{"text":"Qiushi offers an authoritative articulation of the central government’s priorities at any moment. Its job, like the rest of the state media, consists of repetition and explication of a few phrases. It’s easy to roll one’s eyes at crude sloganeering, like the two centenary goals of achieving a “moderately prosperous society in all respects” by 2021 and “a modern socialist country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people” by 2049. But the need to fix slogans makes good sense in Chinese governance: the party center has to speak to all local officials as well as the entire population. As Richard Epstein has argued, the greater the complexity in a system, the simpler the rules that govern it must be. One should allow, for example, extensive and nuanced bargaining between buyer and seller at the vegetable stall, but for an online marketplace to manage millions of transactions a day, then its rules must be very simple indeed.","title":"2020 Letter","author":"Dan Wang","url":null,"source_url":"https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvcjj5w4vmbagnfxmg591c9v","source_type":"article","category":null,"location_type":"offset","location":8155,"note":"《求是》杂志在任何时候都提供中央政府的权威表述。它的工作，就像其他国家媒体一样，包括重复和解释几个短语。粗糙的口号，如“到2021年实现全面建设社会主义现代化国家”和“到2049年实现中华民族伟大复兴”，很容易让人翻白眼。但在中国治理中，修正口号是有道理的：党中央必须与所有地方官员以及整个人民讲话。正如理查德·爱普斯坦所说，系统越复杂，管理它的规则就必须越简单。例如，应该允许买家和卖家在蔬菜摊位上进行广泛而细致的讨价还价，但对于一个每天管理数百万交易的在线市场来说，它的规则必须非常简单。","highlighted_at":"2023-03-14T06:07:49.937957Z","highlight_url":"https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvfbpq6pcges1mp3pmpbrwwd","image_url":"https://i1.wp.com/danwang.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/nasa-titan.jpg?fit=700%2C1044&ssl=1","id":491135986,"api_source":null}