Section C: Evaluation of Sources
Source A Extract from a speech entitled “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among The People” by Mao Zedong on February 27th in 1957. It is an English translation of the speech, republished in the ‘Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung’ in 1966 approved by the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China.
Source A is an extract from Mao’s speech titled “On the Correct Handling of Contradiction among the People” delivered at the 11th Session of the Supreme State Conference held in Beijing on February 27, 1957. It is a translation of the speech, published in a book called “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung” in 1966. The purpose of Source A was to officially introduce the ‘Hundred Flowers Campaign’
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A US scholar, Lee Feigon in a revisionist argument contends, Mao was annoyed with “corruptions and bureaucracy” of the CCP government. Therefore he indeed wanted the intellectuals to “expose and attack corruptions and bureaucracy,” and expected “peasants, students and workers to speak out and prevent bureaucrats from running rough hold over their rights.” However the criticisms eventually directed to Mao and he had an immediate halt for the campaign. Whereas Jonathan Spence argues that the campaign was a result of contradictory thinking among the Communist Party leaders, specifically between Mao and Zhou Enlai. He argued that the campaign “was rather a muddled and inconclusive movement that grew out of conflicting attitudes…” within the party. There were political conflicts within the Communist party around the nature of the Five Year Plans, future economic plans and “argument about the pace and development” best for China. Spence argues that such conflicts in the party led to confusions and contradictions in the Party’s decisions and the ‘Hundred Flowers Campaign’ is one of