一刀切 One cut for all. To handle different cases by one uniform method, regardless of actual conditions.
因噎废食 To give up eating because of choking. The Handian dictionary traces it to the Lüshi Chunqiu: “If someone has choked to death and one wants to forbid food to the whole world, that is absurd.”
In October 2023, the Jiefang Daily reported that in some primary schools, pupils could not leave the classroom during the ten-minute break, except to use the toilet or fetch water. Other schools allowed walking in the corridor, but not going down the stairs or out to the playground. The paper wrote that the schools’ biggest worry was student safety, because schools often bore unlimited responsibility.
The Ministry of Education said it would guide schools to “give out-of-class time back to the children.”
On May 22, 2021, 21 runners died and eight were injured in a 100-kilometer mountain race at the Yellow River Stone Forest in Baiyin, Gansu. In early June, the General Administration of Sport suspended, “from today,” mountain trail running, Gobi crossings, wingsuit flying, ultra-long-distance running and other “emerging high-risk sports events with unclear management responsibility, imperfect rules and unclear safety standards.”
In September 2008, during the melamine scandal, China’s quality inspection authority ended the national inspection-exempt status of all food producers. Radio Free Asia reported that the exemption marks on their products became void at once.
At 9 a.m. on March 11, 2019, after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8, the Civil Aviation Administration of China ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operation of the type by 6 p.m. that day. It cited the principle of “zero tolerance for safety hazards.” Both crashes of the type had involved newly delivered aircraft during takeoff. A deputy head of the administration said China was the first country in the world to do so.
Article 16 of China’s Legislation Law, as amended in 2023, lets the National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee authorize “the temporary adjustment or temporary suspension” of parts of a law “within a specified period and scope.” If practice proves it feasible, the law is to be revised. If not yet, the authorization can be extended, “or the relevant provisions of the law restored.”
On February 27, 2015, the Standing Committee used the same kind of power for rural land reform. It authorized the State Council to adjust or suspend provisions of the Land Administration Law and the Urban Real Estate Administration Law in 33 pilot counties, cities and districts, at first until the end of 2017.
In 2014, the property developer Vanke introduced gentou, co-investment, for its projects. As National Business Daily later described the scheme, the management of the local company and the project staff “must invest in proportion.” Other employees, except directors, supervisors and senior executives, could join voluntarily. The paper called co-investment the “cornerstone” of Vanke’s business partner system.
Huawei describes itself as a private company “100 percent owned by its employees,” through an employee shareholding plan. At the end of 2023, according to the Taiwanese site TechNews, the plan had 151,796 participants. The founder, Ren Zhengfei, held about 0.73 percent.
In the Huainanzi, a man skilled in divination lives near the frontier. His horse runs off to the nomads. People console him. His father says: “How do we know this is not good fortune?” Months later, the horse returns with a fine nomad horse. People congratulate him. The father says: “How do we know this is not misfortune?” The son loves to ride, falls and breaks his thigh. The father says again that it may be good fortune.
A year later, the nomads invade. The able-bodied men take up their bows and fight, and nine in ten of the people near the frontier die. Because he is lame, the son is spared. “Fortune turns into misfortune, and misfortune into fortune. The changes have no end, and their depth cannot be measured.”
In chapter 3 of Dream of the Red Chamber, the young Lin Daiyu arrives at the Jia mansion in the capital. She has often heard her mother say that this house is not like other families. “So she took care at every step and paid attention at every moment. She would not say one word more or take one step more than she had to, for fear of being laughed at.” (步步留心，时时在意，不肯轻易多说一句话，多行一步路，惟恐被人耻笑了他去)
The house is the home of her own grandmother.