Doctrine Political Work

Keep the Long Term in View and the Overall Situation in Mind to Manage Safety Well

着眼长远立足全局抓好安全管理

PLA Daily (解放军报) 27 May 2026

Summary

A PLA political work article co-authored by Huang Yu and Xu Zicheng calls on units at all levels to replace short-term, formalistic safety management with systematic, root-cause-oriented approaches, explicitly criticizing 'one-size-fits-all' controls, inspection-over-rectification habits, and fragmented thinking that misses latent risks in areas including personnel ideology, institutional gaps, and cybersecurity. The article documents a persistent institutional problem the PLA acknowledges internally: grassroots units gaming safety inspections rather than resolving underlying hazards, producing recurring incidents the chain of command cannot attribute to any single failure point. This is standard political-education content, but its value is as a baseline record of how PLA leadership frames the safety management deficit to mid-level officers and unit cadres — specifically, that the problem is behavioral and systemic rather than resource-based.

Translation

Keep the Long Term in View and the Overall Situation in Mind to Manage Safety Well

■ Huang Yu, Xu Zicheng

Safety and stability are the foundation of all the work and actions of the force, and an important prerequisite for carrying out mission tasks and advancing construction and development. At present, the great changes of a century in the world are accelerating, risks and challenges are intertwined and compounding, and the importance and complexity of the force's safety management work are becoming ever more prominent. "One who does not plan for the whole is not qualified to plan for a single domain." Safety management work spans many points and a wide front; pulling one hair moves the whole body. Negligence in any domain or any link may trigger a chain reaction and cause irreversible consequences. Only by keeping the overall situation in mind and planning systematically can we consolidate the foundation and advance steadily toward the long term. We must develop a profound understanding of the extreme importance of safety management, abandon short-sighted utilitarianism (短视功利), establish systems thinking (系统思维), drive every member to fulfill their responsibilities, earnestly manage safety well, and build a solid safety barrier.

Abandon short-sighted utilitarianism and consolidate a lasting foundation. Safety management has its own inherent laws; there are absolutely no shortcuts. In practice, some units, in pursuit of quick results, simply adopt a "one-size-fits-all" (一刀切) style of control—though effective for a time, this disregards actual conditions and plants the seeds of future trouble. Some emphasize inspection over rectification, form over substance, causing problems to recur and become deeply entrenched…. These acts of putting the trivial before the fundamental and perfunctorily shirking responsibility are no different from drinking poison to quench thirst; they cannot eradicate persistent hidden dangers. It must be understood that the key to scientific and effective safety management lies in addressing both symptoms and root causes (标本兼治) and persevering over the long term. This requires us, on one hand, to carry out safety work grounded in the realities of the grassroots level, resolving each hidden danger as it is discovered, and putting in the effort during ordinary times. On the other hand, we must strengthen governance at the source—through deepening ideological education, strengthening capability development, and improving institutional design—internalizing safety awareness in the mind, externalizing it in action, and solidifying it in systems, so as to fundamentally drive the normalization and long-term effectiveness of safety management.

Establish systems thinking and weave a tight safety network. Safety management covers all domains and the entire process of force construction; there must be no blind spots or dead zones. At present, some units and individuals display a pronounced "fragmented" (碎片化) mindset: some focus narrowly on visible hazards while ignoring latent risks; others fixate on isolated problems and sever the inherent connections among elements. If this deficiency is not eliminated, it will not only constrain the force's safety construction but will also affect the enhancement of combat effectiveness. Therefore, at all levels we must firmly establish systems thinking, be adept at unraveling individual cases to draw broader lessons and discern patterns, conduct systematic inspections for vulnerabilities from the specific to the general, and build a safety management system that is systemically integrated and highly coordinated. We must both concretely and meticulously implement routine prevention and control in visible domains such as garrison management, equipment maintenance, and training protection, and also keenly perceive hidden risks such as fluctuations in personnel ideology, gaps in institutional linkages, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities—seeing the significant in the subtle and preventing problems before they arise. Only in this way can an all-round, three-dimensional safety protection network be formed.

Drive every member to fulfill their responsibilities and consolidate overall collective strength. As the ancient saying goes: "What is lifted by accumulated strength cannot be unconquered; what is accomplished by the collective wisdom of the many cannot be unachieved." The foundation of safety is deeply rooted in every combat position and embedded in every detail. In safety management there are no "bystanders" and no "outsiders"; every member must act and every person must fulfill their responsibilities. We must firmly establish the "one game of chess" (一盘棋) mindset, clarify the safety responsibilities of every officer and soldier, and have everyone strive to be a participant in, promoter of, and defender of safety management. We must integrate safety awareness into daily life and make it a constant practice—starting from every small matter and every link—standardizing operating procedures, eliminating minor hidden dangers, and correcting bad habits. With a sense of responsibility that "never allows one to set one's mind at ease" (时时放心不下), we must implement safety responsibilities across every aspect of force construction, accumulating strength through incremental effort to build a powerful collective force and lay a durable and solid safety foundation.

Original Chinese

着眼长远立足全局抓好安全管理 ■黄煜许紫城安全稳定是部队一切工作和行动的基础，是遂行使命任务、推动建设发展的重要前提。当前，世界百年变局加速演进，风险挑战交织叠加，部队安全管理工作的重要性、复杂性愈发凸显。“不谋全局者，不足谋一域。”安全管理工作点多面广，牵一发而动全身，任何领域、任何环节的疏漏，都有可能引发连锁反应，造成难以挽回的后果。唯有胸怀全局、系统谋划，方能固本强基、行稳致远。我们要深刻认识安全管理的极端重要性，摒弃短视功利、树立系统思维、推动全员尽责，切实抓好安全管理，筑牢安全屏障。摒弃短视功利，夯实长久根基。安全管理有其内在规律，绝无捷径可走。现实中，有的单位为求速效，简单采取“一刀切”式管控，虽获一时之效，实则不顾实际、埋下后患；有的重排查轻整改，重形式轻实效，导致问题反复、积重难返……这些舍本逐末、敷衍塞责之举，无异于饮鸩止渴，难以根除隐患顽疾。须知，科学有效的安全管理，关键在于标本兼治、久久为功。这就要求我们，一方面立足基层实际抓好安全工作，做到隐患发现一处解决一处，把功夫下在平时。另一方面，强化源头治理，通过深化思想教育、加强能力培育、完善制度设计，将安全意识内化于心、外化于行、固化于制，从根本上推动安全管理常态化长效化。树立系统思维，织密安全网络。安全管理覆盖部队建设各领域、全过程，不容有死角盲区。当前，部分单位和个人“碎片化”思维明显：或紧盯显性隐患、忽视潜在风险，或拘泥于单一问题、割裂要素间内在联系。此弊不除，不仅掣肘部队安全建设，更将影响战斗力提升。因此，各级必须牢固树立系统思维，善于从个案问题中抽丝剥茧、举一反三、洞察规律，由点及面排查系统漏洞，构建系统集成、高效协同的安全管理体系。既要抓实抓细营区管理、装备维护、训练防护等显性领域的常态防控，更要敏锐洞察人员思想波动、制度衔接疏漏、网络安全隐患等隐性风险，做到见微知著、防患未然。如此，方能形成全方位、立体化的安全防护网络。推动全员尽责，凝聚整体合力。古语云：“积力之所举，则无不胜也；众智之所为，则无不成也。”安全之基深植于每个战位、内嵌于每个细节。安全管理没有“旁观者”，更无“局外人”，必须全员行动、人人尽责。要牢固树立“一盘棋”思想，明晰每名官兵的安全职责，人人争当安全管理的参与者、推动者、捍卫者。要将安全意识融入日常、抓在经常，从每件小事、每个环节做起，规范操作流程、清除细微隐患、纠治不良习惯，以“时时放心不下”的责任感，把安全责任落实到部队建设方方面面，以点滴之功汇聚强大合力，打牢持久稳固的安全根基。