On the morning of May 18, 1966, Lin Biao spoke to an enlarged meeting of the Politburo. “If we unify the whole army and the whole Party with Mao Zedong Thought, every problem can be solved,” he said. “Every sentence of Chairman Mao’s is truth. One of his sentences outweighs ten thousand of ours.”
Waiting for Notice From Above
In October 2025, a commentary on the People’s Forum website described two phrases that had become common in some places and offices facing a public controversy: “wait for notice from above” and “follow the leader’s arrangements.” Even matters clearly within an office’s own authority, it said, “must wait for a superior to speak.”
The commentary quoted Xinhua, which called this way of handling public opinion “looking only upward and not at the facts.”
The Leader’s Intent
In August 2015, the website of the National Development and Reform Commission published “Five Steps for Writing Official Documents,” by an official of a county Party organization department in Yunnan. The writer, it says, must “learn the leader’s intentions in detail” and the requirements for the document, and leave out personal likes and dislikes.
The writer should then “take the leader’s point of view” to understand the situation, analyze problems and propose measures.
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.
Object, Then Carry Out
Under Article 60 of the Civil Servant Law, as revised in 2018, a civil servant who believes a superior’s decision or order is wrong may propose to the superior that it be corrected or withdrawn. If the superior does not change it, or demands immediate action, the civil servant must carry it out. The superior then bears the consequences.
A civil servant who carries out a clearly illegal decision or order is held responsible for it.
Deliberation Before the Meeting
China’s 2019 Regulations on the Selection and Appointment of Party and Government Leading Cadres set out how leaders are chosen. Article 34 says that before a candidate is discussed and decided, the choice “shall be deliberated” (进行酝酿) among the leading members of the Party committee, the standing committee of the people’s congress, the government and the political consultative conference.
Only after that does the formal meeting vote, “on the basis of full discussion,” by voice, by show of hands or by secret ballot. The word 酝酿 originally means the fermentation of wine.
Smashing the Refrigerators
In 1985, Zhang Ruimin, head of the factory that later became Haier, found that 76 of the more than 400 refrigerators in the warehouse had quality defects. He ordered them smashed. He took up the hammer himself and struck the first blow, and the workers who had made the faulty units smashed the rest.
“If I allow these 76 refrigerators to be sold,” he told them, “it is the same as allowing you to produce 760 more like them tomorrow.” The hammer was later taken into the National Museum of China.
The Vocabulary of Rank
一把手 The first hand. The head of a unit or organization.
拍板 To strike the board. In old trading houses, a sale was sealed by striking a wooden board. Today it means that the person in charge makes the final decision.
一言堂 The hall of one word. Once a shop’s sign for fixed prices. Today a leader who decides alone.
官大一级压死人 An official one rank higher crushes a person to death. In 2018, the Party’s discipline newspaper used the phrase to criticize an official who pulled rank.
Leaders’ Written Instructions
In Chinese government, a leader’s short written comment on a report or document is called a pishi (批示), a written instruction. It turns the document into a task for the people below.
In 2016, Xi Jinping wrote such an instruction on the study of Mao Zedong’s essay on the working methods of Party committees. The Central Organization Department then issued a notice to carry it out. According to the Party’s news site, the instruction set clear requirements for every member of every Party leadership team, and especially for its principal leaders.
Ask First, Report After
In February 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued Regulations on Requesting Instructions and Reporting on Major Matters. Their rule is short: what must be requested must be requested, and what must be reported must be reported (该请示的必须请示，该报告的必须报告).
A request to a higher Party organization on a major matter must be made in advance, so that the higher level has enough time to study it and decide. Only when an emergency leaves no time to ask may an official act first. Even then, the official must report to the higher level promptly afterwards.