Humanistic spirit drives Sino-Thai ties
It is a great pleasure to come to beautiful Bangkok to attend the launching ceremony of the Thai version of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China. First of all, on behalf of the Department of Publicity of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to friends from the political, academic and cultural circles, and overseas Chinese who have come to attend the launching ceremony, and Chinese and Thai friends who have made contributions to the translation, publication and launching event of this book.
The book presented before you is a collection of President Xi Jinping’s 79 speeches and instructions from November 2012 to June 2014, and a total of 6.2 million copies in 16 languages have already been circulated across the world. China’s reform and opening-up have been continuing for nearly four decades and have made remarkable achievements, especially since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in late 2012. China’s gross domestic product grew by 6.7 percent year-on-year to reach $11 trillion in 2016, with the country maintaining its status as the world’s second-largest economy and contributing to more than 30 percent of global economic growth. In today’s China, the economy is healthily developing, the society is in a harmonious and stable state and people are living and working in peace and contentment.
Such achievements accomplished by China have benefited from the “Chinese road”. But what is the “Chinese road”? I would like to use a string of numbers, “one, two, three, four and five”, to brief you.
“One” here means “one dream”, namely the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
“Two” here means “two centennial goals”, namely the successful building of an all-round well-off society by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in 2021, and the successful building of a modern, socialist nation by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 2049.
“Three” here means “three greats”, namely advancing the great socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, comprehensively strengthening and improving the great project of Party building, and carrying out a great struggle with numerous new and historical features.
“Four” here means the “Four Comprehensives”, or Four-pronged Comprehensive Strategy, namely comprehensively build a moderately society, comprehensively deepen reform, comprehensively promote the nation’s governance in accordance with laws, and comprehensively promote stricter governance of the Party.
And “Five” here means “Five-inOne”, namely, promote the overall layout of economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction and civilization construction. If one understands these numbers contained in this book, he or she will understand President Xi’s thoughts on the governance of China and understand the Chinese road.
If we read this book, we can find that President Xi’s thoughts on China’s governance are full of rich humanistic spirit. Where does such kind of humanistic spirit come from?
First, it comes from President Xi’s deep love for excellent traditional Chinese values and concepts. Politicians and thinkers in ancient China accumulated a lot of political wisdom on the world’s governance, created an ideological system that put stress on love, people, integrity, justice, and harmony and solidarity, and left to their offspring a series of cultural classics and valuable books such as the Collection of Ancient Texts, Book of Rites, Analects of Confucius, and Doctrine of the Mean.
President Xi holds deep love for excellent traditional Chinese cultures, and has extensively read ancient classical books and gained full knowledge of ancient and present-day society. With creative conversion and innovative enrichment of traditional Chinese cultures, President Xi has formed, enriched and developed his thoughts on the governance of China. It is the excellent traditional Chinese cultural essence that has nourished his humanistic spirit.
Second, it comes from President Xi’s high degree of confidence in the socialist advanced cultures of China. President Xi not only loves excellent traditional Chinese culture, but also has full confidence in the advanced culture created by the CPC in its practices of building the nation. The root of traditional Chinese cultures is the people, and the basic position of Marxism is the “masses”. The combination of the two spirits has helped the CPC form its own purposes.
People interested in China may find an interesting phenomenon, that is, the initial and latest fruits of the Sinicization of Marxism are both related to “cave dwellings” in the northwest of China. In September 1944, Chairman Mao Zedong put forward the “serve the people” thought in a cave dwelling in Yan’an, Northwest China’s Shaanxi province. At a young age, Xi lived for seven years in a cave dwelling in Yan’an, nurturing his deep feelings toward the people. “Marxism in cave dwelling” is in essence a people-first and people-centered outlook. President Xi’s words that “people’s yearning for a better life is the goal of our struggles” exactly embodies his confidence in Chinese culture.
Third, it comes from Xi’s full respect for the excellent fruits of all human civilizations. Some chaotic developments in today’s world are challenging the red line of the international order and the moral bottom line of mankind, and our blue planet is, from time to time, smeared by the bloody stains of the law of the jungle. President Xi proposes that world civilizations be colorful, equal and inclusive, and all countries and nationalities promote mutual learning, mutual reference, pay mutual respect to each other and treat each other as equals. He holds that China should absorb and learn from the fruits of all excellent human civilizations. He also proposes mankind ponder over such questions as “where we come from, where we are now and where we are going”, and that mankind should take hold of the themes of the times — peace, development, cooperation and win-win — to build a human community of share destiny. We now happily see that Xi’s such proposals have been continuously included in UN resolutions and have become a consensus of the international society. The respect paid by President Xi to different civilizations and his conception of the community of shared destiny incarnate China’s responsibilities, China’s wisdom and China’s role.
Certainly, collected in this book are only President Xi’s remarks and instructions before June 2014, and there are a lot of his other important remarks and instructions that have not been compiled and included in the book. However, the backbone of his thoughts on China’s governance is already on display in this book. In the latter half of this year, the 19th National Congress of the CPC is due to be held, and after that we will make some extractions and summarizations of his new thoughts on China’s governance and continuously share them with all of you.
Thailand is an important stop on the Maritime Silk Road. During his voyages to the Western seas, Zheng He, a great Chinese navigator during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and his vessel team made a stopover in Bangkok. China and Thailand are good neighbors, partners, friends and relatives. They are like two sails of the same boat of the Maritime Silk Road and two melons of the same vine that have a shared destiny.
Many Chinese like traveling to Thailand, known as the “Kingdom of Buddhism” the “Nation of Elephants” and the “Land of Smiles”. Lost in Thailand, a movie directed by a Chinese director with Thailand as the base a few years ago, became very popular among Chinese audiences. This is a successful case of Chinese and Thai cultural blending.
President Xi has stressed many times that “China and Thailand are close like being in one family”. Buddhism emphasizes causality and good fortune. China and Thailand are exactly two countries that share causal links and what the idea of “being in one family” pursues is common development and good fortune for both countries. We hope that the circulation of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China in Thailand will help further promote mutual learning, mutual reference and mutual improvement between the peoples of the two countries and bring them more benefits and contribute to world people.