<span class="chinese-post-title">李代桃僵</span> Sacrifice the Plum Tree In Place of the Peach Tree from the <span class="chinese-post-title">三十六計</span> Thirty-Six Stratagems

李代桃僵

势必有损，损阴则益阳。

"There are circumstances in which you must sacrifice short-term objectives in order to gain the long-term goal. This is the scapegoat strategy whereby someone else suffers the consequences so that the rest do not. "

Quoted from Chinese Classics and Translations