China Archives - Page 92 of 112 - understand-culture

Same Gauge, Same Script

After Qin conquered the last of the rival states in 221 BC, the First Emperor imposed one system on the whole realm. He set up commanderies and counties everywhere and unified weights and measures. His measures are remembered in the phrase che tong gui, shu tong wen: carts on the same gauge, writing in the same script.

The six conquered states had each written in their own way. On the advice of his minister Li Si, the emperor abolished their scripts and made the small seal script the standard for the whole country.

Simplified Characters

On January 28, 1956, the State Council adopted the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme. People’s Daily printed it in full on January 31. From February 1, the first list of simplified characters came into use across the country.

In 1957, during a brief period of open criticism, Guangming Daily and Wenhui Bao printed many objections to simplification. On January 10, 1958, Premier Zhou Enlai answered them. He said that “rightists” had attacked the reform and wanted the State Council to withdraw its order. Simplification, he said, “should be firmly supported.”

Xiong’an New Area

On April 1, 2017, the Central Committee and the State Council announced their decision to create the Xiong’an New Area in Hebei. Official sources call it qiannian daji, guojia dashi, “a plan for a thousand years, a major matter of state.”

The new city counts its history from the day of the announcement.

The Ten New Measures

On December 7, 2022, the State Council’s joint prevention and control mechanism issued ten new measures on COVID-19. People moving between regions would no longer have to show a negative test or a health code, and there would be no more tests on arrival. Infected people with mild or no symptoms could generally isolate at home. Temporary lockdowns could no longer be widened at will to whole residential compounds, communities or streets.

Cutting the Feet to Fit the Shoes

Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, visited IBM in 1997. In early 1999, Huawei began a reform of its product development, Integrated Product Development, designed by IBM as consultant. Ren described the policy as xue zu shi lü, cutting the feet to fit the shoes, and told the company: “The pain of cutting the feet to wear the American shoes well is repaid by the joy of a system that runs smoothly.”

The reform was summed up in a slogan: “First rigidify, then optimize, then solidify. Whoever does not change his thinking is replaced.”

The Vocabulary of Command

一锤定音 One blow of the hammer fixes the tone. Originally the last blow that set the sound of a gong. Today, a single word that settles a matter.

令行禁止 Orders are carried out at once, and bans are obeyed at once.

雷厉风行 Like thunder and wind. Forceful and fast. In 2024, People’s Daily called it the spirit that leading officials should keep when they put work into practice.

Special Economic Zones

On August 26, 1980, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved four special economic zones: Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong, and Xiamen in Fujian. Official accounts describe them as the vanguard of reform and opening, the first to go ahead and its “experimental zones.”

From One Province to the Nation

In early 1980, the Anhui Party committee backed the household contracting begun in villages such as Xiaogang. That spring, Wan Li, who had supported it in Anhui, moved to Beijing as vice premier. A fierce debate followed, in Anhui and across China, and some said that contracting land to households was not the socialist road.

From 1982 to 1984, the Central Committee’s “No. 1 Document” confirmed household contracting three years in a row as a socialist form of responsibility. According to official data, almost all production teams had adopted it by 1984. Grain output rose from 609.5 billion jin in 1978 to 814.6 billion jin in 1984.

The Negative List

On September 29, 2013, the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone opened, the first in mainland China. With it came the country’s first “negative list” for foreign investment. It restricted parts of 18 sectors, among them mining, manufacturing, construction and retail.

In 2018, a national negative list for foreign investment was published, and it took effect at the end of July.

The Property Tax That Stayed a Pilot

On January 28, 2011, Shanghai began to tax some private homes. Chongqing started a property tax pilot the same month.

Ten years later, in January 2021, the China Securities Journal reported that the pilot cities were still only Shanghai and Chongqing, and that there was no sign yet of a property tax for the whole country.

A pilot can also remain a pilot.