Hidden Variants

On December 4, 2012, a Politburo meeting considered the Eight-point Regulation on the conduct of officials, put forward by Xi Jinping. Discipline officials later reported “hidden variants” (yinxing bianyi). Banquets went “underground, from the open into the dark,” to private clubs and company canteens. Gifts came as lecture or consulting fees and as electronic gift cards.

In 2017, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection issued a set of WeChat stickers about the regulation. One read: “No entering private clubs.”

Leaving Traces

In March 2019, the General Office of the Central Committee declared 2019 the “year of reducing burdens at the grassroots.” Its notice targeted inspections and evaluations that were “too many and too frequent,” and guodu liuhen, “excessive leaving of traces,” the record-keeping done to prove that work was done.

One rule was specific. Screenshots of work scenes or videos uploaded to WeChat work groups and government apps may not replace an assessment of the actual work.

Tutoring Goes Underground

In July 2021, the “double reduction” policy forced tutoring companies for school subjects to become non-profit organizations. A year after the policy, many small tutoring businesses had moved underground.

On December 13, 2022, the Ministry of Education and eleven other departments issued an opinion against “hidden and variant” subject tutoring. Recruitment and tutoring websites were barred from posting tutoring jobs, and advertising tutoring to primary and middle school students was banned.

Peng Dehuai’s Letter

On July 14, 1959, at the Lushan Conference, Marshal Peng Dehuai wrote a letter to Mao Zedong about the problems of the Great Leap Forward. On July 16, Mao had it printed for all participants under the title “Comrade Peng Dehuai’s Statement of Opinion,” with the note “printed for comrades’ reference.”

Peng protested that it was a personal letter to Mao. “How did it become a ‘statement of opinion’? Why is it to be discussed?” He asked to take the private letter back. In August, a plenum condemned the “anti-Party clique headed by Comrade Peng Dehuai,” and a campaign against “right deviation” began.

The Anti-Rightist Campaign

In 1957, the Party invited criticism under the slogan “let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend.” When the criticism came, a People’s Daily editorial answered: “Some say this was a plot. We say it was an open scheme (yangmou), because we told the enemy in advance. Only when poisonous weeds come out of the soil can they be easily hoed.”

By the Party’s own later count, about 550,000 people were labeled “rightists.” Figures cited from declassified central archives are far higher. The democratic parties, which had been told that “those who speak are not guilty,” no longer dared to speak in political life.

Indirect Admonition

In a story from the Strategies of the Warring States, Zou Ji asks his wife, his concubine and a guest whether he is more handsome than Lord Xu of the northern city. All say yes. When he sees Lord Xu, he knows they were wrong. His wife favored him, his concubine feared him, and the guest wanted something from him.

Zou Ji then tells King Wei of Qi that the king, surrounded by palace women, ministers and common people, is deceived far more than he is. He urges the king to open the way for criticism. The story is collected in the anthology Guwen Guanzhi as “Zou Ji Admonishes the King of Qi Indirectly to Accept Advice.”

Soft Nails

软钉子 A soft nail. A refusal or criticism made in a gentle, roundabout way.

旁敲侧击 To knock at the side and strike from the flank. To make a point indirectly, without stating it.

指桑骂槐 To point at the mulberry and curse the locust tree. To seem to blame one person while really blaming another.

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