護短遮丑 (hùduǎn zhēchǒu): Cover up faults and defects

People's Daily, a top newspaper and website in the country, ran an article on Tuesday, warning that the prerequisite for effectively safeguarding the Party's image is that any Party organization or senior leader should never cover up faults and defects. Justifying mistakes only encourages the evil trends within the Party. All the Party members are the spokespeople of the Party's image, and are responsible for maintaining the Party's image.

The Party's image is made up of every Party member's image. The public usually evaluates the Party through the behavior of its members, thus every member's word or action may affect the Party's image.

One premise of effectively maintaining the Party's image is that the Party leaders don't try to cover up the mistakes their units or departments have made. With the view that domestic shame should not be made public, some officials are reluctant to admit the faults in the work and try to make excuses or cover them up. Such behavior not only has a bad influence within the Party, it also undermines the Party's image and authority.