On March 1, 2021, trial rules of the China Association of Performing Arts on the conduct of performers took effect. A performer who breaks them faces a joint boycott across the industry for one, three or five years, or for life.
To return to the stage, the performer must apply in the three months before the boycott ends, and may perform again only with approval.
In November 2018, the Ministry of Education issued the Ten Standards of Professional Conduct for University Teachers in the New Era. The standards are to be applied in hiring, appointment and evaluation, with a “one-vote veto” for breaches of teacher ethics, yi piao fou jue.
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.”
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.
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.
In May 2007, a large bloom of blue-green algae spread on Lake Tai, and residents of Wuxi rushed to buy bottled water. In August, Wuxi issued trial rules with water quality targets for its rivers and lakes. People’s Daily later reported that this is regarded as the origin of the river chief system (hezhang zhi), which makes the leading Party and government officials of each level responsible for each river.
Changxing County in Zhejiang had already set up river chiefs in 2003. In December 2016, the Central Committee and the State Council ordered the system for the whole country.
In October 2011, seven provinces and cities, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong, Hubei and Shenzhen, started local pilots for trading carbon emission rights.
On July 16, 2021, national carbon emission trading started at the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange.
In October 2002, the Central Committee and the State Council decided to strengthen health work in the countryside. In 2003, the provinces began to pilot a new rural cooperative medical scheme, xin nonghe. At first, each member paid 10 yuan and the government added 10.
By 2008, the scheme covered basically the whole countryside.
试点 A trial point. Work done first on a small scale to gain experience before it is spread. Also the place where the trial runs.
以点带面 To let the point lead the surface. A breakthrough at a key point drives progress in the whole.
In 2024, People’s Daily wrote: “A pilot is a test field that grows seedlings into a forest, not a potted plant that looks bright and pretty but is worth nothing when transplanted.” In 2015, it had noted a problem: “Some places are very successful in the pilot, but when it is spread, it meets obstacles and cannot be pushed forward.”
From January 18 to February 21, 1992, Deng Xiaoping, then 88, toured Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shanghai. “Reform and opening must be bolder and dare to experiment,” he said. “Once we see clearly, we should boldly try and boldly break through.”
“Without upholding socialism, without reform and opening, without developing the economy and improving the people’s lives, there is only a dead end.”