Meetings Archives - understand-culture

The Squad Leader

On March 13, 1949, Mao Zedong set out the working methods of Party committees. The first heading reads: “The Party committee secretary must be good at being a ‘squad leader.'” A committee of ten or twenty people, Mao wrote, “is like a squad in the army, and the secretary is like the ‘squad leader.'”

The same text sets a limit to the image. “Of course, the relation between the secretary and the members is that the minority obeys the majority. This is different from the relation between a squad leader and his soldiers.”

Collective Study Sessions

On the afternoon of July 30, 2026, the Politburo held its 27th collective study session, on advancing the high-quality modernization of national defense and the armed forces. Sun Zheng, of the Strategic Planning Office of the Central Military Commission, gave the lecture and made proposals for the work.

Xinhua reported what Xi Jinping “emphasized while presiding over the study.” It added: “After listening to the lecture and the discussion, Xi Jinping gave an important speech.”

Requests and Reports

The Communist Party’s Regulations on Requesting Instructions and Reporting on Major Matters took effect on January 31, 2019. They define two ways of speaking to a higher level. A qingshi (请示), a request for instructions, is when “a lower Party organization asks a higher Party organization, or a Party member or leading cadre asks the Party organization, for instructions or approval on a major matter.”

A baogao (报告), a report, is when the lower level submits “important matters and important situations” to the higher one. Both definitions run in one direction, from below to above.

Speaking at Court

The tenth book of the Analects describes how Confucius behaved at court. “Speaking with the lower grandees, he was frank and at ease. Speaking with the upper grandees, he was gentle but upright. When the ruler was present, he was full of reverent care.” (朝，與下大夫言，侃侃如也；與上大夫言，誾誾如也。君在，踧踖如也。)

Seats on the Rostrum

In January 2022, the people’s court of the Evenk Autonomous Banner published a guide to seating on the rostrum on its official account. With an odd number of leaders, “the main leader takes the C position, in the center.” The No. 2 leader sits at the No. 1 leader’s left hand, and the No. 3 leader at his right.

With an even number, the No. 1 and No. 2 leaders share the middle. “Of course, the No. 2 leader still sits at the No. 1 leader’s left hand.”

The Vocabulary of Meetings

定调子 To fix the key. Originally, to set the pitch of a piece of music. Figuratively, to fix the basic direction of an activity or a piece of work before it begins.

表态 To show one’s attitude. To state one’s opinion or position in public.

汇报 To report. To gather material and report it to a superior, or to the masses, as in 汇报工作, to report on one’s work.

Talks on Stretchers

During the Long March, before the Zunyi meeting, Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian and Wang Jiaxiang spent their days together. Wang had been badly wounded and was carried on a stretcher. In 2016, Xinhua asked in a headline what the “conspiracy” on the stretchers had been. Its answer: “Days and nights together on stretchers and by the campfire gave Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian and Wang Jiaxiang a good chance to exchange views.”

From January 15 to 17, 1935, the enlarged Politburo meeting at Zunyi made four decisions. One of them elected Mao to the Standing Committee of the Politburo.

Opinions Before the Plenum

On May 7, 2024, the draft of the Central Committee’s Decision on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively was sent out “within a certain scope inside the Party to solicit opinions.” The opinions of veteran comrades were sought, and so were those of the democratic parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, non-Party figures, enterprises, experts and scholars.

Xi Jinping gave the result in his explanation of the decision. The consultation produced 1,911 proposals for changes. The document drafting group “absorbed as much as it could” and made 221 revisions.

Four Deliberations, Two Disclosures

Under the method of four deliberations and two disclosures, a village decides a major matter in four steps. The Party branch proposes it. The joint meeting of the Party branch committee and the village committee discusses it. The meeting of all Party members reviews it. The last step is the resolution of the meeting of village representatives, or of the whole village. The decision is made public, and so is the result of carrying it out.

The method, siyi liang gongkai (四议两公开), comes from Dengzhou in Henan. It was promoted at a national meeting in Zhengzhou in November 2009, and the Central No. 1 Document of 2010 listed it among the measures for village governance.

Business at the Wine Table

“Once, ‘a good deal must be done at the wine table.’ For many officials in charge of attracting investment, this had become a fixed way of thinking.” The business paper National Business Daily wrote this in June 2017.

In June 2016, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reported a campaign in Anhui against jiuzhuo bangong (酒桌办公), “doing office work at the wine table.” It targeted officials who used the wine table “to ask for funds, to chase projects, to compete for places in evaluations or to seek improper benefits.”