Leadership Archives - Page 2 of 9

Ren Zhengfei’s Veto

In April 2019, Huawei’s board secretary, Jiang Xisheng, explained the powers of the company’s founder. “Ren Zhengfei does have a veto, but only on major matters. He does not veto everything.” He added: “He has only a veto, not the power to decide.” The company charter lists the matters it covers, among them capital increases, changes to the charter and the nomination of directors.

Ren described how he would use it: “When I want to veto something, I go and talk it over with them, and discuss my ideas together with everyone.” A 2020 report said that he had never used it.

Concealing for the Honored

In the first year of Duke Min of Lu, the Spring and Autumn Annals record a visit by “Zhongsun of Qi.” The Gongyang Commentary explains that the visitor was in fact Qingfu, a prince of Lu, who had killed the ruler Ziban. The chronicle calls him a man of Qi “to place him outside.”

The commentary then states the rule: “The Spring and Autumn Annals conceal for the honored, conceal for the close, and conceal for the worthy.” (春秋为尊者讳，为亲者讳，为贤者讳)

Naming Taboos

In imperial China, the personal name of the ruler had to be avoided in writing. Words were changed instead. For Emperor Wen of Han, Liu Heng, Mount Heng was written Mount Chang, and the moon goddess Heng’e became Chang’e, the name she still has. For Emperor Jing, Liu Qi, the spring solar term Qizhe became Jingzhe, and Qifeng county became Kaifeng.

A popular story holds that Guanshiyin, the bodhisattva of mercy, became Guanyin to avoid the name of Tang Taizong, Li Shimin. Chinese Wikipedia rejects it. Taizong required the taboo only when the two characters of his name appeared together, and the short form Guanyin was in use before the Tang.

The Vocabulary of Flattery

拍马屁 To pat the horse’s rump. To flatter. Under the shorter form 拍马, the Handian dictionary gives the example: “He never fawns on his superiors.”

溜须拍马 To smooth the beard and pat the horse. The Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary gives the example: “He fawns on those above him and is stern with those below him.”

戴高帽子 To put a tall hat on someone. To flatter or praise someone. In the Qing novel Flowers in the Mirror, an old man says that he has heard that people in this place love flattery most of all. “The northern saying calls it loving to wear tall hats. Today one, tomorrow another, until the head is covered with tall hats.”

Talking Back to the Leader

In January 2025, the Workers’ Daily reported on Ms. Wang, a beautician at the store of a health company in Hangzhou. After twelve hours at work, she planned to go home at 9 p.m. Her leader told her to stay and rehearse a dance for the annual party. She ignored the instruction and went home.

The next day, the store manager offered to keep her on, on three conditions: “No complaints, no speaking in the group chat, no opinions of any kind.” She resigned. The company then issued a dismissal notice. The reason it gave was dingzhuang lingdao, talking back to the leader.

The Labor Contract Law lists the grounds on which an employer may dismiss someone. The article’s author argued that disagreeing with a manager is not among them.

Concealing the Harvest

After the harvest of 1958, during the Great Leap Forward, production teams across China hid grain from the state. The practice was called manchan sifen, concealing output and dividing it privately. At the Zhengzhou conference on February 27, 1959, Mao Zedong said that it had broken out “almost everywhere.” Teams had “even hidden it in deep cellars and posted sentries.”

In a second talk the same day, Mao took their side. “I rather support concealing output and dividing it privately,” he said. “Apart from embezzlement and sabotage, it is a legitimate right.”

Both talks are known from a compilation printed in 1968, during the Cultural Revolution. Texts in such compilations can differ from later official editions.

The People Come First

Mencius said: “The people are the most precious. The altars of the land and grain come next. The ruler counts least.” (民为贵，社稷次之，君为轻) Whoever wins the common people, he continued, becomes the Son of Heaven.

The founder of the Ming dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor, disliked the book’s low view of the ruler. He ordered passages like this one cut. The shortened book, the Mencius Abridged, was issued across the country, and the civil service examinations had to follow it. It did not stay in use for long, and the court later returned to the full text.

Like the Pole Star

In the Analects, Confucius says: “One who governs by virtue is like the pole star. It stays in its place, and all the stars turn toward it.” (为政以德，譬如北辰，居其所而众星共之) When Ji Kangzi asked him about government, he answered: “If you lead by being upright, who would dare not to be upright?”

Ji Kangzi also asked whether he should kill those without principles to help those with them. Confucius replied: “In governing, why would you kill? If you want the good, the people will be good. The virtue of the gentleman is like the wind, and the virtue of the small man like grass. When the wind blows over the grass, the grass bends.”

Water Carries the Boat

In the chapter on royal government, the Xunzi quotes a traditional saying: “The ruler is the boat. The common people are the water. Water carries the boat, and water overturns the boat.” The same passage gives the lesson: “A ruler who wants security can do nothing better than govern fairly and love the people.”

In the Tang dynasty, the minister Wei Zheng quoted the saying to Emperor Taizong as an old proverb: “The ruler is the boat, and the people are the water. Water can carry the boat, and it can also overturn it.”

Parent Officials

父母官 Parent official. The Handian dictionary defines it as the old name for the magistrate of a prefecture or county, who could also be called simply “parent.” The Water Margin uses it in the line “in case the parent official asks later.”

The idea goes back to the phrase “parents of the people” in the early classics. Under the Han, people called the official Shao Xinchen “Father Shao” and the official Du Shi “Mother Du.” A saying went: “First there was Father Shao, later Mother Du.”