The Anti-Rightist Campaign (simplified Chinese: 反右运动; traditional Chinese: 反右運動; pinyin: Fǎnyòu Yùndòng) 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 launched by Chairman Mao Zedong. Deng Xiaoping and Peng Zhen also played important roles. The Anti-Rightist Campaign significantly damaged democracy in China and turned the country into a de facto one-party state.

The definition of rightists was not always consistent, often including critics to the left of the government, but officially referred to those intellectuals who appeared to favor capitalism, or were against one-party rule as well as forcible, state-run collectivization. According to China's official statistics published during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period, the campaign resulted in the political persecution of at least 550,000 people. Some researchers believe that the actual number of persecuted is between 1 and 2 million or even higher. Deng Xiaoping admitted that there were mistakes during the Anti-Rightist Campaign, and most victims received rehabilitation after 1959.

The Anti-Rightist Campaign was a reaction against the Hundred Flowers Campaign which had promoted pluralism of expression and criticism of the government, even though initiation of both campaigns was controlled by Mao Zedong and were integrally connected. Going perhaps as far back as the Long March there had been resentment against "rightists" inside the CCP, for example, Zhang Bojun.

While the Hundred Flowers Movement was going on, in 1956, Khrushchev published the On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, which along with the ensuing riots in Poland and Hungary, had a large impact on China, where similar social unrest began to take place.

Defining "rightists" was not always consistent. Rightists included critics of the governmental left, but officially referred to intellectuals who appeared to favor capitalism, or were against one-party rule and forced, state-run collectivization. Rightists could be categorized as "active rightists" (主动右派) and "passive rightists" (被动右派). The "active rightists" could further be divided into three groups: "right-wing intellectuals", "revisionists" and "rights defenders."

"Right-wing intellectuals" consisted of influential democratic personalities before 1949, such as Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji, who championed constitutional change and changing the method of government. "Revisionists" included Party intellectuals such as Li Shenzhi and Liu Binyan. It also included students such as Lin Xiling, who denounced cult of personality and were in favor of changes consistent with democracy. "Rights defenders" would cite the Constitution of China to condemn government violations of political rights, of individual freedoms, and of economic and social rights. "Rights defenders" also criticized the absence of freedom in the fields of science, culture, and art at a time when academic fields such as law, political science, and sociology had been suppressed.

Contradictory to common belief, the Anti-Rightist Campaign did not only impact intellectuals: it extended to members of every social class, including teachers, employees and cadre. Individuals were also labelled rightists due to political faction conflicts, grudges, and/or the mismanagement of interpersonal relations. Officials and intellectuals took advantage of the campaign to attack peers and competitors. The official number of those labeled rightists was 552,877, but did not include people labeled as "center-rightists," "anti-socialist elements" or "counterrevolutionaries." It also did not include members of victims' families or those who suffered other sanctions without ever being labeled. Total estimates range from the consensus of 1 million, to 3 million, or even 5 million, if the people suppressed during the Socialist Education Movement is taken into account.

During the Hundred Flowers Movement, some ideas that were not tolerated by the Party were gradually raised. One example of public rightist remarks came from Huang Xinping, a high school teacher in Tianjin who said, "why can we not have a system that allows each party to take turns being in power?" Chu Anping called for greater representation of non-CCP members in the national government on June 2 1957. By January 1958, he had been attacked as a rightist and purged from his positions.^{[citation needed]}