Anti-Right Deviation Struggle

The Anti-Right Deviation Struggle (simplified Chinese: 反右倾斗争; traditional Chinese: 反右傾鬥爭), also known as the Anti-Right Deviation Campaign (simplified Chinese: 反右倾运动; traditional Chinese: 反右傾運動), was a political campaign launched by Mao Zedong in 1959 after the Lushan Conference, aiming at purging the "right-deviationists" or "right-opportunists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The struggle started with the purge of Marshal Peng Dehuai, then Minister of National Defense, who expressed disagreement with Mao over the radical policies of Great Leap Forward. In total, over 3 million CCP members were purged or penalized during the campaign. In the early 1980s, the purge of Peng Dehuai was categorized as "entirely wrong" by CCP during the Boluan Fanzheng period.