Consul General of China in Kota Kinabalu Liang Caide
After more than 40 years of hard exploration in reform and opening-up, China has successfully blazed a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and achieved world-renowned achievements. Specifically, since year 2012, the new collective central leadership with Xi Jinping at the core has led the people of all ethnic groups across the country to actively respond to the difficulties and challenges on the development ahead by unswervingly deepen reform and opening-up. To realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, the country unites its strength embarking a new journey of China's modernization drive. Distinctively in today's world, this is a path with solid steps and vivid features. The international community is also increasingly focusing its attention on China. The “Chinese path”, “Chinese miracle” and “Chinese model” have become hot topics in the world recent years. Unseen in a century, the world today is undergoing huge changes and it is in a period of major development and adjustments. Driven by the modern trend of peace and development, and win-win cooperation, what changes will take place in China in the new era? Where is China heading to? What influences will the developing China bring to the world?
To understand these problems, I would like to recommend a book to my friends in Sabah. Since the first volume of this book was published in September 2014, more than 6 million copies have been distributed in over 20 languages, covering more than 160 countries and regions. Cambodia organized seminar at national level for it, Prime Minister of Thailand highly recommended it to its Cabinet members, Hollywood directors were inspired by it and hence wished to cooperate with their Chinese counterparts; it was placed in the bookcase of the President of Peru’s office as well as the desk of the Facebook’s CEO; it was formally presented and released at the Frankfurt, London, and New York book fairs, even found in the presidential office of Nepal, policy institutes of the United States, and the National Library of Serbia. Some people regard it as an interesting and fascinating “stories collection”, or a precise and realistic “huge work”, some people say it contains the development theory of modern China and the “Chinese approach” to solve the world's problems... Not long ago, the multilingual version of the third volume of this book has been released globally. It is titled The Governance of China by Xi Jinping*.
What is the fascination of these books? Why do we say that we could understand China in the new era through reading them? Let me give you a brief introduction to this series of books here.
1. Clarify the development path and direction of China in the new era
Upon assuming office at the beginning, the collective central leadership with President Xi Jinping as the core solemnly pledged that they have always “held high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and unswervingly adhere to and develop it”. He once pointed out that socialism with Chinese characteristics is the only way to develop and stabilize China. Not coming by at ease, this course emerged from the mighty undertaking of reform and opening-up for more than 40 years, and through the continuous expedition since the founding of the People’s Republic of China for more than 70 years. This is aroused from the in deep evaluation of the development of the Chinese nation for more than 180 years since modern age, and the inheritance of the 5,000-year Chinese civilization. These books contain a large number of expositions by Xi Jinping on upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, revealing the deep-rooted historical origins and broad realistic basis of this pathway in depth. It indicates a persistent pursuit of an ideal belief, a clear understanding of the conditions of both China and the world, and deep analysis of China's future development and direction by the collective central leadership. In addition, it has shown China's self-consciousness and confidence to the world in unswervingly following the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
2. Exhibit the splendid aspiration of national rejuvenation
After decades of hard work, China has made historical progress in its development, and its economic aggregate has become the second largest in the world. However, as the world's largest developing country with a population of 1.4 billion, the problems of unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable development remain prominent, based on its per capita GDP ranks only 72nd in the world. A large country with such a “volume” and complicated national issues are globally rare, and there is no precedent for solving these problems. In 2012, Xi Jinping put forward the proposal of realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. We could gather the connotation and essence of the Chinese dream from the book: prosperity of country, revitalization of nation, and happiness of people; the Chinese dream after all is the dream of the people; the Chinese dream is connected with the dreams of people all over the world to pursue a happy life, not only for the benefit of the people of China, but also for the people of all countries. The book also compiles a series of new theories and claims expounded by Xi Jinping on this issue: allowing market from playing the decisive role in resource allocation and the government from better exercising its designated functions; upholding law-based governance, exercise of power and government administration, and adopting holistic approach to promote the rule of law throughout society; advancing the innovative transformation and development of traditional Chinese culture, fostering and promote the core values of socialism; adhering to putting the people first approach, upholding social fairness and justice, and enhancing the well-being of the people; reserving a clean and unpolluted environment for future generations; cutting bureaucracy and maintain close ties with the people, power should be contained within a cage of regulation, and so on. From these explanations, readers could understand China's strategic thinking and clear path for solving development problems and realizing a beautiful blueprint.
3. Explain the governance concept of putting the people first
Enabling people to live a good life is the starting and ending key point of this book. When he was young, Xi Jinping experienced the harsh life in the countryside and tempering of different jobs. He thus clearly understands the country’s conditions and empathizes with the people's thoughts and expectations. He emphasized in the book that it is necessary to promote social fairness and justice, enhance people's well-being, and evenly distribute more benefits of reform and development to all people: including to impartially allow 1.4 billion people have better education; to do everything possible to help the needy in solving their problems; to always putting people’s safety and lives at first; to strive for the people in assuring fairness and justice in every judicial case and so on. He requires officials at all levels to view their performance for what it is, refrain from “image project” that would waste both the manpower and money, and be truly responsible to history and the people. Through these contents, we could feel the great affection of the Chinese leaders for its people and the manner and consideration in exercising governance of the collective leadership for the people. In an exclusive interview with a foreign journalist, he once said, “my governing philosophy is, in a nutshell, serving the people and shouldering the responsibilities that should be borne. The people assigned me a position as such, and I must always place the people at the highest position of my heart, keeping in mind that responsibilities are heavier than anything else, and always put the people's safety and well-being at first.”
4. Demonstrate the profound historical and cultural background of the governing concept
Only a nation that is good at absorbing the nourishment from history and other civilizations can survive and sustain. The great Chinese traditional culture accumulates affluent political wisdom, ideological and moral resources, and the achievements of human civilization are the crystallization of both the labor and intelligence of people from all over the world. These precious spiritual wealth have become the rich sustenance of China's philosophy of governance. In the book, we could learn the modern values of excellent Chinese heritage such as benevolence, putting the people first, honesty, justice, peace loving, and harmony; we could read the famous quote of Leibniz that says, “only the sharing of our talents will light the lamp of wisdom”, advocating the promotion of exchanges between countries and eliminating the lack of mutual understanding; we could also study the Kazakh proverbs such as, “one who tries to blow out other’s oil lamp will get his beard on fire” and “strength does not come from the muscle of the arms, but from the unison of the heart”, supporting to promote exchanges between countries and regional security through dialogue and cooperation. After reading these articles, one could clearly see that China in the new era is most consistent with the long history and culture of the Chinese nation, and is closely connected with the civilizations created by countries around the world.
5. Pledge China's firm resolution to build a community with a shared future for mankind
As the characteristics of an accelerating evolution of the current world pattern are becoming more obvious, especially under the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic, we are facing a world with much instabilities and uncertainties. Facing the international unilateralism, protectionism, and anti-globalization trends, in this book, China collectively releases the important message of expanding openness and cooperation to the world, and speaks out to safeguard multilateralism. In terms of major issues of human development, China has put forward a series of wise thoughts and unique ideas, contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to common global challenges and problems, and strove to reflect the concept of win-win cooperation in politics, economics, security, cultures, diplomacy and other aspects. Particularly, in the global fight against the pandemic, China advocates to build a global community of health for all and does its best to provide a large-scale support and assistance to countries in need. A series of major measures were launched as to strengthen global anti-pandemic cooperation, which was highly commented and praised by the international community. The concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind has been widely recognized by more and more countries and regions.
Conclusion
The Governance of China by Xi Jinping opens a window for readers from all over the world to discover and perceive China. Reading this book, you could understand the governing philosophy and strategy of China’s collective leadership with Xi Jinping as the core, appreciate the long and glorious Chinese history and culture, learn the insightful changes and dream pursuits of China in the new era, all of which could lead to a better understanding of the development theory and path, domestic and foreign policies and gaining a more comprehensive, rational and objective view of China.
*Note: The Chinese and English versions of Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of The Governance of China by Xi Jinping can be purchased on Amazon.com.