The Anti-rightist Campaign as Media Event in China, 1957-1958: The Case of Zhang Naiqi

• In Event: Rhetoric and the Politics of Control in Maoist China

Abstract

This paper explores the role of media during the Anti-rightist Campaign by analyzing the case of Zhang Naiqi, a Minister of Food and one of democratic party leaders, who was denounced as one of the three leading “rightists” along with Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji during the campaign. Earlier studies on the political campaigns in the PRC often neglect the role of media in the campaign, due to the assumption that the media functioned merely as a mouthpiece of the party. However, national newspapers, such as People’s Daily played an important role as a public tribunal during the Anti-rightist campaign, in which Zhang Naiqi was branded as “rightist, “anti-socialist,” “anti-party,” and even “counterrevolutionary.” Accusations against Zhang by other members of democratic parties and intellectuals were actively publicized through the news media. Intriguingly, rather than simply censoring the “rightist voices,” the CCP allowed the news media to publicize Zhang’s contestation against the accusation. Even then, Zhang was not so successful in contesting against the public accusation, and was ultimately purged from his most of his public positions. Thus, the CCP’s effective media control itself does not fully explain Zhang’s vulnerability to the accusation. Rather, Zhang’s inability to negotiate with the party and the news media in constructing publicity of the case and creating his own subjectivity in public contributed to his unsuccessful political contestation in the news media.

Author

• Sei Jeong Chin, Ewha Womans University