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The Battle Against Poverty

In November 2015, the Central Committee and the State Council issued a decision on winning the “battle against poverty” (tuopin gongjian). All poor areas and poor people were to reach a moderately prosperous life by 2020. The country sent 255,000 village work teams and more than 3 million first secretaries and village cadres to the countryside.

On February 25, 2021, Xi Jinping declared “complete victory.” By the current standard, 98.99 million rural poor had left poverty, all 832 poor counties had been removed from the list and all 128,000 poor villages had been lifted out.

The Foolish Old Man

The fable of the Foolish Old Man who removed the mountains, Yugong yi shan, comes from the book Liezi. On June 11, 1945, Mao Zedong closed the Seventh Party Congress with a speech of that title. He used the fable to urge the Party to keep digging until it had removed the two mountains of imperialism and feudalism.

He called on the Party: “Be resolute, fear no sacrifice and overcome every difficulty to win victory.” The speech became one of the “three constantly read articles,” with “Serve the People” and “In Memory of Norman Bethune.”

Shenzhen Speed

Construction of the Shenzhen International Trade Center began in April 1982. At first each floor took seven days, then six, five and four. From the 31st floor on, the builders kept to three days per floor. CCTV’s evening news and People’s Daily followed the progress, and “three days a floor” became known across the country.

The main tower was topped out on April 30, 1984, a full month early. At 160 meters, it was then the tallest building in China. Shenzhen sudu, “Shenzhen speed,” became a phrase for the pace of the whole zone.

Overtaking Britain

In 1958, the second session of the Eighth Party Congress adopted the general line “go all out, aim high, and build socialism with greater, faster, better and more economical results.” It set the goal of catching up with and overtaking Britain within fifteen years. In August, the Politburo set the year’s steel target at 10.7 million tons, double the output of 1957. A nationwide campaign to make iron and steel followed.

So much labor went into steel that farming suffered and the economy fell out of balance.

The Daqing Oil Battle

In early 1960, the Central Committee approved a request from the Ministry of Petroleum Industry. Tens of thousands of oil workers from across the country, with 30,000 demobilized soldiers, gathered at the new oilfield in Daqing for the “Daqing oil battle” (Daqing shiyou huizhan). The campaign headquarters was set up on April 8, 1960. On June 1, the first trainload of crude oil left Daqing. In the first winter, workers lived in holes dug into the ground.

Hundred-Day Oath Rallies

About a hundred days before the gaokao, many high schools hold an oath rally, bairi shishi. On the morning of February 27, 2023, at Qingdao No. 2 High School, class teams led by student representatives shouted their oaths: “Draw the sword in June and write a brilliant chapter. Give everything and vow to create glory!”

The principal told them: “Ask not about the harvest, only about the plowing.”

The Vocabulary of Campaigns

会战 A decisive battle between main forces. In civilian use, concentrating forces to finish a specific task in one great effort.

攻坚战 An assault on fortified positions. Today used for any hard target, as in the “battle against poverty.”

冲刺 The sprint at the end of a race. The greatest effort in the moment just before success.

Policies Above, Countermeasures Below

上有政策，下有对策: “There are policies above, and countermeasures below.”

Xi Jinping has drawn a line against it. Leading officials, and above all the “number ones” of Party and government, he said, must “never be allowed to practice ‘policies above, countermeasures below,’ and still less selective implementation.” People’s Daily quoted the sentence in June 2026.

Collusion at the Grassroots

In a study titled “The Phenomenon of Collusion Among Grassroots Governments,” the sociologist Zhou Xueguang describes how local governments deal with the policies and inspections of their superiors. They use all kinds of means of “policies above, countermeasures below.” Collusion among grassroots governments, he writes, has become “an institutionalized form of informal behavior.”

Zhou also notes that some of these practices have been “an important source of institutional innovation.”

The Vocabulary of Countermeasures

走过场 To cross the stage. In Chinese opera, a role that enters and leaves at once. Figuratively, to do something only for the form.

钻空子 To drill into the gap. To use a loophole or an opening.

打擦边球 To hit an edge ball, as in table tennis. To bend the rules. In 2025, the Party’s website quoted Xi Jinping: “Many leading officials start by hitting edge balls, breaking the Eight-point Regulation, and in the end it becomes a big problem.”

土政策 A homemade policy. Rules and decisions that a locality, office or enterprise makes on its own.