三重一大 Three majors and one large. Major decisions, important appointments and removals, major projects and large sums of money must be decided after collective discussion.
In June 2010, the General Offices of the Party Central Committee and the State Council issued an opinion on applying this rule in state-owned enterprises.
In 2007, a pregnant woman, Li Liyun, was brought to a Beijing hospital in critical condition. Doctors recommended an immediate cesarean. Her partner, Xiao Zhijun, refused to sign the consent form. Without a family signature, the hospital did not operate, and she and her unborn child died.
The hospital cited “Article 33 of the health administration regulations”: “Only after the patient’s family has signed can we carry out an operation. This happened because the family refused to sign, so we bear no responsibility.”
Article 33 of the Regulations on the Administration of Medical Institutions also contains a second path: a doctor may proceed with a treatment plan after obtaining the approval of the head of the institution.
On November 20, 2006, an elderly woman, Xu Shoulan, fell at a bus stop in Nanjing. Peng Yu took her to the hospital. She then demanded that he pay her medical costs, saying he had caused her fall. He refused, and in January 2007 she sued him. In September 2007, the Gulou District Court found that neither side was at fault. Under the principle of fairness, it ordered Peng Yu to pay 40 percent of her losses.
The judge reasoned that if Peng had been doing a good deed, he could have explained what happened to her family and left. After the case, Chinese Wikipedia notes, more cases against helpers were reported, and people became afraid to help an elderly person who had fallen.
In October 2014, the Fourth Plenum called for “a system of lifetime accountability for major decisions and a mechanism for tracing responsibility back.” The same decision made collective discussion a legal step for major administrative decisions, along with public participation, expert opinion, risk assessment and a legality review.
The 2019 regulations on major administrative decisions spell out the step: “The draft decision shall be discussed at an executive or plenary meeting of the deciding body. The head of the body makes the decision on the basis of the collective discussion.”
In June 2026, a People’s Daily commentary, republished by Xinhua, described an attitude among officials: “do more, err more. Do less, err less. Do nothing, err not.” (多干多错、少干少错、不干不错)
This “wrong understanding,” the commentary said, makes Party members and officials “afraid of mistakes, afraid of accountability, afraid of carrying the pot.” They “would rather lie flat and avoid responsibility than take on hard tasks.”
明哲保身 Clear-sighted and wise, he keeps himself safe. From the Book of Songs, in a poem about the minister Zhongshan Fu: “Clear and wise, he protects himself.” The Handian dictionary notes that the phrase first meant that a person who understands affairs knows how to protect himself, and was praise. Today it describes protecting one’s own interests by avoiding any conflict over principle, and is criticism.
出头的椽子先烂 The rafter that sticks out rots first.
On March 19, 1998, Zhu Rongji held his first press conference as premier. Asked about being called an “economic czar,” he said: “Whether ahead lies a minefield or a bottomless abyss, I will go forward without hesitation and without looking back, and give my all until my dying day.”
Media later reported a second line: that he had prepared a hundred coffins, one of them for himself. No transcript of this remark has been found, and its source is uncertain.
In February 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued Regulations on Requesting Instructions and Reporting on Major Matters. Their rule is short: what must be requested must be requested, and what must be reported must be reported (该请示的必须请示，该报告的必须报告).
A request to a higher Party organization on a major matter must be made in advance, so that the higher level has enough time to study it and decide. Only when an emergency leaves no time to ask may an official act first. Even then, the official must report to the higher level promptly afterwards.
On a winter night in 1978, dated by Chinese Wikipedia to November 24, eighteen farmers in Xiaogang village, Anhui, signed a pact at great risk to contract the collective land to households. Each pressed a red fingerprint on a worn, creased sheet of paper. The members also promised to raise the leaders’ children until the age of 18.
In 1979 Xiaogang had a record harvest of 66,000 kilograms of grain, equal to its total from 1966 to 1970.
不求有功，但求无过 Seek no merit, only avoid faults.
多一事不如少一事 One more matter is worse than one matter less.
In 1950, the scholar Qian Zhongshu was asked to join the committee translating Mao Zedong’s Selected Works. He told his wife, Yang Jiang: “This job is not easy to do. Seek no merit, only avoid faults.”