''On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People'' () is a 1957 essay by the Chinese Communist revolutionary

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

published during the Eleventh Session of the Supreme State Conference. It explores the concepts developed by Mao in the 1937 publication ''

On Contradiction ''On Contradiction'' () is a 1937 essay by the Chinese Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong. Along with '' On Practice'' it forms the philosophical underpinnings of the political ideology that would later become Maoism. It was written in August 1 ...

'' concerning the metaphysics of dialectical reasoning, and sets out to establish a social philosophy based on these concepts. The essay originated in a speech to the Communist Party in February 1957. It was revised and printed in the Peoples Daily later (June?) in 1957. The main point of the speech was to make a distinction between "contradictions amongst the people" and "counter-revolutionary contradictions". The former were to be treated quite differently from the latter. The stated Maoist policy was to "isolate the few and win over the many". The understanding being that "the many" were basically supportive of the Chinese Communist Party, whereas "the few" were determined to overthrow the Party and create Chaos at the behest of foreign or class enemies. The February 1957 speech is associated with the Hundred Flowers period, when it seemed that a degree of liberalisation was in the wings. However, this was rapidly followed (from July 1957) by the

Anti-Rightist Campaign The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged "Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign was ...

, which lasted until about 1959. Some analysts believe that the "Hundred Flowers" process was a plan to expose those who favoured liberalisation and others are of the view that there was a change of thinking in the CCP leadership. The speech and essay are largely forgotten today, but notably, very early on in 1989, the CCP leadership began to refer to the protesters (students and otherwise) as "counter-revolutionaries". In 1989 there was little or no attempt by the CCP to "win over the many", in spite of the fact that, (particularly in Chengdu) many of the protesters demands related to corruption, nepotism and misgovernment rather than overthrow of the CCP.

References

{{Maoism Ideology of the Chinese Communist Party Works by Mao Zedong