The phrase had referred to a line that separated socially permissible behaviour from that which went against commonly understood values. Salacious videos, pornography, vulgar entertainment—these were considered below the moral baseline and something that society (and consequently political authorities) saw as unacceptable. Most often, Party conservatives employed the phrase to denote social conduct that they found unbecoming to socialist values.
However, in response to the recent vaccine scandal in Jilin and Hubei, Premier Li Keqiang 李克强 stated that companies responsible for lapses in supervision ‘crossed the people’s moral baseline’ (突破人的道德底线). Presently, references to actions that approach or breach ‘the moral baseline’ more often concern institutions in the private sector or local officials whose decisions and conduct are cast as undermining trust and threatening social order.