Xi’s book on governance republished amid worldwide demand

The first volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, which was first published in 2014, has been reprinted and is for sale around the world, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.

The publisher, Foreign Languages Press (FLP) said the book includes 79 speeches and 45 photos taken at different stages of Xi's life, providing readers with more information about his work, ideas and life.

As of August 2017, the book had sold 6.42 million copies in 21 languages in more than 160 countries and regions, said Xinhua.

"The book's hot sales show that the world is paying more attention to the Chinese approach amid a complicated global atmosphere, as the Chinese way has proved to be a success," said Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity-Building at Peking University.

He said the book opens a window for the world to understand China. "It's necessary for the world to know where China is going. China's decisions are important to the world's future."

Another book titled, Xi Jinping: The Governance of China Volume 2, which includes 99 of Xi's speeches, conversations, instructions and letters, was published in November 2017, with major publishing houses from 16 countries signing memorandums with FLP to translate and publish the book, Xinhua said.

Apart from a desire to understand China, readers also want to share China's experience of reform and opening-up policy and rapid economic growth, Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.

Wang said that "unlike some Western countries, China has no intention of exporting its development mode. Its success shows developing countries that to achieve success they ought to explore their own way instead of completely borrowing the experience of other countries."

After the publication of the book's second edition, Russian scholar Yuri Tavrovsky introduced Xi's innovative reform measures to Russian readers in a recent book, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg not only has his own copy but has bought others for colleagues so that they would "understand socialism with Chinese Characteristics," said Xinhua.

Shedding new light

The books have also allowed Chinese people to learn more about the government and the spirit of Xi's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said Zhuang.

The book summarizes China's past and future development plans, said Wang, noting that "the book sheds light on the issues for those who do not fully understand our new policy, and shows them that China is at a historic transition point."

The General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued a notice to all regions and departments across China asking them to study Xi's new book on governance.

Study of the new book should also be included in training at Party schools, Party committees at all levels, executive leadership academies and academies of governance, the notice stressed.

Many local publishers said supplies of the second edition fell short of demand. Some 380,000 copies were issued in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province a month after publication, the local newspaper Nanfang Daily reported.