meetings Archives - Page 2 of 13

Meetings to Implement Meetings

On June 18, 2013, at a work conference in Beijing, Xi Jinping named the “four winds” that the Party’s new campaign would fight: formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance. Formalism came first.

In July 2023, a Xinhua commentary called “carrying out meetings with meetings and implementing documents with documents” a chronic bad practice that had to be fought harder. In June 2024, an article on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection warned against “implementing meetings with meetings and implementing documents with documents.”

The Squad Leader

On March 13, 1949, Mao Zedong set out the working methods of Party committees. The first heading reads: “The Party committee secretary must be good at being a ‘squad leader.'” A committee of ten or twenty people, Mao wrote, “is like a squad in the army, and the secretary is like the ‘squad leader.'”

The same text sets a limit to the image. “Of course, the relation between the secretary and the members is that the minority obeys the majority. This is different from the relation between a squad leader and his soldiers.”

Collective Study Sessions

On the afternoon of July 30, 2026, the Politburo held its 27th collective study session, on advancing the high-quality modernization of national defense and the armed forces. Sun Zheng, of the Strategic Planning Office of the Central Military Commission, gave the lecture and made proposals for the work.

Xinhua reported what Xi Jinping “emphasized while presiding over the study.” It added: “After listening to the lecture and the discussion, Xi Jinping gave an important speech.”

Seats on the Rostrum

In January 2022, the people’s court of the Evenk Autonomous Banner published a guide to seating on the rostrum on its official account. With an odd number of leaders, “the main leader takes the C position, in the center.” The No. 2 leader sits at the No. 1 leader’s left hand, and the No. 3 leader at his right.

With an even number, the No. 1 and No. 2 leaders share the middle. “Of course, the No. 2 leader still sits at the No. 1 leader’s left hand.”

The Vocabulary of Meetings

定调子 To fix the key. Originally, to set the pitch of a piece of music. Figuratively, to fix the basic direction of an activity or a piece of work before it begins.

表态 To show one’s attitude. To state one’s opinion or position in public.

汇报 To report. To gather material and report it to a superior, or to the masses, as in 汇报工作, to report on one’s work.

Brewing Before the Meeting

The Communist Party’s Regulations on the Work of Local Committees, dated December 25, 2015, say that local Party committees and their standing committees make decisions by “collective leadership, democratic centralism, individual brewing, and decision at the meeting” (集体领导、民主集中、个别酝酿、会议决定). The Party committee of one university uses the word in its own rules. Its secretary and deputy secretaries “should fully communicate and brew important questions before the meeting, and exchange views.”

Good-Guy-ism

In September 2013, People’s Daily Online, carrying a Xinhua report, gave Xi Jinping’s call to “firmly oppose liberalism and good-guy-ism (好人主义) in Party life.” A Hebei official described the habit of avoiding conflict: “Afraid of touching contradictions, they plant more flowers and fewer thorns.” (多栽花少栽刺)

In 2021, an article in People’s Daily wrote: “A spirit of harmony, Mr. Nice Guys, you are good, I am good, everyone is good. This is not unity. It is slackness, and also a kind of numbness.”

The Top Leader Speaks Last

In 2013 and 2014, several provinces, among them Yunnan, Henan and Anhui, wrote a “speak last” rule (末位表态) into their decision procedures. Yunnan did so in June 2013, and Henan in May 2014. When a leading group discusses a decision, the other members state their views first. The top leader states a view last.

A 2014 report on the rules gave the reason: “The other members of the group speak first, and the top leader speaks last. This will help to avoid a ‘hall of one voice.'”

Under the Eaves

When word came that Cao Cao was moving east, Sun Quan discussed it with his officers. All of them urged him to welcome Cao Cao. Lu Su alone said nothing. When Sun Quan rose to change his clothes, Lu Su followed him out under the eaves. Sun Quan took his hand and asked: “What do you want to say?”

Lu Su told him that the others’ advice would ruin him. Lu Su himself could submit to Cao Cao and still keep an official post. Sun Quan could not. “Settle the great plan early, and do not use the advice of the many.” (Records of the Three Kingdoms)

Their first conversation had gone the same way. After the other guests left, Sun Quan called Lu Su back alone. They sat on the same couch, drank, and “discussed in secret.”

One by One, Then the Meeting

Article 10 of the Party Constitution sets the rule for decisions in Party committees. “All important questions are to be discussed and decided collectively by the Party committee, according to the principle of collective leadership, democratic centralism, individual deliberation and decision by meeting.”

In the original, the four steps are 集体领导、民主集中、个别酝酿、会议决定. The third, 个别酝酿, is deliberation with members one by one, before the meeting. The meeting comes last.