In 1957, Zhang Naiqi along with Zhang Bojun, Chu Anping and Luo Longji were classified as rightists.
At its formation, it was a coalition of three pro-Wu Han, Chu Anping, and Wen Yiduo.
In December 1948, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the seizure of Chu Anping's liberal Shanghai magazine " Guancha " ( Observer ), and the arrest of the staff.
In the mid-1950s, Wang, along with older, liberal colleagues such as Fei Xiaotong, Chu Anping, Chen Renbing, and Luo Longji, was cautious in his criticisms of the political situation, but in 1957 joined the 100 Flowers Movement, in which liberals, seemingly at Mao's invitation, became more forthright.
Writers such as Chu Anping, however, made a strong case against the Nationalists; educators and scholars such as Fei Xiaotong and Tao Xingzhi made a case for revolution as a cause worthy of liberal support; while many more liberals left China, including the rural reformer James Yen, the university president Chiang Monlin, and many less well known figures.