Essence of The Governance of China
President Xi Jinping’s book enhances people’s understanding of the leadership of China
Ibelieve that for anyone who is interested in learning about China’s governance and progress especially in the past decade, it is extremely important to study the thoughts of President Xi Jinping.
His book, The Governance of China, is about 500 pages long and contains 79 speeches and reflections. It is a large collection of ideas aimed at bringing the thoughts of the Chinese president [since his ascension to the position of the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and his subsequent ascension to office of the president of China] to the general public.
There is a saying “know before you judge.” I guess it is true. The president puts it even better, “We should not pretend to know what we do not know. We should try to put what we already know to use, and lose no time in learning what we do not know. We must not be muddle-headed.” Reading this book, I realized that China’s leadership is misunderstood. The outside view on how China is governed seems to be a one-sided story to me. The president highlights a lot of things to clear the misunderstandings and help those who want to know more about China’s governance.
Despite the geopolitics, it is important to know and critically evaluate the achievement of every leader and draw an informed conclusion. Yes, it will still be a subjective one but at least it would be something you came up with based on your own research and not merely derived from what others think.
Xi begins his book with an important chapter “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.” I think understanding what socialism is and what it mean for the Chinese is the first step in understanding why China is governed the way it is.
Understanding what socialism and socialism with Chinese characteristics mean helped me build a solid foundation to fully grasp how all of China’s achievements were possible.
I was able to understand that though socialism is not a Chinese creation, Chinese people first studied it, understood it and then customized it to work for them. They added “Chinese characteristics” to it. Xi says, “Socialism with Chinese characteristics is a fundamental accomplishment made by the Party and the people during long-term practice.”
He does not forget to mention that this is the “crux” of the Party and reminds the people how important it is to keep that in mind and cherish what has been accomplished by staying loyal to it, never deviating from it and continuously enriching it. This made me realize how important it is that we rethink our “democracy” in Africa.
It made me ask myself: Why couldn’t
we define what democracy means for us and how we can make it fit with our social, ethnic, economic and cultural realities? Why not democracy with African characteristics? Democracy with Cameroonian characteristics, for example.
Reading the chapter “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” made me think about our democracies and how we embraced other peoples’ way of governance. We copied and pasted leadership models without proper understanding.
And just like the Chinese president says, “The conclusion or experience drawn at a certain place and at a certain time does not necessarily apply at another place and at another time.”
In other words, what brought you here won’t necessarily take you to your next destination. With respect to China, this meant what worked for others can work in China only if China understood that it had to take into consideration its history, culture, realities, customs and large population.
This showed me how much he cherishes the Chinese way. The president closes the chapter with what I think is a warning and a reminder:
“We will resolutely defend our sovereignty, security and development interests. No country should assume that we will trade away our core interests, nor will we accept anything that harms our sovereignty, security or development interests.”
For Xi, the CPC is the core of leadership guiding the cause of Chinese socialism because, as he says, “… to run the country well we must first run the Party well, and to run the Party well we must run it strictly.”
That is why he is strict with every member of the Party. Xi believes that a country is as strong as its leadership. In this case, the CPC is the central leadership and all its members must have one goal, one objective. The book highlights what it is to be a Communist.
To be a Communist is to have faith in socialism and communism. In this sense, he writes: “Belief and faith in socialism and communism are the political soul of Communists, enabling them to withstand all tests.”
In other words, the ideals and convictions of Communists are the marrow of their faith. This made me realize how much work we still have to do in Africa. Owing to our multi-party politics, we lack unity, loyalty and commitment to the country.
Don’t get me wrong here. I am not implying that multi-party system (in and by itself) is bad or the sole cause of our economic problems. No system is perfect. We can still work something out by clearly defining the goals and objectives of each political party.
We can learn from this country, not copy and paste models, but learn. The Chinese president is clear on that when he writes, “No nation or state has ever been able to rise to power and rejuvenate itself by relying solely on external forces or blindly following others; doing so inevitably leads to failure or subservience.”
As I read the book, it dawned on me how much attention China gives to its youth.
The book closes with an important chapter which is on the CPC leadership. This did not come as a surprise. We all know that a country is as strong as its leadership. One thing I came to know while reading the book is that, for the Chinese leadership, it is not the number of members in the CPC that matters but the quality of these members. This is another thing that makes the leadership in China so different. Because the country is as strong as its leadership, every Party member must have a strong spirit and be fully committed to the task, and about that the president says, “Many hands make light work.”
The conclusion or experience drawn at a certain place and at a certain time does not necessarily apply at another place and at another time.
XI JINPING Chinese President
It is not the number of CPC members that matters but the quality of these members. Because the country is as strong as its leadership, every Party member must have a strong spirit and be fully committed to the task.