On April 17, 2021, a post titled Lying Flat Is Justice appeared on the forum Baidu Tieba, written by a user called “the good-hearted traveler.” Tangping, lying flat, came to mean withdrawing from fierce competition and no longer striving. It made the lists of the top words of 2021.
In May 2021, Southern Daily answered with a commentary titled “Lying Flat Is Shameful. Where Is the Justice in It?” Xinhua reprinted it.
Tongrentang, the Beijing pharmacy founded in 1669, keeps an old pledge: “Though the preparation is laborious, we never dare to save labor. Though the ingredients are costly, we never dare to reduce materials.”
On September 7, 1937, Mao Zedong wrote a short text called Combat Liberalism (反对自由主义). It lists the kinds of liberal behavior inside the Party. The second is “irresponsible criticism behind people’s backs, instead of making suggestions to the organization.”
“Saying nothing to people’s faces, but talking wildly behind their backs. Saying nothing at the meeting, but talking wildly after it.” (当面不说，背后乱说；开会不说，会后乱说。)
In June 2024, a Xinhua commentary criticized 面子工程, “face projects that care only about the face and not about the lining” (只重面子、不顾里子).
In November 2025, another Xinhua commentary on formalism wrote: “The essence of ‘face projects’ is a distorted view of political achievement and a lack of responsibility.”
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.
Construction of the Shenzhen International Trade Center began in April 1982. At first each floor took seven days, then six, five and four. From the 31st floor on, the builders kept to three days per floor. CCTV’s evening news and People’s Daily followed the progress, and “three days a floor” became known across the country.
The main tower was topped out on April 30, 1984, a full month early. At 160 meters, it was then the tallest building in China. Shenzhen sudu, “Shenzhen speed,” became a phrase for the pace of the whole zone.
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.
In 2019, media reported that mines of Shandong Changsheng Mining in Xintai, Shandong, had painted the rocks around a stone-processing plant green. According to the reports, the aim was to get through environmental inspections and to deceive satellite monitoring.
In March 1981, Yuan Geng, head of the Shekou Industrial Zone in Shenzhen, wrote the slogan “Time is money, efficiency is life.” It brought him heavy criticism. Critics called him “a capitalist who wants money and lives” and spoke of “the restoration of capitalism.” The giant billboard was put up in Shekou and taken down several times.
In January 1984, Deng Xiaoping endorsed the slogan on his first visit to Shenzhen. On October 1, 1984, it rode past Tiananmen on the Shekou float in the National Day parade.
The Eastern Han scholar Sima Hui never spoke of other people’s faults. Whatever he heard, he answered “Good.” Asked how he was, he said “Good.” When a man told him that his son had died, he said “Very good.” His wife scolded him. Sima Hui replied: “What you say is also very good.”
The Ming writer Feng Menglong, who tells the story, says that the expression 好好先生, Mr. Good-Good, comes from it. Dictionaries define it as a person who does not ask what is right or wrong and only wants peace.