From 1745, according to Chinese and English accounts, every foreign ship that came to trade at Guangzhou needed a baoshang, a security merchant, from among the licensed hong merchants. He was fully responsible for the foreign merchants’ duties and conduct. If foreigners left taxes unpaid, the hong merchants had to pay them.
In 1754, the hong merchants were made jointly liable for one another, without limit.
Article 13 of the Regulations on the Selection and Appointment of Party and Government Leading Officials, in force since March 3, 2019: “When an individual recommends a candidate for a leading post to the Party organization, he must write the recommendation responsibly and sign it.”
Private firms in Wenzhou often guaranteed one another’s bank loans, forming what the press called 担保圈, guarantee circles. In August 2014, the 21st Century Business Herald reported that at the end of June that year, 28 circles in Wenzhou involved 50.7 billion yuan of bank credit. The figure came from a local post that was quickly deleted.
One plastic film maker in Ruian, Huatai Group, defaulted on about 409 million yuan owed to 14 banks. Five firms had guaranteed it, and it had guaranteed six others for 284 million yuan. Eleven firms were caught in one chain.
In Wei, Zheng An’ping hid the fugitive Fan Ju under a new name. When the Qin envoy Wang Ji asked whether Wei had a worthy man to take west, Zheng An’ping brought Fan Ju to him at night. Wang Ji carried Fan Ju into Qin, where he rose to chief minister. At Fan Ju’s urging, the king made Wang Ji governor of Hedong and also took on Zheng An’ping, as a general.
Later, Zheng An’ping was surrounded by Zhao and surrendered with 20,000 men. Fan Ju sat on straw and asked to be punished. The Records of the Grand Historian explains: “Under the law of Qin, when a man recommends someone and the one recommended proves bad, each is punished for that crime.” Fan Ju’s crime called for the seizure of three sets of his kin.
King Zhaoxiang, afraid of hurting his chief minister’s feelings, ordered that anyone who spoke of Zheng An’ping would be punished for the same crime.
Under Article 10 of China’s Securities Law, as revised in 2019, a company that offers shares to the public through underwriters must engage a securities firm as its baojianren (保荐人), its sponsor. The word joins bao, to guarantee, and jian, to recommend. The sponsor must carefully check the issuer’s application documents and disclosures “and supervise the issuer’s proper operation.”
Article 182 sets the penalty for a sponsor letter with false records, misleading statements or major omissions. The sponsor is warned, its business income is confiscated, and it is fined one to ten times that income. The sponsor system took effect on February 1, 2004.
Foreign trading houses in late Qing China dealt with Chinese merchants through a 买办, a comprador. After 1842, compradors handled the firms’ buying and selling with inland Chinese merchants for a commission. They also hired, managed and guaranteed the firms’ Chinese employees.
A comprador needed a guarantor of his own and often paid a deposit. The guarantor signed a letter of guarantee, witnessed by the foreign firm’s agent and signed by the consulate. Compradors were the richest Chinese merchants of the late Qing.
引荐 To lead in and recommend. To recommend someone, or to introduce someone into a group.
中保 A guarantor in the middle. A person who stands between the two sides of a sale or a loan and answers for it.
铺保 A shop guarantee. In the past, a guarantee given for a person in the name of a shop.
不看僧面看佛面 If not for the monk’s face, then for the Buddha’s. To help or forgive someone for the sake of a third person.
Under Article 5 of the Constitution of the Communist Party of China, anyone who applies to join must fill in an application and have two full Party members as sponsors, jieshaoren.
The sponsors must learn about the applicant’s thinking, character, history and work. They explain the Party’s program and constitution to the applicant and make a responsible report to the Party organization.
拍胸脯 To pat one’s chest. To take responsibility, to vouch for something. A dictionary example: “No problem, I dare to pat my chest on it!”
打包票 To issue a guarantee. To give a full guarantee.
包在我身上 Wrap it on my body. Leave it to me, I guarantee it.