On April 19, 1955, at the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Zhou Enlai said: “Our conference should seek common ground while reserving differences.” The Chinese delegation, he said, had come “to seek common ground, not to create differences.”
The four-character form 求同存异, seek common ground while reserving differences, is a standard Chinese idiom today.
In the Shanghai Communiqué of February 28, 1972, China and the United States did not write one shared position on Taiwan. Following a format proposed by Zhou Enlai, each side stated its own views in separate paragraphs. China said that the government of the People’s Republic was the sole legal government of China and that Taiwan was a province of China.
The United States wrote that it “acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position.” Some American sources date the communiqué February 27.
In 1992, representatives of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait held talks in Hong Kong. No formal document was signed. There were only informal verbal discussions and an exchange of telegrams. Each government explained the talks in its own way, and each rejected the other’s reading.
In 2000, Su Chi, the outgoing head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, first used the name “1992 Consensus.” He explained it as “one China, respective interpretations.” Beijing rejected that explanation. Whether a consensus was reached at all has been disputed ever since.
各打五十大板 Give each side fifty strokes. To punish both sides equally, without deciding who is right.
和稀泥 Stir thin mud. To smooth over a dispute, usually without regard to principle.
息事宁人 End the matter and calm the people. To settle a dispute and restore peace.
大事化小，小事化了 Turn big problems into small ones, and small problems into nothing.
Chinese courts are told to aim at 案结事了, “the case is closed and the matter is settled.” In December 2024, guidance from the judicial committee of the Supreme People’s Court called on judges to “substantively resolve conflicts,” so that the case is closed and the matter settled, and the dispute laid to rest.
The failure has its own phrase: 案结事未了, the case is closed but the matter is not.
China’s Criminal Procedure Law, in its 2012 and 2018 versions, has a special procedure for reconciliation between the parties. It covers offenses against the person or property that arise from civil disputes and may carry up to three years in prison, and most crimes of negligence that may carry up to seven years.
If the accused sincerely repents, compensates the victim, apologizes and gains the victim’s forgiveness (谅解), the two sides may reach a settlement. The police may then recommend leniency to the prosecutors, and the prosecutors to the court. Prosecutors may decide not to prosecute minor cases, and courts may reduce the punishment.
The Qing painter and calligrapher Zheng Banqiao wrote four characters: 难得糊涂, “it is hard to be muddled.” Below them he added a note.
“Being clever is hard. Being muddled is harder still. Turning from cleverness to muddle is hardest of all. Let one move go, take a step back, and be at peace now. This is not for the sake of some later reward.”
On September 7, 1993, China and India signed an Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control. It did not settle where the border lies. Until a settlement, both sides agreed to respect the line and not to use or threaten force.
On June 15, 2020, Chinese and Indian soldiers clashed in the Galwan Valley. Twenty Indian soldiers died. In February 2021, China’s Central Military Commission honored four of its soldiers who had died.
In 1005, the Song dynasty and the Liao empire made peace at Chanyuan. Song agreed to send Liao 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 bolts of silk every year. The two states called each other brothers, the Liao emperor addressing the Song emperor as his elder brother. The peace lasted more than a century.
On October 25, 1978, at a press conference in Tokyo, a Japanese reporter asked Deng Xiaoping about the Diaoyu Islands. Deng said that the two sides had set the question aside when they normalized relations. “It does not matter if such a question is set aside for a while, even for ten years.”
He added: “Our generation is not wise enough. Our next generation will surely be wiser than us. They will always find a good way, acceptable to all, to solve this question.”