A worthwhile read: Xi's The Governance of China
- By Jon Taylor
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E-mail Beijing Review, February 4, 2015
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Copies of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China at an expo of Chinese books in New Zealand, Nov. 9, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua] |
The Governance of China is a compilation of Chinese President Xi Jinping's speeches, answers to questions, conversations, and instructions from the time he became General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in November of 2012 until June of 2014. While some might pan the book either because it is a relatively long anthology or simply because it is by China's president, it would be unwise to either ignore or deride The Governance of China for one important reason: It offers insight into Xi's thinking about the Chinese Dream, how China works, what it intends to do in the coming years, and how it will get it there under his leadership and that of the CPC.
The issue of governance
The choice of using the title The Governance of China is telling. One of the major problems threatening the aspirations of China is the issue of good, effective governance. The concept has concrete consequences: China's new leadership is not only confronting problems arising from it, but responding with calls to improve government, enhance transparency, and monitor the actions of both the Party and the government more effectively. Without a transformation in governance, the ability of the CPC to engage in deepening reform, oversee a rapidly urbanizing nation, manage a consumption-based development model, and simultaneously emphasize a greater place for China in the world, will be quite difficult, if not ultimately impossible. Xi's book speaks to this vigorous aspiration.
As I began reading The Governance of China, both the title and focus of Xi's book immediately called to mind the work of two important Chinese scholars who have often considered the question of governance: Deng Zhenglai and Yu Keping. Deng Zhenglai (1956-2013), Dean of Fudan University's Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences and a political science professor, observed before his passing that the concept of governance had become a key issue of study among the Communist Party of China, the State Council, and academics. In particular, Deng noted that China faced a unique series of dynamics and factors that impact governance in both theory and practice for the nation, and that this set of uniquely Chinese characteristics would drive efforts to both reform and improve governance.
Yu Keping, Deputy Director of the Compilation and Translation Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Director of the Center for Chinese Government Innovations at Beijing University, known for his scholarly influence both inside and outside China because of his books Democracy is a Good Thing and Democracy and the Rule of Law in China, has observed that good governance in China plays a pivotal role in maintaining political legitimacy. Specifically, he suggests that the concept of good governance, the role of political actors, and civil society itself, have been transformed through a Chinese context.
Why begin a book review about Xi Jinping's book by citing these two Chinese scholars? Because Xi's book, while a compilation of various works, utilizes the concept of governance to provide a clear indication of the path that he wishes to set China upon. Readers both inside and outside China would be wise to remember that when reading this book.
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