The 100 Flowers Campaign was conducted within the communist party, in May 1956, to lift the restrictions imposed upon intellectuals and to encourage the people of China the express their feelings regarding the Communist regime (more freedom of speech and thought).
Only during this campaign did Mao Zedong allows people to criticize the communist party, if in fact promoted the campaign adopting the slogan, "Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend".