Answer:
Some historians have argued that the policy was designed to encourage dissidents to criticise the regime, therefore making their views public and making it easier for the communists to identify them and deal with them effectively. Other historians argue that the intention of the movement was to allow free debate which it was thought would prove that socialism was the right way forward for China.
Mao genuinely agreed with freedom of speech and it encouraged it but was astonished by the backlash of critiscm so he deliberatley planned the free speech act so he could flush out his critics