‘Going all in on the economy’ — Phrase of the Week

Our Phrase of the Week is: Going all in on the economy (拼经济 pīn jīngjì).

The context

Around the end of Chinese New Year this year, a new phrase came into the official narrative in the outlook for 2023:

“High-quality development,” “expanding domestic demand,” and “improving the business environment” have become high-frequency words used by the local governments in their economic work. This shows the momentum at the beginning of the new year, sending a strong signal of “going all in on the economy,” and getting the new year off to a good start.

“高质量发展”“扩大内需”“营商环境”等成为地方经济工作部署的高频词，展现了新年的开局势头，释放了全力拼经济、奋战开门红的强烈信号。

Gāo zhìliàng fāzhǎn, kuòdà nèixū, yíngshāng huánjìng děng chéngwéi dìfāng jīngjì gōngzuò bùshǔ de gāopíncí, zhǎnxiàn le xīnnián de kāijú shìtóu, shìfàng le quánlì pīn jīngjì, fènzhàn kāiménhóng de qiángliè xìnhào.

We translate the phrase 拼经济 (pīn jīngjì) as going all in on the economy.

Going all in on the economy was also a big theme, and one of the keywords of the “Two Sessions,” which concluded last week:

In 2023, the year of recovery, we will go all in on the economy. The “Two Sessions” sent out an even stronger signal on that.

2023年，复苏之年，全力拼经济。全国两会期间，信号再次加强。

2023 nián, fùsū zhī nián, quánlì pīn jīngjì. Quánguó liǎnghuì qíjiān, xìnhào zàicì jiāqiáng.

So that’s our Phrase of the Week.

What it means

The single character 拼 (pīn) has a number of meanings, but here it means to “fight for,” or “do at any cost.”

Its use tends to be more of a slang word than something you would expect to find in a Chinese government press statement. But slang words often become absorbed into the official narrative, if it helps make a point. The government actually likes to use more-colloquial terms because they are catchy, down-to-earth, and easy to remember.

Three-character verb-noun phrases like this are common. Other common official phrases include promote growth (促发展 cù fāzhǎn) and stabilize the economy (稳增 wěn zēngzhǎng).

The character 拼 (pīn) is a verb here, which translates as going all in on.

It can also be an adjective, for example:

You work so hard!

你好拼！

Nǐ hǎo pīn!

Another common phrase meaning the same thing is 拼命 (pīnmìng), which translates as to put one’s life on the line. This means to do everything you can to get out of a desperate situation. It’s also a common phrase in China’s 996 culture to describe workaholics who do nothing else other than work hard.

Although this new iteration is not translated as desperate, it is implied. China’s economy has been battered by COVID lockdowns, so something miraculous needs to happen in 2023. In earlier slogans about the economy, the Chinese government focused on stabilizing the economy (稳经济 wěn jīngjì) and driving growth (促发展 cù fāzhǎn). Now it’s all about going all in to save the economy.

So expect this phrase to be repeated throughout the year:

Going all in on the economy, going all in on development.

全力拼经济，拼发展。

Quánlì pīn jīngjì, pīn fāzhǎn.