一刀切 One cut for all. To handle different cases by one uniform method, regardless of actual conditions.
因噎废食 To give up eating because of choking. The Handian dictionary traces it to the Lüshi Chunqiu: “If someone has choked to death and one wants to forbid food to the whole world, that is absurd.”
In October 2023, the Jiefang Daily reported that in some primary schools, pupils could not leave the classroom during the ten-minute break, except to use the toilet or fetch water. Other schools allowed walking in the corridor, but not going down the stairs or out to the playground. The paper wrote that the schools’ biggest worry was student safety, because schools often bore unlimited responsibility.
The Ministry of Education said it would guide schools to “give out-of-class time back to the children.”
On May 22, 2021, 21 runners died and eight were injured in a 100-kilometer mountain race at the Yellow River Stone Forest in Baiyin, Gansu. In early June, the General Administration of Sport suspended, “from today,” mountain trail running, Gobi crossings, wingsuit flying, ultra-long-distance running and other “emerging high-risk sports events with unclear management responsibility, imperfect rules and unclear safety standards.”
In September 2008, during the melamine scandal, China’s quality inspection authority ended the national inspection-exempt status of all food producers. Radio Free Asia reported that the exemption marks on their products became void at once.
At 9 a.m. on March 11, 2019, after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8, the Civil Aviation Administration of China ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operation of the type by 6 p.m. that day. It cited the principle of “zero tolerance for safety hazards.” Both crashes of the type had involved newly delivered aircraft during takeoff. A deputy head of the administration said China was the first country in the world to do so.
On August 31, 2018, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued a guiding opinion that said: “Resolutely oppose ‘one size fits all.'” It prohibited responses such as “shut everything down” and “stop first, then see.” Xinhua, reporting on the opinion, called these “perfunctory responses” and wrote that firms meeting environmental requirements were not to be subjected to collective halts of production.
In 2007, a pregnant woman, Li Liyun, was brought to a Beijing hospital in critical condition. Doctors recommended an immediate cesarean. Her partner, Xiao Zhijun, refused to sign the consent form. Without a family signature, the hospital did not operate, and she and her unborn child died.
The hospital cited “Article 33 of the health administration regulations”: “Only after the patient’s family has signed can we carry out an operation. This happened because the family refused to sign, so we bear no responsibility.”
Article 33 of the Regulations on the Administration of Medical Institutions also contains a second path: a doctor may proceed with a treatment plan after obtaining the approval of the head of the institution.
On November 20, 2006, an elderly woman, Xu Shoulan, fell at a bus stop in Nanjing. Peng Yu took her to the hospital. She then demanded that he pay her medical costs, saying he had caused her fall. He refused, and in January 2007 she sued him. In September 2007, the Gulou District Court found that neither side was at fault. Under the principle of fairness, it ordered Peng Yu to pay 40 percent of her losses.
The judge reasoned that if Peng had been doing a good deed, he could have explained what happened to her family and left. After the case, Chinese Wikipedia notes, more cases against helpers were reported, and people became afraid to help an elderly person who had fallen.
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.