In a 2009 speech titled “Openness, Compromise and Gray,” Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei said: “This harmonious process is called compromise, and its harmonious result is called gray.” Direction and principle cannot be compromised, he said. “But everything on the way to the goal can be compromised, as long as it helps reach the goal.” He added: “Tolerance is a kind of strength, not weakness.”
Combat Liberalism
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。)
Cutting the Feet to Fit the Shoes
Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, visited IBM in 1997. In early 1999, Huawei began a reform of its product development, Integrated Product Development, designed by IBM as consultant. Ren described the policy as xue zu shi lü, cutting the feet to fit the shoes, and told the company: “The pain of cutting the feet to wear the American shoes well is repaid by the joy of a system that runs smoothly.”
The reform was summed up in a slogan: “First rigidify, then optimize, then solidify. Whoever does not change his thinking is replaced.”
Indirect Admonition
In a story from the Strategies of the Warring States, Zou Ji asks his wife, his concubine and a guest whether he is more handsome than Lord Xu of the northern city. All say yes. When he sees Lord Xu, he knows they were wrong. His wife favored him, his concubine feared him, and the guest wanted something from him.
Zou Ji then tells King Wei of Qi that the king, surrounded by palace women, ministers and common people, is deceived far more than he is. He urges the king to open the way for criticism. The story is collected in the anthology Guwen Guanzhi as “Zou Ji Admonishes the King of Qi Indirectly to Accept Advice.”
Soft Nails
软钉子 A soft nail. A refusal or criticism made in a gentle, roundabout way.
旁敲侧击 To knock at the side and strike from the flank. To make a point indirectly, without stating it.
指桑骂槐 To point at the mulberry and curse the locust tree. To seem to blame one person while really blaming another.
Yellow Cat, Black Cat
On July 7, 1962, speaking about how to judge household contracting in farming, Deng Xiaoping said: “Comrade Liu Bocheng often quotes a Sichuan saying: ‘Yellow cat or black cat, as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat.’ He said it about fighting. We beat Chiang Kai-shek because we did not follow the old rules and the old roads.”
The saying is popularly remembered as “white cat, black cat.” In 1976, the Party journal Red Flag attacked the “white cat, black cat” theory for erasing the difference between socialism and capitalism.
Strong Ties
In a 1988 survey in Tianjin, the sociologist Bian Yanjie found that jobs were obtained through strong ties more often than through weak ties. Job seekers often reached their helpers through an intermediary to whom both sides had strong ties, and those who used such indirect ties got better jobs. He published the study in 1997 in the American Sociological Review as “Bringing Strong Ties Back In.”
Trust Without Contracts
In Rural China (乡土中国), the sociologist Fei Xiaotong describes rural society as a society of people who know one another. There, he writes, “trust does not rest on respect for contracts.” It comes from “the reliability of knowing the rules of conduct so well that one acts without thinking.”
Acquaintances, he notes, say: “We are all acquaintances. A greeting is enough, why say more?” In modern society people fear that “the spoken word is no proof,” so “they make a mark and sign their names. Only then does law begin.”
The Vocabulary of Acquaintance
熟人 An acquaintance, a person one knows well. Its opposite is 生人, a stranger, literally a “raw person.”
靠谱 Reliable, trustworthy. Said of a person who does things in a sensible way.
拉关系 To pull connections. To make friends with someone one barely knows, for a purpose.
走后门 To go through the back door. To get things done through improper private connections.
在家靠父母，出门靠朋友 At home, rely on parents. Away from home, rely on friends.
Change of Circumstances
Article 533 of China’s Civil Code covers a contract whose basic conditions change in a major way that the parties could not foresee and that is not a commercial risk. If continued performance would be clearly unfair to one party, “the party adversely affected may renegotiate with the other party.” Only if they fail to agree within a reasonable time may either party ask a court or an arbitration body to change or end the contract.
In one reported case, a court refused a request for higher rent based on rising prices.