How Xi Jinping is mobilising the masses to control themselves

In 1963 Mao Zedong launched a campaign known as the “Four Clean-ups”, an attempt to rid China’s politics, economy, organisations and ideology of reactionary elements. Ordinary people were encouraged to name and shame anyone they deemed ideologically suspicious. Mao seemed particularly pleased with the small town of Fengqiao in the east. Around 900 of its 65,000 residents were called out by their neighbours in public “denunciation rallies”. The “Fengqiao model” demonstrated how the party could enlist people to solve problems at the local level, Mao said. The larger campaign resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and was a precursor to the horrors of the Cultural Revolution.