In 1983, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a political campaign called the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign to rectify the trends of thought in the literary and art circles, the press, and the ideological circles.

At that time, Scar Literature was popular in Chinese literature and art circles. This movement or genre reflects on damage caused by the Cultural Revolution to people's spirits and minds. In the press, "People's Daily" President Hu Jiwei presented a series of discussions on "the Party Spirit and the People's Spirit". He stated his belief that the CCP represents the people; therefore, the CCP's newspaper must be the "People's Newspaper", or it would lose its "Party Spirit". In theory circles, there were also voices calling to push back against "power alienation", and advocating for "humanism".

On October 12, 1983, at the Second Plenary Session of the Twelfth CCP Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech titled "The CCP's Urgent Tasks on the Organizational and Ideological Fronts". In the speech, Deng said that "the essence of spiritual pollution is to spread every type and kind of decadent and decrepit idea of the bourgeoisie and other exploiting classes; to spread a mood of distrust in the cause of socialism, communism, and the leadership of the Communist Party". Topics such as humanitarianism, human values, and alienation raised in theoretical circles were, as Deng viewed them, intended to attack socialism. After these remarks, all sectors of society stepped up their efforts to clean away spiritual pollution.

In November, Hu Yaobang, then-General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee, and State Council Premier Zhao Ziyang sent investigators to check on the progress on the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign. They found that the movement was becoming maximized. On December 20, Hu talked about the matter at a Secretariat meeting; he argued that topics such as "spiritual pollution" and "bourgeois liberalization" should no longer be mentioned.

In 1986, the CCP launched another political campaign against bourgeois liberalization.

Reference: Yang Jisheng, "Political Struggles During the Age of Reform in China"