Abstract:

In October 1950 the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party initiated a "suppressing counter-revolutionaries" movement over the whole country in order to realize its central task of consolidating the new regime in cities. Shanghai, as the largest major city located on China's eastern coastal front, inevitably occupied a primary position in the movement. Owing to Shanghai's special position and complicated environments, the movement there was relatively moderate and slow-paced during its early stage. With repeated pushes of the central leadership of CCP, the movement in Shanghai experienced a "high tide" at last by the spring of 1951 as other parts of the country did. About 2000 "counter-revolutionaries" were executed within months. The "suppressing counter-revolutionaries" movement, however, failed to realize the goal to which Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of CCP had originally assigned. Moreover, the social reality revealed in the movement further strengthened Communists' sense of "existence of enemies everywhere." The beginning of the "cleaning up counter-revolutionaries" movement a few years later, as well as initiations of a series of other political campaigns, could be traced back to the "suppressing counter-revolutionaries" movement.

Key words: new China, Shanghai, "suppressing counter-revolutionaries" movement, "counter-revolutionary"