“ Let a 100 flowers bloom, and a 100 schools of thought contend ” In April 1956, Mao address the CCP and called on delegates to open debates about the way the country was being run to open himself to the criticisms that were being leveled with Stalin…Months later he rounded up the people who critised him in debate and put them in “re-education camps” labeling them as ‘rightists’

Does he know (the people) they were falling for a trap?

Many historians debate if this campaign was intentionally done to control the people. But we will never know.