Chapter 141 "Rightists" all uncapped

On April 4, 1978, the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Ministry of Public Security sent the "Report for Instructions on Removing All Rightist Hats" to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. According to the report, during the anti-rightist struggle in 1957, there were 450,000 people classified as rightists throughout the country. According to the report, from 1959 to 1964, more than 300,000 "rightists" were removed in five batches.Since then, due to the "Cultural Revolution", the work of removing hats has been suspended.According to statistics at this time, there are still more than 100,000 uncapped rightists in the country!

According to the report, the conditions are ripe for all rightists to be removed. On April 5, 1978, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China approved the report of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Ministry of Public Security, and issued it to the entire party.This was the "Document No. 55" that aroused cheers at the time. Li Weihan, former head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, recalled: "After seeing the document, I feel that the problem cannot be solved. So I wrote to Comrade Hu Yaobang, advocating that those who are classified as rightists should be reviewed and rehabilitated, and mentioned the opinions of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee in 1962. The Central Committee adopted me. suggestions."①

Li Weihan's opinion does raise an important question: "Decapitation" is a concept, and "rehabilitation" is another concept, and they should be treated differently. The so-called "removal of hats" refers to the removal of the hat of "rightist".Regardless of whether you were originally a "rightist" or wrongly marked, you just "take off your hat" anyway. "Document No. 55" only proposes to remove all the hats of "rightists". "Rehabilitation" is different.That is to say, it was not a "rightist" in the first place, and it was wrongly marked.In this way, it is not just a matter of "removing the hat".

As mentioned above, the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed screening as early as July 26, 1962 in the "Report on Several Issues in the Work of Rightists" to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. should be rehabilitated."Later, due to the denial of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, it was dropped.At this time, Li Weihan brought up the old matter again. As Li Weihan said, this time "the central government adopted my suggestion."In this way, when all the "rightists" were taken off their hats, the work of rehabilitating the "rightists" was also carried out at the same time.

However, for the wrongly marked "rightist", instead of using the word "rehabilitation" like other unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, the word "correction" is used. After careful exploration, the word "correction" actually originated from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's "Report on Several Issues Concerning the Work of Rightists" on August 17, 1962: "The issue of screening and rehabilitating rightists should not be generally raised. Only for some of them who are completely wrong, that is, those who have never had rightist speeches or actions, should be corrected as an individual's problem and seek truth from facts."

Therefore, in 1978, the term "correction" was still used.It's just that the facts show that the "corrected" "rightists" are not "individuals", but account for more than 97% of the total number of "rightists"! From June 14 to 22, 1978, the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly held a work meeting in Yantai, Shandong Province to remove all rightist hats , drafted the "Implementation Plan for Carrying Out the Central Committee's Decision on Removing All Rightists".

The Implementation Plan provides for various policy measures: Those who should not be marked as rightists but have made mistakes should be corrected in a realistic manner; After the correction is approved, the political reputation will be restored, the corrected unit will assign appropriate work, and the original salary will be restored, but no replacement salary will be paid.If life is difficult, necessary subsidies will be given; Those who were originally members of the Communist Party and have not discovered any new major problems, those who have been expelled from the party must have their party membership restored...

On August 25, this "implementation plan" was submitted to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. On September 17, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China approved this "Implementation Plan" and pointed out: "It is a major event in our country's political life to do a good job in the resettlement of people who have taken off their rightist hats and implement the party's policies. Many of these people are useful talents. Don't just start from solving their life outlets. It is necessary to make overall arrangements and do a good job meticulously. For those who have made mistakes in the past, even though it has been many years, we must adhere to the principle of punishing them and correcting mistakes, and do a good job of correcting them.”

After this document was released, all over the country carried out the removal and correction of "rightists". On October 17, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China established the "Office of Examination and Correction of Rightists", which is responsible for leading the removal and correction of "rightists" across the country. All the hats were removed, that is, all "rightists" were removed regardless of whether they were corrected or not. On November 17, 1978, the "People's Daily" published an editorial "A Major Proletarian Policy", expounding the significance of removing all "rightist" labels.