The Governance of China


The Governance of China is a three-volume collection of speeches and writings by Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and current paramount leader of China. Presenting the official party line for China's development in the 21st century, the collection is an authoritative source on Xi Jinping Thought and a literary successor to Chairman Mao Zedong's Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung.
The volumes were published in 2014, 2017, and 2020.

Overview

Governance of China consists of 270 pieces, organized thematically into 54 chapters. All three volumes were edited by three entities: the State Council Information Office, the Party Literature Research Office, and the China International Publishing Group. The volumes are also interspersed with photography of Xi, depicting him "at work and in daily life".
The text articulates Xi Jinping Thought, Xi's political philosophy as it relates to large-scale political issues concerning China including economics, domestic politics, international relations, infrastructure, technology, environmentalism, peaceful co-existence, and the military. Volume I also contains a political biography of Xi in the appendix.

Release

The first two volumes of Governance of China were formally presented to western audiences at the London Book Fair upon their release, and both volumes have been translated into other major languages, including English, Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The third volume was announced by Chinese state media on 30 June 2020.

Reception

Reviews of Governance of China have been mixed. It was positively received by Chinese media and officials and received measured praise from non-Chinese leaders. Prayuth Chan-ocha, the leader of Thailand's military junta, for instance, asked his cabinet to study the first volume shortly after it was released. In Western media it largely received negative reviews, with some regarding it as propaganda but offering that it is a useful guide to better understanding China under Xi Jinping's rule. Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, writing in Foreign Policy, for instance, called it a "mix of stilted Communist Party argot, pleasant-sounding generalizations, and 'Father Knows Best'-style advice to the world". It received limited praise in other areas of Western society, however, with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly having read the book and ordering copies for his company's employees.
Although Chinese media have reported global circulation numbers for the book's volumes on the order of several million copies, Western media have reported very low sales numbers for the work in Western countries. According to The Economist: "There may not be very many readers outside China. The publisher claims the second volume has a global circulation of 13 million. But, according to Scott Morton of Nielsen Bookscan, a data provider, fewer than 100 copies of the English-language version of the second volume have actually been sold in Britain since it was published in November. Sales are slightly higher in Australia, at 124. The first volume has not performed much better: 588 copies in Britain and 430 in Australia." It is likely that freebies of both volumes hugely exceed the number of copies sold to individuals.