Book report on Xi Jinping: The Governance of China

Want China Times, Chang Ching 2015-02-04

Copies of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China with its eye-catching cover
design at a bookstore in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, Oct. 29, 2014. (Photo/CNS)

The book Xi Jinping: The Governance of China has sold more than 3 million copies since its release in September 2014.

In 18 chapters comprising 79 articles, the book highlight Xi's speeches, answers to questions, conversations and instructions, from the period Nov. 15, 2012 to June 13, 2014, according to a government press release.

The book was compiled by the State Council Information Office of China, the Party Literature Research Center of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and China International Publishing Group, the CPC's main propaganda organs.

The book has been published by Foreign Languages Press in Chinese, English, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Japanese, and distributed worldwide.

It debuted at the Frankfurt book fair on Oct. 8, 2014, giving insights into the thinking and practice of the Chinese central leadership and addressing concerns from the international community on China's rise, the future direction the country will take and how it plans to influence the world.

The book was launched in Taiwan at a Taipei book fair on Dec. 14. Given the increasing economic and trade engagements and cultural and educational exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, it would be helpful for Taiwan's public to have some knowledge of the book.

Although the book appears to be mainly a collection of Xi's speeches, it should be considered the collective thinking of the administrative and party powers, in light of its broad publication and the state bodies involved in its compilation.

Second, Xi's comments on Taiwan recorded in the book are all related to keynote speeches by Kuomintang figures including honorary chairmen Lien Chan and Wu Poh-hsiung, former vice president Vincent Siew and minor opposition People First Party chairman James Soong, and have policy implications.

Finally, the compilation of selected remarks by Xi on major policies was a response to public allegations of a lack of transparency in Beijing's policymaking. And that is my book report on Xi Jinping: The Governance of China.

(Chang Ching is a research fellow at Taiwan's ROC Society for Strategic Studies. Translated by Want China Times.)