CCP Launches ‘Whole-Party Investigation,’ Echoing Mao-Era Movements

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (R) is congratulated by Politburo Standing Committee member Li Qiang after being confirmed as head of the Communist Party for a third term during the third plenary session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, China on March 10, 2023. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is launching a campaign of “vigorous research and investigation” that engages the “whole Party” to find ways to resolve what it refers to as “major and deep issues” within the organization. Several commentators have suggested that the CCP’s revisiting a political movement used in the Mao era signifies the struggle that communist leader Xi Jinping and his team of loyalists face.

On March 19, the CCP issued a “Work Plan” for the entire Party to implement “in a vigorous manner.” The document seeks to mobilize the entire Communist Party to investigate and study problems that hinder the adoption of “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” and the implementation of the Party’s theory, line, principles, and policies.

Mao’s Whole-Party Movement

Commentator Wang He said the Work Plan itself describes the risks the CCP is faced with. The approach of engaging the whole Communist Party to resolve a crisis is not new: both Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping had similar proposals. Wang said that “Historically, the CCP has always tackled ‘difficulties’ by claiming to be ‘open-minded,’ and calling for ‘suggestions’ to ease political crises.”

The CCP’s investigation movement involving the whole Party was first applied in 1961, when Mao Zedong’s economic plan—the Great Leap Forward—was facing criticism.

Aiming to shake off the criticism, Mao proposed that every cadre should engage in the investigation of problems to correct the Party’s direction during the CCP’s 9th plenary session in January, 1961.

The Great Leap Forward ultimately led to the 1958-1962 Great Famine.

In their hotel courtyard (background), employees of the Shin Chiao Hotel in Beijing build a small and rudimentary steel-smelting furnace in October 1958 during the "Great Leap Forward," a period intended to help China catch up to Great Britain's economy within 15 years. The ensuing famine cost China some 30 million lives. Jacquet Francillon/AFP via Getty Images

Following its 9th plenary session in early 1962, the CCP held one of its largest meetings, known as the 7,000 cadres conference.

At the conference, all cadres performed “criticism and self-criticism,” with Mao’s policy also subject to criticism.

Although Mao himself carried out the self-criticism demanded by the conference, his political struggle eventually evolved into the 1963 Socialist Education Movement and, finally, the Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966.

Yaita Akio, the Taipei branch director of the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, also compared China’s current economic difficulties to Mao’s era, when the CCP covered up the failure of the Great Leap Forward and the massive death toll incurred.

He said, “The CCP knows the lies and the fabricated data can no longer hide the miserable reality today.” He said that that was why the CCP came up with the current movement.

Yaita indicated that Mao’s proposal led to the 7,000 cadres conference and the subsequent, short-lived instability of his leadership. What will happen to Xi, politically, remains to be seen.

Xi’s Authority Crisis

Author Li Mianying says that Xi may be exploiting the nationwide campaign to target specific opponents or issues without fear of criticism.

The Work Plan indicates that the investigation will directly target and resolve any barriers to accomplishing the regime’s socialist ideology and education. The plan demands that all cadres be “honest” in dealing with the issues.

Wang He said that Xi’s supremacy in the Communist Party stands in stark contrast to his lack of personal authority. Xi is upset by the fact that few in the regime are truly seeking to implement his policies, because officials at all levels seem to have been exhausted by three years of his zero-COVID policy. He said that “This nationwide campaign suggests his intention to attack the subordinates.”

Wang maintains that all of the communist regime’s officialdom is fully aware that everyone has simply been playing along, and that no one would really take it seriously. Wang said that, in his opinion, the campaign would likely turn out to be a political failure.

Yaita agreed. He said, “This type of movement won’t achieve anything,” because no official could dare to be honest under the rule of the CCP.

Feng Chongyi, Associate Professor of China Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, said the CCP’s leadership will not tolerate honesty. He said, “When it talks about freedom, it is slavery; when it demands honesty, it is encouraging lying.”

Haizhong Ning, Luo Ya, and Yi Ru contributed to this report.