Summary on Book on the Governance of China by President Xi Jinping

Introduction

The book, the Governance of China, by President Xi Jinping is a collection of his major work and wisdom on experiences, policies and perspective of the entire Communist Party's leadership, as well as vision for the future of world's most populous country, over the first two years in office. It is broad based and includes various dimensions of China's policies related to energy, economy, technology, environment, security, governance, corruption and international cooperation.

The 500-plus page book contains almost 80 speeches, talks, interviews, instructions and correspondence. It will contribute to interpreting the concepts and principles of governance of the CPC leadership, and it will help the international community to learn more about and better understand China's ideas, its path of development, and its domestic and foreign policies, and its response to international concerns about China as well as the future of China. The book is currently published in ten languages, namely simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, English, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Japanese. Khmer language edition of the book will be available in a very near future.

The book demonstrates the Chinese Dream, which, in essence, means making China prosperous and strong, rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and happiness for the Chinese people. It is the dream of the country, of the nation, and of every Chinese, because it brings together the interests of the nation and of individual citizens. The book also emphasizes President Xi Jinping's strong confidence in socialism with Chinese characteristics, which consists of a path, theory and system. The path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a way to reach the goal; the theory offers a guide to action; and the system provides a fundamental guarantee. He also believes that unique cultural traditions, historical experience, and national conditions determine that the Chinese must take a development path that suits Chinese characteristics.

To further build a stronger socialism with Chinese characteristics, President Xi Jinping presents his overall vision of deeper reform and opening up, in particular how reform will impact upon China's economy, politics, culture, society, ecology and national defense. He emphasizes that deeper reform and opening up is the only way to solve development problems, and that reform and opening up is always ongoing and will never end. To this end, a broad blueprint of reforms was developed, which includes more than 330 reform measures in 15 areas related to the economy, politics, culture, society, ecological progress and Party building.

After 36 years of rapid growth and development thanks to its reform and opening up, China now is the second largest economy in the world in terms of aggregate economic activity. If it is measured by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), China is undoubtedly the first largest economy. Inevitably, China will in the very near future take first place. By 2020 the per capita income of urban and rural residents in China will be double that of 2010. With the ongoing reform and opening up suggested by President Xi Jinping, China will continue to improve and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, and promote modernization of the state governance system and its governing capacity, so as to lay a solid foundation for the country's development in the long run. China will promote new industrialization, urbanization and agricultural development, and encourage investment and consumption.

China finds itself confronted by a series of challenges, such as unbalanced development, drawbacks in scientific and technological innovation, rising social conflict, gaps between rural and urban development and income, and corruption. If these problems are not solved, China's development will be hampered, and the Chinese Dream may not be materialized.

Several articles of the President's articles devote to his thinking and policy measures on improving work conducts and combating corruption. The new central leadership, committed to a policy of zero-tolerance with regard to corruption, is firm in its determination to catch both "tigers" and "flies", which is referred to high-ranking officials guilty of corruption as well as petty ones.

He stresses the importance of upholding responsibility, faith and determination. The President believes that to be responsible means to adhere to principles with a sense of responsibility and to have the courage to take resolute action when confronted by major issues of principle, to tackle difficulties head-on and never to shy away from conflict, to face all kinds of crises, to admit one's part in mistakes, and to resolutely fight against misconduct. For faith and determination, President Xi refers to political faith/firm beliefs and strategic determination.

Many articles in the book present the President's ideas on diplomacy and international relations. He has stressed on a number of occasions that we live in a global village, and should be conscious of our common destiny. He thinks that zero-sum thinking is outdated, and that we must blaze a new trail of win-win cooperation. He has also made win-win proposals, such as building a new model of major-country relationship; the Silk Road Economic Belt, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Concerning China's relations with other countries, the President highlights the path of China's peaceful development, that is, friendship, sincerity, reciprocity and inclusiveness.

Without further due, let me introduce our speakers today.

I. H.E. Mushahid Hussain Sayed

H.E. Mushahid Hussain Sayed is currently Chairman of the Pakistan Senate Committee on Defence (He has been elected to the Senate of Pakistan for three terms), founding Chairman of Pakistan-China Institute, a think tank devoted to relations with China and the region, as well as Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly. H.E. Sayed is a journalist, geo-strategist, politician, professor and writer. Currently, he is also the Secretary General of the Centrist Asian-Pacific Democrat International (CAPDI) and Special Rappoteur for International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP).

H.E. Mushahid Hussain previously served in the Federal cabinet as Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture from 1997 to 1999. He was the Secretary General of the Pakistan Muslim League, one of Pakistan's major political parties.

He holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service from School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, USA. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the Forman Christian College in Lahore. After completion of his graduate studies in the U.S., he became the youngest member of the faculty at the Pakistan Administrative Staff College, the country's premier training institution for civil servants. He then joined the Punjab University as Lecturer on International Relations in the Political Science Department.

H.E Sayed gave guest lectures at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute, Harvard University, MIT, the Middle East Institute, the Stimson Centre, Oxford University and Georgetown University's Centre for Christian-Muslim Understanding. He has published books and his articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, Jane's Defence Weekly and Middle East International, as well as The Time of India and The Hindustan Times.

Mushahid was born in Sialkot, Pakistan, in 1952.

II. Dr. Du Yanjun

Dr. Du Yanjun is a Research Professor and the Special Assistant to President CICIR (China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations) based in Beijing. She was born in 1962 in the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China.

Prof. Du obtained her Bachelor's degree for Russian Language and Literature from the University of International Relations, Beijing, China in 1984. She obtained her Master's degree for International Politics in 1989. She got her PhD in International Politics from the same university in 1994.

Prof. Du has more than 30 years of working experience. Over 1984-1990, she was an Assistant Research Fellow in the Division for Russian Studies in CICIR. From 1990 to 1994, she served as a Program Coordinator for Russian and European studies in the Division for International Exchanges, CICIR. From 1993 to 1994, she became a visiting scholar to the Moscow State University in Russian Federation. In 1994, she returned to China and became an Associate Research Professor at CICIR. In 1996, she was promoted as Deputy Director of the Division for International Exchanges at CICIR. In 1997, she became a visiting scholar in the United States. From 2001 to 2014, she was Director for the Department of International Exchanges at CICIR and became a research professor in 2005. In 2014, she was appointed as Special Assistant to the CICIR President. Prof. Du can speak fluent Russian and English.

III. Dr. Wang Hongmei

Dr. Wang Hongmei is an associate professor and party member of the CPC. She was born in 1977. In 1999, she graduated from Institute Political Science and Law of Jiangxi Normal University. In 2005, she obtained a Master's degree in Ideological and Political Education from Jiangxi Normal University. Since 2003, she has taught at Jiujiang University. During the last ten years, she taught courses such as ideological and moral cultivation and legal basis; introduction to Mao Zedong thought and theory of building socialism with Chinese Characteristics; Chinese modern history. She has published more than 10 papers and won the State-level competitions of multiple awards in teaching, lesson plans and papers. With diligent work and apparent success, she won the 2009's outstanding party member of the CPC and received the title of year 2014 excellent teacher in Jiujiang University. She earned her PhD from Jiangxi Normal University in History in 2010.

IV. Dr. Soeng Reth

Dr. Soeng Reth is currently my advisor. He is also a Research Fellow at Centre for ASEAN Studies, University of Antwerp, Belgium, where he earned his PhD in Economics under the Royal Government of Belgium Scholarship. Dr. Soeng Reth was awarded a Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Flemish Centre for International Policy where he carried out a joint research project with the National Bank of Belgium. His research work has been published in scholarly journals, such as Journal of Asian Economics, International Journal of Manpower and Journal of International Trade Law and Policy. Dr. Soeng has served as a reviewer for several scholarly international journals. Dr. Soeng's research work was accepted for presentations at International Conferences in China, the Philippines, USA, Belgium, Korea and Thailand. He gave lectures in economics at several universities in Cambodia. Dr. Soeng has been a frequent visiting lecturer at Rule/ENA's Master Program—a joint program of Royal University of Law and Economics and Ecole nationale d'administration. He has also been a visiting lecturer at the Royal School of Administration. He was appointed as a jury member for Master thesis defenses at University of Antwerp, Belgium, and has been an examination member for doctoral thesis defenses. Dr. Soeng is currently a member of Editorial Board of Journal of Business and Management.

Dr. Soeng Reth did his undergraduate work at Royal University of Phnom Penh, during which he stayed in Steung Meanchey pagoda with a Buddhist monk. Dr. Soeng Reth was born in 1973 to a poor, rice-farming family in rural Kampeaeng commune, Kirivong district, Takeo province.

Concluding remarks

It is now time to conclude our roundtable discussion!

But, before so doing, let's join me in a round of applaud to thank our distinguished speakers in our roundtable today for their deep views and clear insights on the issues relating to recent developments in China and its future direction.

I believe that the participants will be able to have a better understanding about the book by President Xi Jinping, which presents his vision and philosophies and introduced deeper reform and opening up for China's prosperity and development to achieve the Chinese Dream goals. On political development, President Xi stresses that all powers belong to the people and thus calls for active and steady political reform in accordance with the Constitution while keeping to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. On economic development, President Xi Jinping upholds the principles of scientific development, taking into account the resources and environment. On social development, continuous efforts are emphasized to ensure and improve the people's standard of living through economic development; building harmonious society. On ecological progress, the President stresses a national strategy of resource conservation, environmental protection and a sustainable pattern of development.

President Xi Jinping has enunciated the concept of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road which actually links China's development at home with proactive diplomacy in its neighborhood and beyond. To this end, China has launched, among others, the Silk Road Fund of US$40 billion and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (currently 26 countries), initially worth US$50 billion mostly provided by China who also proposed to increase to US$100 billion, to help realize the said goals. So, in other words, China's prosperity is now linked with peace with its neighbors and vice versa. It also underlines China's desire to share its prosperity with its neighbors through win-win cooperation.

China's rise is a unique development in history and it has three components which are quite unprecedented: (1) Within the span of a generation, China has been able to lift 500 million people out of poverty and bringing them into the middle class mainstream; (2) China has achieved political stability through smooth, peaceful transitions from one generation of leaders to another with the results seen today, it is the 5th generation of Chinese leadership which is at the helm of affairs and these transitions have been evident since the period of Deng Xiaoping; (3) Never in the history of mankind has there been such unique transition of a country from being a regional power to a global power which has done this transition to great power status through its economic strength without using military might or trying to bully or browbeat its neighbors.

China's rise is undoubtedly economically beneficial, rather than threats, to the word, as China takes the path of peaceful development, which is emphasized by the President on many occasions. The rising China will lead to more exports of its neighbors as well as other trading partners to China as the result of sheer large market size and stronger domestic demand created by income increase. Similarly, outward Chinese investment will also increase as China's income increases.

All in all, this book presents a comprehensive introduction to President Xi Jinping's outlook on philosophy, governance, reform, history, and the world, and to his main thoughts on and style of governance. It is of substance, conveys the President's strengths and vision of leadership, and presents his philosophies and policies to the world in an open and unambiguous manner.

The book is a must-read, especially for those who are interested in learning more about China and its future direction.

I now declare the closing of the roundtable today.

Thank you!