Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries

The Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries (, abbreviated as ) was the first campaign of political repression launched by the People's Republic of China designed to eradicate opposition elements, especially former Kuomintang (KMT) functionaries accused of trying to undermine the new Chinese Communist Party government. It began in March 1950 when the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued the ''Directive on elimination of bandits and establishment of revolutionary new order'' (), and ended in 1953.

The campaign was implemented as a response to the rebellions that were commonplace in the early years of the People's Republic of China. Those targeted during the campaign were thereafter labeled as "counterrevolutionaries", and were publicly denounced in mass trials. Significant numbers of "counterrevolutionaries" were arrested and executed and even more sentenced to "labor reform" (). According to the official statistics from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese government in 1954, at least 2.6 million people were arrested in the campaign, some 1.3 million people were imprisoned, and 712,000 people were executed. Scholars and researchers either accept the numbers of the executions, or give their own estimates ranging from 500,000 to 1 or 2 million. Provided by Wikipedia