The "Four Cleanups" movement, also called the "Socialist Education Movement", was carried out in urban and rural areas across China from 1963 to 1966. It is regarded as a precursor to the Cultural Revolution.

Since 1960, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had issued many instructions to carry out the Rectification campaign and the Three-Antis (anti-corruption, anti-waste, and anti-bureaucracy) campaign in rural areas. These campaigns were aimed at cleaning up the accounts of rural grass-roots cadres, wealthy landlords, and cadres who were "bad elements". This was the prelude to the "Four Cleanups" movement.

After the great famine, conflict continued to deepen at the top of the CCP, and there was corruption among grass-roots cadres. Against this backdrop, Mao Zedong made a series of speeches at the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee Meeting in 1962, in which he announced his decision to launch a large scale Socialist Education Movement. In addition, Sino-Soviet relations had continued to deteriorate. On the one hand, Mao Zedong was dissatisfied with the Soviet Union's criticism of the Three Red Banners; on the other hand, he believed that Khrushchev's repudiation of Stalin's actions was tantamount to taking the "revisionist" line, concepts similar to rightist opportunism and the restoration of capitalism. Therefore, he insisted on "fighting revisionism and preventing revisionism", and continued to carry out class warfare.

In 1963, as the Great Famine was ending and the national economic situation was gradually improving, class warfare swept the country. The movement primarily consisted of "cleaning up" accounts, warehouses, finances, and the division of labor; thus, the movement was also labeled the "Four Cleanups". In the same year, the Central Committee formulated the Decision on Several Issues in the Rural Areas (Draft) (referred to as the "First Ten Articles") and Some Specific Policy Regulations in the Socialist Education Movement in Rural Areas (Draft) (referred to as the "Last Ten Articles"). College students and some military cadres joined work teams together to clean up the grass-roots cadres. However, this movement, led by Liu Shaoqi, developed veered to the left, in a wrong direction. More than 70,000 cadres were killed and more than 5 million people were engulfed in the turmoil. It was later proved that most of the convictions were wrongful.

From December 15, 1964 to January 14, 1965, the Central Committee held a work conference to discuss the Four Cleanups and formulated Some Issues Presently Raised in the Socialist Education Movement in Rural Areas (referred to as the "Twenty-Three Articles"). During the meeting, the conflict between Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi finally reached a breaking point. Liu Shaoqi pointed out that the main contradiction in the countryside at the time was between rich peasants on one hand, and poor and lower-middle class peasants on the other; and that this contradiction was intertwined with the contradictions between the establishment and the masses. Mao Zedong responded emotionally: "Landlords and rich peasants have already made a stink once. As for those in power, they have never made a stink… The point is to organize those in power within the Party who take the capitalist road!"

After the "Twenty-Three Articles" were passed at the meeting, the "Four Cleanups" movement expanded into "Clean up Politics, Clean up the Economy, Clean up Ideology, and Clean up Organizations"; these new Cleanups were carried out simultaneously in urban and rural areas. Liu Shaoqi had by this point lost his power to direct the movement. Later on, Mao revealed in a conversation with an American reporter that it was during that meeting to discuss the "Twenty-Three Articles" that Mao determined he had to defeat Liu.

After 1965, Mao Zedong believed that the "Four Cleanups" movement was no longer enough to solve the problem of capitalist revisionism, and seldom talked about directions in which it could be further expanded. On May 16, 1966, the Cultural Revolution began, with the "Four Cleanups" movement incorporated within it.

References: "The World Turned Upside Down: A History of the Chinese Cultural Revolution"; "A Rehearsal for the Cultural Revolution: The 'Four Cleanups' movement from beginning to end"