Chapter 125 On 10th National Day, 'Rightists' get clemency alongside war criminals

October 1, 1959 was a day of great celebration.At this time, an oil field in northeast China was discovered, so it was named "Daqing" oil field. In Beijing, in order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the newly built "Ten Buildings" have been completed one after another.The brand-new Great Hall of the People and the magnificent Museum of Revolutionary History have brought a new look to Tiananmen Square. When such a day of great celebration is approaching, there has always been the custom of amnesty.For this reason, Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, sent a letter to Liu Shaoqi, Chairman of the People's Republic of China from Hangzhou on August 24, 1958, proposing "amnesty" for criminals, and at the same time giving leniency to "rightists"—— Batch uncaps.

The full text of Mao Zedong's letter to Liu Shaoqi is as follows: Afterwards, on September 14, Mao Zedong sent a letter to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, suggesting amnesty for a group of war criminals, counter-revolutionary criminals, and ordinary criminals who had indeed changed their ways. Mao Zedong pointed out: "The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposes to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress: When celebrating the tenth anniversary of the founding of the great People's Republic of China, amnesty a group of war criminals, counter-revolutionary criminals and ordinary criminals who have indeed changed from evil to good."

On September 17, the Standing Committee of the Second National People's Congress held its ninth meeting, discussing and adopting the proposal of Chairman Mao Zedong of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.On the same day, Liu Shaoqi, President of the People's Republic of China, issued an amnesty decree. After strict examination by the Central People's Government's war criminals management agency, and with the approval of the Supreme People's Court, on December 4, 33 war criminals from the Chiang Kai-shek clique and the Puppet Manchukuo were released with an amnesty, including the Xuzhou "Suppression General" Lieutenant General Du Yuming, Deputy Commander, Puyi, Emperor of the Puppet Manchukuo, etc.A total of 12,008 counter-revolutionary criminals and criminals were pardoned by provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions.

It was at this time that the "rightists" were also "lenient". On September 16, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Decision on Handling Issues Concerning the Handling of Rightists Who Have Really Improved Their Performance." The "Decision" pointed out: All rightists who have changed from evil to good, and have shown that they have indeed improved in speech and actions, will no longer be treated as bourgeois rightists in the future, that is, they will be stripped of their rightist hats. The next day, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Central Committee's Instructions on Removing the Hats of Rightists Who Really Repented."

This "Instruction" made the following analysis of the general situation of "rightists": In 1957, the Party led the people across the country to smash the rampant attacks of bourgeois rightists and won great victories for the socialist revolution on the political and ideological fronts. During this struggle, about 40 rightists were exposed nationwide. For this group of rightists, the party adopted the correct policy of combining seriousness with leniency and treating them differently, and carried out a series of education and reform work on them; at the same time, due to the great victory of the general line of socialist construction in our country influence, which prompted the majority of rightists to change and divide to varying degrees.According to the preliminary statistics of several units, the current behavior of rightists can be roughly divided into the following three categories:

1. Those who have bowed their heads and confessed their sins, truly repented, performed better in work, study and labor, and are willing to get closer to the party and the people, account for about 20% to 30% of the total number of rightists, and some of them The person has shown significant repentance; 2. Those who express their willingness to repent, but are not completely submissive in their hearts, and behave intermittently, account for about 50% to 60% of the total number of rightists; 3. Those who are basically or completely dissatisfied, and who behave badly, account for about 20% of the total number of rightists. Among them, a small number of people insist on a reactionary stand, resist reform and even continue to have reactionary words and deeds.The above situation shows that as long as we adhere to the correct policy and continue to strengthen the work of remolding them, after a considerable period of time, we can gradually remould the vast majority of rightists.

The "Instructions" made specific regulations on the proportion of "rightists" who took off their hats, that is, 10 percent: Based on the suggestion of Comrade Mao Zedong, the Party Central Committee decided to remove the label of a group of rightists who had indeed reformed when celebrating the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.The Central Committee believes that doing so will have a great effect on educating rightists, bourgeois intellectuals, and members of democratic parties. They will feel that as long as they truly accept remolding, they will indeed have a future: , Motivation is also very beneficial.It is advisable to control the number of rightists who have taken off their hats to about 10% of the country's rightists.From now on, according to the performance of rightists, those who have really improved will be removed in batches and by stages.In the end, the few remaining unrepentant, granite-headed reactionaries will be completely isolated.As for taking off the hat, if someone has a relapse and engages in rightist activities again or three times, you can put the rightist hat on him again.

The "about 450,000 rightists exposed nationwide" mentioned here is a reduced number. The "Instructions" stipulated three conditions for "rightists" to take off their hats, and believed that only those who met these three conditions could take off their hats: It is serious political work to remove the rightist hat.Those who take off their hats must meet the following three conditions: 1. To truly recognize mistakes, be convinced, and truly repent; 2. Actively support the party's leadership and the socialist road in speech and action, and support the general line, the Great Leap Forward, and the people's communes;

3. Perform well in work and labor, or make certain contributions in work and labor.All localities and departments should carefully line up rightists based on these conditions and the actual situation, formulate specific plans and steps for removing their hats, conduct serious analysis and research on those who have been removed from their rightist hats, and make realistic appraisals.But don't mechanically make up the proportion number, the proportion can be slightly larger or slightly smaller than 10%. The "Instructions" stipulated that "rightists" in the party should take off their hats:

Rightists who were originally party members are not allowed to resume their party membership after they take off their hats; only those who really meet the conditions for joining the party after a longer period of investigation can accept them to re-join the party. Incidentally, with regard to the issue of re-joining the party of "rightists" who have taken off their hats, on December 21, 1962, the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China submitted a "On Dealing with the Issue of Re-joining the Rightists Who Was Originally Party Members After Removing Their Hats" Request to the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China", the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China agreed after reviewing it.This document stipulates that the principles for "rightists" to rejoin the party after taking off their hats are:

When these people rejoin the party, they must go through a long-term, comprehensive, and systematic inspection. It has been completely corrected; it can stand on the party's stand on some major political issues, obey the party's leadership, and resolutely implement the party's policies.Only when all parties have met the conditions of party members can they re-join the party.When re-joining the party, there is no need for a preparatory period. In order to publicize the achievements of the "rightists" who "accepted reform" and "reformed", newspapers such as "People's Daily" successively published news about the removal of hats by leading "rightists", including Zeng Zhaolun, Shen Zhiyuan, Lei Tianjue, Huang Wanli, etc. . The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's "Instructions on Removing the Hats of Rightists Who Really Repented" stipulated that the number of haters should be controlled at "about one-tenth". In this way, the first batch of "rightists" who took off their hats was 45,000 .This number can be seen from the "Regulations on the Work Distribution and Living Treatment of Personnel Who Remove Rightist Hats" issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on November 2, 1959: "Currently, all localities are implementing the 'Central Instructions on Removing the Labels of Rightists Who Have Really Repented'. In the recent period, about 45,000 rightists across the country have taken off their rightist labels. Regarding the work distribution of these people Issues such as education, living conditions, and admission to school should be dealt with seriously and responsibly.” This document sets various restrictions on arranging the work of uncapped rightists: The job positions assigned now are generally lower than the positions they held before they were punished, and they should not be allowed to work in confidential departments or key departments. All those who have taken off their rightist hats will not be promoted without going through a fairly long period of testing. All rightists who have been expelled from school and put into reeducation through labor will not have their student status restored after they are removed from the rightist hat, and they can be helped to find jobs. Rightists who originally studied confidential majors such as national defense, foreign affairs, and cutting-edge technology will no longer study their original majors after taking off their rightist hats. They can transfer to other majors and other schools, or be assigned appropriate jobs.