Named Owner Archives - understand-culture

The Legal Representative

Under the Supreme People’s Court’s rules on restricting high consumption, in the version issued in July 2015, restrictions on a company in debt extend to the people behind it, beginning with its fading daibiaoren, its legal representative.

Article 3 reads: “Where the person subject to enforcement is an entity, once consumption restrictions have been imposed, the entity and its legal representative, its principal responsible person, the persons directly responsible for the failure to pay and its actual controller may not engage in the conduct listed in the preceding paragraph.”

The First Responsible Person

Article 5 of China’s Work Safety Law reads: “The principal person in charge of a production or business unit is the first responsible person for work safety in that unit and is fully responsible for its work safety. The other persons in charge are responsible for work safety within the scope of their duties.”

The law was adopted in 2002. Its latest revision dates from June 10, 2021.

Responsibility of the First Person Asked

Chinese local governments have adopted a shouwen fuze zhi, a system of responsibility of the first person asked. The city of Ningguo defines it: when a member of the public comes to a service window, calls, writes or asks for help, “the first member of staff who receives or accepts the matter bears the responsibility for handling it, answering, passing it on or guiding the person.”

A 2017 Chongqing rule for investment approvals goes further. The first department to receive an application must handle and answer it according to law, or coordinate with the other departments, “and be responsible to the applicant to the end.”

Names on the Building

On August 25, 2014, China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued interim measures on the lifetime quality responsibility of the project heads of a building’s five responsible parties. After a building passes inspection, the developer must fix a permanent sign in a prominent place on it. The sign names the developer, the surveyor, the designer, the builder and the supervisor, and gives the name of each one’s project head.

These project heads are responsible for the quality of the building for its whole design life.

Three Guarantees Before the Door

Beijing’s rules on the menqian sanbao system, “three guarantees in front of the door,” took effect on April 1, 1999. Shops and work units are responsible for an assigned zone outside their premises: its cleanliness, its greenery and its order. For cleanliness, the unit must “keep the assigned area clean, sweep the ground, and remove spit, dirt, waste, standing water and snow.”

A 2026 Guangzhou rule sets three duties of its own for each frontage: a clean environment, a tidy appearance and good order.

Nine Dragons Manage the Water

九龙治水 Nine dragons manage the water. Said when many agencies share one task and none of them answers for it.

In 2014, water hyacinth spread over the Yangtze near Ezhou. The CPPCC Daily ran the headline: “Many departments pass the buck, and no one takes charge.” The article said: “The key is to solve the problem of ‘nine dragons managing the water’ and unclear responsibilities.”

The Maker’s Name

物勒工名，以考其诚: “Engrave the maker’s name on the object, to examine his sincerity.” The line appears in the Lüshi Chunqiu and, in a slightly different form, in the Book of Rites. It goes on: “If the work is not right, his crime must be punished, to get to the bottom of it.”

Qin law had a related rule. A statute on the bamboo slips found at Shuihudi orders that state armor and weapons be engraved with the name of the office responsible for them. Another fines the official in charge one shield when state vessels are not engraved.

The Military Pledge

A junlingzhuang is a written pledge given on receiving an order. The signer accepts severe punishment if the task is not done. In chapter 46 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a pledge reads: “I am willing to submit a military pledge. If it is not done in three days, I accept heavy punishment.”

A CCTV News article noted that the fight against poverty was the only task since the 18th Party Congress for which Party and government heads signed military pledges to the Center. Xi Jinping said in 2016: “A military pledge is not made lightly. What we say, we must do.”

River Chiefs

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.

Premier Responsibility System

Article 86 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China says: “The State Council operates under the premier responsibility system. The ministries and commissions operate under the responsibility system of ministers and directors.”