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The Governance of China #2
The Governance of China: Volume 2
The first published work by a sitting Chinese President, Xi The Governance of China offered a unique look inside the Communist Party of China and its vision for the future. Since publication, Xi Jinping has continued to explore the governance of China in the new era, providing a series of new concepts, ideas, and strategies which add further depth and innovation to the Party's theoretical base.
This new volume II explores that legacy with 99 additional speeches, talks, interviews, instructions and correspondences in 17 chapters, along with 29 related photographs. The works cover the vital period from August 2014 to September 2017.
Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, the Communist Party of China has set off in a new direction of reform and modernization. The Governance of China will contribute greatly to the concepts and principles of governance within the CPC leadership, China's future path of development, and the nations domestic and foreign policies as well as responses to international concerns about China. It is essential reading for anyone interested in knowing how China, and more specifically, how its President views the world and China's place within it.
This new volume II explores that legacy with 99 additional speeches, talks, interviews, instructions and correspondences in 17 chapters, along with 29 related photographs. The works cover the vital period from August 2014 to September 2017.
Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, the Communist Party of China has set off in a new direction of reform and modernization. The Governance of China will contribute greatly to the concepts and principles of governance within the CPC leadership, China's future path of development, and the nations domestic and foreign policies as well as responses to international concerns about China. It is essential reading for anyone interested in knowing how China, and more specifically, how its President views the world and China's place within it.
620 pages, Paperback
First published November 16, 2017
17 people are currently reading
289 people want to read
About the author
Xi Jinping
222 books71 followersXi Jinping (simplified Chinese: 习近平; traditional Chinese: 習近平) is the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the President of the People's Republic of China, and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. As Xi holds the top offices of the party and the military, in addition to being the head of state through the office of President, he is sometimes informally referred to as China's "paramount leader". As General Secretary, Xi is also an ex officio member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's de facto top decision-making body.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 19, 2019
Not a whole lot different from the first volume of "The Governance of China". As with the first volume, the book is a carefully curated collection of Xi Jinping's speeches, and as such should be taken with a few grains of salt. It covers a wide range of topics in international relations and economic development, including "socialism with Chinese characteristics", rule of law, military development, macroeconomic policy, cultural pride and solidarity (with a special focus on unifying Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong), and the history and trajectory of globalization.
In my view, there were three main rhetorical differences between Volume 2 and Volume 1, in order of increasing "interestingness":
1. The last section (unsurprisingly) extolled the virtues of globalization and criticized protectionism. This makes sense, as Volume II was published in 2017 (post-Trump, post-Brexit), and Volume I in 2014. Of course, it is in China's best interest to push a utopian globalist narrative, so there is nothing particularly new here.
2. Because the book was published after 2015 (when China began experiencing significant financial markets volatility), the official party stance now asserts that China's economy has entered a "new normal". At least in rhetoric, they note how their economy can no longer rely on the unsustainable growth vectors that have propelled them forward for the last two decades, and must begin searching for new drivers. There is a solid amount of ink spilled over the importance and historical significance of technological innovation. Though at the same time, China has been aggressively pushing the One Belt, One Road initiative, which seems like a globalist reprise of the last 20 years.
3. What surprised me the most was how often "dialectical thinking" is referenced. To some extent, this shouldn't be surprising – of course a communist country would pay homage to Marxist thought. But it seems to me that they think about Marx at the level of his theory of history. That is, they think of Marxism not simply as the progenitor of communism, but rather, as a "scientific" philosophy describing the arc of and meaning in history. Their commitment to Marx’s "historical materialism" suggests that they believe that there are no universal facts, only historically determined and contingent ones (e.g., chapters on how political systems can't simply be borrowed from other countries, because those systems evolve from unique cultures). Further, they use Hegelian dialectic to reason about the world (almost literally quoting Hegel himself), including using "the laws of the unity of opposites", "the negation of negations", and "the integration of universality". There is a subtle upshot here that I think is not widely understood. What this means concretely is that, besides belief in the absolute power of the Party, the Party is ideologically flexible and willing to engage in political and economic experimentation. To see this, one need look no further than the degree to which free markets have permeated the Chinese economy: in thinking about how best to promote economic growth, they stated that "enterprises must make profits". Certainly a far cry from Marx's communism! It seems that in engaging with "dialectical thinking" and the "synthesis of opposites", Chinese communism has evolved past the impotent communism that continues to characterize Latin American regimes (indeed, now even contradicting some fundamental tenets of communism itself).
GoC (particularly the section on economic development) is a must-read to understand the most momentous geopolitical battle of our time.
In my view, there were three main rhetorical differences between Volume 2 and Volume 1, in order of increasing "interestingness":
1. The last section (unsurprisingly) extolled the virtues of globalization and criticized protectionism. This makes sense, as Volume II was published in 2017 (post-Trump, post-Brexit), and Volume I in 2014. Of course, it is in China's best interest to push a utopian globalist narrative, so there is nothing particularly new here.
2. Because the book was published after 2015 (when China began experiencing significant financial markets volatility), the official party stance now asserts that China's economy has entered a "new normal". At least in rhetoric, they note how their economy can no longer rely on the unsustainable growth vectors that have propelled them forward for the last two decades, and must begin searching for new drivers. There is a solid amount of ink spilled over the importance and historical significance of technological innovation. Though at the same time, China has been aggressively pushing the One Belt, One Road initiative, which seems like a globalist reprise of the last 20 years.
3. What surprised me the most was how often "dialectical thinking" is referenced. To some extent, this shouldn't be surprising – of course a communist country would pay homage to Marxist thought. But it seems to me that they think about Marx at the level of his theory of history. That is, they think of Marxism not simply as the progenitor of communism, but rather, as a "scientific" philosophy describing the arc of and meaning in history. Their commitment to Marx’s "historical materialism" suggests that they believe that there are no universal facts, only historically determined and contingent ones (e.g., chapters on how political systems can't simply be borrowed from other countries, because those systems evolve from unique cultures). Further, they use Hegelian dialectic to reason about the world (almost literally quoting Hegel himself), including using "the laws of the unity of opposites", "the negation of negations", and "the integration of universality". There is a subtle upshot here that I think is not widely understood. What this means concretely is that, besides belief in the absolute power of the Party, the Party is ideologically flexible and willing to engage in political and economic experimentation. To see this, one need look no further than the degree to which free markets have permeated the Chinese economy: in thinking about how best to promote economic growth, they stated that "enterprises must make profits". Certainly a far cry from Marx's communism! It seems that in engaging with "dialectical thinking" and the "synthesis of opposites", Chinese communism has evolved past the impotent communism that continues to characterize Latin American regimes (indeed, now even contradicting some fundamental tenets of communism itself).
GoC (particularly the section on economic development) is a must-read to understand the most momentous geopolitical battle of our time.
January 21, 2024
This is a significant leap forward in comparison to the first volume of this series. Not that volume I was bad, but it was published so shortly after Xi took power that much of it was a dry collection of declarations more than anything.
Volume II however gives a far better look into the actual governance of China. Xi draws a lot of parallels not only with China’s history, but also with world history in connection with modern policy, giving all sorts of popular references too. More importantly, it addresses a lot of the problems the country faces/faced (this was published over 6 years ago) around the likes of pollution, poverty, and corruption. It then gives very clear initiative on how the party planned to tackle these issues, and stressed the importance of the Marxist-Leninist lines into Mao, Deng, etc (ya know, the stuff the first book went over). The look into issues that your average Joe westerner will point and laugh at and act like people can’t speak of being written clearly by the nation’s leader shows an incredible sense of awareness, and I truly love the disciplinary guides set for the party to remain united and be the driving force of the nation’s growth, as well as developing peaceful relations with other countries, rich and poor.
Really, this book is an incredible read to get a look at why I think Xi is such an incredible world leader. There were definitely some repetitive parts again, likely from the clunky nature that is Mandarin-English translation, and some of this had some unnecessary passages that probably made it feel a little long. But for the most part, this really captured my attention. If you’re only interested in seeing China’s governance, you could probably skip the first volume and go right to this one. Nothing in that one that’s important isn’t reinforced here, and it gives a far more down to earth look at how things are carried out with all sorts of clarifications and references. I look forward to reading volume III and IV someday!
Volume II however gives a far better look into the actual governance of China. Xi draws a lot of parallels not only with China’s history, but also with world history in connection with modern policy, giving all sorts of popular references too. More importantly, it addresses a lot of the problems the country faces/faced (this was published over 6 years ago) around the likes of pollution, poverty, and corruption. It then gives very clear initiative on how the party planned to tackle these issues, and stressed the importance of the Marxist-Leninist lines into Mao, Deng, etc (ya know, the stuff the first book went over). The look into issues that your average Joe westerner will point and laugh at and act like people can’t speak of being written clearly by the nation’s leader shows an incredible sense of awareness, and I truly love the disciplinary guides set for the party to remain united and be the driving force of the nation’s growth, as well as developing peaceful relations with other countries, rich and poor.
Really, this book is an incredible read to get a look at why I think Xi is such an incredible world leader. There were definitely some repetitive parts again, likely from the clunky nature that is Mandarin-English translation, and some of this had some unnecessary passages that probably made it feel a little long. But for the most part, this really captured my attention. If you’re only interested in seeing China’s governance, you could probably skip the first volume and go right to this one. Nothing in that one that’s important isn’t reinforced here, and it gives a far more down to earth look at how things are carried out with all sorts of clarifications and references. I look forward to reading volume III and IV someday!
June 27, 2025
This time I read the simplified Chinese edition but I can't find that on goodreads, go figure. But anyway this diary entry is for the simplified Chinese edition.
December 16, 2018
3.75 / 5.0
Short on specifics, but tone is unmistakable. continuous emphasis on role of party and importance of harmony even at the expense of individuality. noticeably more assertive and authoritarian than volume 1
Short on specifics, but tone is unmistakable. continuous emphasis on role of party and importance of harmony even at the expense of individuality. noticeably more assertive and authoritarian than volume 1
December 21, 2021
Its really boring, its like his first couple of books but with a few extra words added.
May 18, 2022
Political speeches are inherently propagand-ish in nature. The CCP also selected these specific speeches (given between 2015-2017) by Xi Jinping to ensure a tailored message was given to the world. If you're looking for any specific insight into the man himself, or the technical execution regarding the governance of China, you won't find it.
You do get some interesting insights when you read between the lines, however. You'll notice that Xi Jinping quotes Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping a lot less in this volume, when compared to volume one. This indicates to me a Xi Jinping who is settling into his own legacy and thought, making distance between him and his predecessors.
The CCP also dedicates a large portion of the book discussing party discipline. They focus on the importance of towing the national party line, combating conflicting ideologies, and interparty corruption. The President of China is tightening his command of the party. Coupled with what appeared to be political and business purges (presented as anti-corruption measures) that were occurring in this timeline, I'd say my guess is pretty close to accurate.
It's also interesting to make note of the different tones used when addressing domestic versus international audiences. The strict adherence to Marxist-Lennists tenets and strict party discipline gives way to liberalization of the global economy and diverse cooperation and opinion.
You do get some interesting insights when you read between the lines, however. You'll notice that Xi Jinping quotes Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping a lot less in this volume, when compared to volume one. This indicates to me a Xi Jinping who is settling into his own legacy and thought, making distance between him and his predecessors.
The CCP also dedicates a large portion of the book discussing party discipline. They focus on the importance of towing the national party line, combating conflicting ideologies, and interparty corruption. The President of China is tightening his command of the party. Coupled with what appeared to be political and business purges (presented as anti-corruption measures) that were occurring in this timeline, I'd say my guess is pretty close to accurate.
It's also interesting to make note of the different tones used when addressing domestic versus international audiences. The strict adherence to Marxist-Lennists tenets and strict party discipline gives way to liberalization of the global economy and diverse cooperation and opinion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2025
The second volume of Xi Jinping's selected works includes texts and speeches between 2014 and September 2017, i.e. the launching of the Belt and Road Initiative and the inauguration of Donald Trump's first term, so the Chinese leader's analysis includes these two aspects of globalization. The emphasis on Chinese assertiveness in its participation in world affairs is evident, but no less relevant are the parts related to the role of civil society, the role of the press, the idea of the common ethos of humanity, the relationship between development and culture.
April 5, 2022
Volume 2 is a clearly discernible and a substantive evolution of an independent Xi Jinping thought process, as compared to Volume 1, where Xi Jinping resorted to reiterating the Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong ideology in his speeches and lectures. His exhortations on supply side reforms in China are also very important and will surely have implications for Indians!
Looking forward to read Volume 3 and further progress in Xi Jinping's thinking about China and its role as a world power.
Looking forward to read Volume 3 and further progress in Xi Jinping's thinking about China and its role as a world power.
November 24, 2020
Easy to read and quick to get through the speeches but reading from cover to cover...? It'll be dry and tiresome. Bad? No! Great? No! It's okay.
January 23, 2023
More policies and plans for governing China, to achieve moderate prosperity as a socialist country.
March 12, 2019
Eine Reihe von Schriften und Reden an unterschiedliche Adressaten, gebündelt für den ausländischen Leser, wie in der Einleitung steht. Man bekommt einen guten Einblick in die Denkweise, die immer gleichen Themen und Formulierungen machen das Lesen aber mühsam.
Viel zu vereinfacht zusammengefasst: Der Einzelne lebt für das Kollektiv und damit letzteres floriert muss ersterer Freiheit abtreten. Und Nationalismus ist wichtig.
Viel zu vereinfacht zusammengefasst: Der Einzelne lebt für das Kollektiv und damit letzteres floriert muss ersterer Freiheit abtreten. Und Nationalismus ist wichtig.
December 3, 2021
CCP lightweight PR fluff. Waste of time.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews