| The popularity of Chinese President Xi Jinping"s book -- The Governance of China -- has shown the interest the international community has in China, Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Tian Xuejun said on Thursday.
Addressing delegates attending a seminar on The Governance of China at the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria, Tian said Xi"s book will provide practical lessons for the world to emulate. "Its circulation has surpassed 5.2 million worldwide up to now. The popularity of this book reflects the great attention of the international community on what is going on and what is going to happen in China, as well as what will China"s development contribute to the world," Tian said. The ambassador shared some insights on what have made China become the second largest economy. China has implemented radical reforms in the economy, politics, culture, society and ecology which are 55 major reform tasks and over 330 reform measures, Tian said. "The central government has abolished or delegated to lower levels over 800 items previously subjected to its review and approval. China has stepped up its anti-corruption efforts by catching "tigers" as well as "flies", namely dealing with cases of senior officials as well as smaller corruption cases that directly affect people"s daily life," he said. "It is President Xi who officially put forward the concept of the Chinese dream, which is featured by country"s prosperity, nation"s revitalization and people"s happiness. The Chinese dream is closely connected with the dreams of people all over the world. The Chinese dream is not an empty slogan, but closely linked with the "two centenary goals" of China,"Tian elaborated. Tian reiterated that China will strive to bring about peace in the world, quoting President Xi as saying that China will advocate for peace regardless of how strong militarily it is. He said the book proposes to promote the concept of a community of shared future for human being, build a new type of international relations based on cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results, advocate a new concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security in Asia and put into practice neighborhood diplomacy of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness. Tian however noted that in pursuit for peaceful co-existence with neighbours and other countries and cooperation, China will never abandon its resolve to defend its national interest. China, he said, remains committed to contributing to world development and prosperity and will never dictate to other countries their developmental model. Jesse Duarte, Deputy Secretary General of South Africa"s ruling African National Congress (ANC), said his party has a lot to learn from the book. She said the ANC has to learn how China managed to lift so many of its people out of poverty. Dr Essop Pahad, former Minister in the Presidency and Editor of the Thinker, also drew parallels from the book with the ANC. He said, "The book deals with not only Chinese matters but the world at large. President Xi understands that we are living in a global village with a common destiny." Pahad said the book also highlights the fact that people have to be connected with those policy makers so that they feel part of them. "We have also learnt to be loyal to the party, the government, people and upright in our work," Pahad said. |
