movement in China during the Cultural Revolution}}

Cleansing the Class Ranks (Chinese: 清理阶级队伍), or Cleansing of Class Ranks Campaigns, was a Maoist campaign during China's Cultural Revolution.{{Cite journal|last=Walder|first=Andrew G.|date=2014|title=Rebellion and Repression in China, 1966–1971|url=https://sociology.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj9501/f/publications/walder-ssh.pdf|journal=Social Science History|volume=38|issue=3–4|pages=513–539|via=Project MUSE|doi=10.1017/ssh.2015.23|s2cid=143087356|access-date=2020-02-16|archive-date=2020-09-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920215238/https://sociology.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj9501/f/publications/walder-ssh.pdf|url-status=dead}}{{Cite journal|last=Unger|first=Jonathan|date=January 2007|title=The Cultural Revolution at the Grass Roots|journal=The China Journal|volume=57|issue=57|pages=109–137|jstor=20066243|doi=10.1086/tcj.57.20066243|hdl=1885/21040|hdl-access=free}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/chronology-mass-killings-during-chinese-cultural-revolution-1966-1976.html|title=Chronology of Mass Killings during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) {{!}} Sciences Po Mass Violence and Resistance - Research Network|last=|first=|date=|website=chronology-mass-killings-during-chinese-cultural-revolution-1966-1976.html|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230223148/https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/chronology-mass-killings-during-chinese-cultural-revolution-1966-1976.html |archive-date=2019-12-30 |access-date=2020-02-16}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb-china-archive/chinas-great-terror|title=China's Great Terror|date=2006-09-21|website=ChinaFile|language=en|access-date=2020-02-16}} The primary purpose of the movement was to eliminate "class enemies who have sneaked into the revolutionary organization",{{cite book|last=Sullivan|first=Lawrence R.|title=Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Communist Party|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g0PjFe5i0iEC|year=2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7225-7|page=99}} namely "traitors, spies, capitalist roaders, counter-revolutionaries and members of the Five Black Categories".{{Cite web|url=http://www.people.com.cn/GB/historic/0525/6360.html|title=1968年5月25日 全国开展"清理阶级队伍"运动|author=|first=|date=|publisher=People's Daily|language=zh|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050404003559/http://www.people.com.cn/GB/historic/0525/6360.html|archive-date=2005-04-04|accessdate=2020-01-13|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://mjlsh.usc.cuhk.edu.hk/book.aspx?cid=2&tid=2835&pid=7390|title=（43）"大串联"中的人和事、（44）复课闹革命、（45）清理阶级队伍|author=|first=|date=|publisher=The Chinese University of Hong Kong|language=zh|format=|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200721053233/http://mjlsh.usc.cuhk.edu.hk/book.aspx?cid=2&tid=2835&pid=7390 |archive-date=2020-07-21 |accessdate=2020-01-13}}{{Cite web|url=http://news.ifeng.com/gundong/detail_2014_03/08/34566662_0.shtml|title=清理阶级队伍|author=|date=|publisher=凤凰网|language=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200113223927/http://news.ifeng.com/gundong/detail_2014_03/08/34566662_0.shtml|archive-date=2020-01-13|accessdate=2020-01-13|url-status=live}} The campaign particularly targeted purported supporters of Liu Shaoqi, who were referred to as "stubborn bourgeois power holders".

On May 13, 1968, Yao Wenyuan submitted a document ("《北京新华印刷厂军管会发动群众开展对敌斗争的经验》", The experience of the Military Management Committee of Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory in mobilizing the masses to carry out the struggle against the enemy) to Mao Zedong, in which Yao wrote "this document summarizes some of the policies in cleansing the class ranks". On May 19, Mao commented on the document, "Wenyuan: I suggest nationwide circulation and publication of this document; it is the best-written piece among all relevant files I have seen." As a result, the Cleansing the Class Ranks campaign was launched on May 25, 1968.

The campaign targeted many rebels from the earlier populist phase of the Cultural Revolution.{{Cite book |last=Xu |first=Youwei |title=Everyday Lives in China's Cold War Military Industrial Complex: Voices from the Shanghai Small Third Front, 1964-1988 |last2=Wang |first2=Y. Yvon |publisher=Palgrave MacMillan |year=2022 |isbn=9783030996871 |pages=239}} They were not ideologically homogeneous, as well as being staffed by many people who turned out to be incompetent or opportunistic, and so attracted the hostility of Jiang Qing and others in her radical faction who drove forward the Cleansing the Class Ranks campaign.

Systematic torture, trial by suspicion, conviction by forced confessions, massacres and other forms of mass killings all took place during the Cleansing. Around 30 million people are estimated to have been persecuted, with an estimated death toll of 0.5-1.5 million.{{cite book|author=杨继绳|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4d4qDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT459|title=天地翻覆: 中国文化大革命历史|date=2017-07-04|publisher=天地图书|id=GGKEY:L6GTAS7DJ5F|author-link = 杨继绳}}{{rp|459}}{{Cite web|url=http://archives.cnd.org/HXWK/author/DING-Shu/zk0412b-0.gb.html|title=文革中的"清理阶级队伍"运动——三千万人被斗，五十万人死亡|last=Ding|first=Shu|date=|publisher=华夏文摘|language=zh|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816021356/http://archives.cnd.org/HXWK/author/DING-Shu/zk0412b-0.gb.html|archive-date=2017-08-16|accessdate=2020-01-13}} After the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party as well as the Chinese government admitted that many of the cases in the Cleansing movement were "unjust, false, mistaken" cases.{{cite web|url=http://cpc.people.com.cn/BIG5/64162/64165/79703/82265/5704162.html|title=1968年5月25日 全國開展"清理階級隊伍"運動|website=中國共產黨新聞網|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316084734/http://cpc.people.com.cn/BIG5/64162/64165/79703/82265/5704162.html|archive-date=2018-03-16|access-date=2018-03-15|url-status=live}}