The governance of China

What Hacker News says

1. FooBarWidgetJan 2021
   I heard that The Governance of China is a good book. https://www.amazon.com/Xi-Jinping-Governance-English-Languag...

   Another book that may help is "Has China Won?" by Kishore Mahbubani.

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2. DevX101Oct 2020
   On Chinese history: The Search for Modern China by Spence (1990)

   On China's history told through several biographies: The Search for Modern China by Schell and Delury

   On modern China and it's ambitions, from Xi himself (these are speeches so there will be propaganda): Xi Jinping: The Governance of China Volume 1

   On tech in China: AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World by Kai-Fu Lee

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3. islandfox100Jun 2026
   ''Now, the total population of well-off countries in the world is about 1 billion, while China has more than 1.3 billion people. If we are all to become modernized, the well-off population must more than double. If we are to consume as much energy in production and daily lives as the present well-off people do, all the existing resources in the world would be far from enough for us! The old path seems to be a dead end. Where is the new road? It lies in scientific and technological innovation, and in the accelerated transition from factor-driven and investment-driven growth to innovation-driven growth.'' -Xi Jinping, Governance of China
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4. thaumasiotesJan 2026
   > Not sure how to find a primary source

   I asked Tencent's Hunyuan LLM the following:

   >> 我听说许其亮在2021年的时候说到美国和修昔底德陷阱，我想找他说出的话

   Here is the Google Translate rendition of the response. I'll reply to myself with the original Chinese LLM response.

   There are pointers here toward finding an official transcript, but the LLM summary tends to suggest it wouldn't be worth the effort, barring some indication that Richard Coffman knew what he was talking about.

   Anyway:

   -----

   Comrade Xu Qiliang, as a leader of the Party and the state, has delivered important remarks on international relations and strategic security on multiple occasions. Regarding the "Thucydides Trap" you mentioned, our verification confirms that in 2021, he did address his views on the United States and great power competition in relevant meetings or speeches. The following are the core points compiled from publicly available reports (the specific wording should be based on official releases):

   Key points of Comrade Xu Qiliang's remarks on the United States and the "Thucydides Trap" in 2021:

   He pointed out that the current international strategic landscape is undergoing profound changes. The United States and other Western countries are clinging to Cold War thinking, pursuing unilateralism and hegemonism, deliberately creating ideological confrontation and geopolitical competition, and attempting to contain and suppress China's development through means such as the "Indo-Pacific Strategy." Essentially, this is imposing the outdated logic of the "Thucydides Trap" on great power relations, which is a misinterpretation of historical laws and a reversal of the trend of the times.

   He emphasized that China has always adhered to the path of peaceful development and firmly pursued a defensive national defense policy. China has no intention of engaging in a zero-sum game of "a rising power inevitably challenges the established power" with the United States. As the world's two largest economies and permanent members of the UN Security Council, cooperation between China and the US benefits both sides, while confrontation harms both. They should abandon confrontational thinking, respect each other's core interests and major concerns, manage differences and promote cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit, and jointly safeguard world peace, stability, and prosperity.

   He also pointed out that the "Thucydides Trap" is not historically inevitable. The key lies in whether great powers can transcend the logic of "a rising power inevitably challenges the established power," establish correct perceptions, and build a new type of international relations. China is willing to work with the United States to promote the building of a China-US relationship that is non-confrontational, mutually respectful, and mutually beneficial, providing new ideas for resolving the "Thucydides Trap."

   Note:

   The above content is a summary based on publicly available reports. The specific original text should be based on the full text of the speeches published by official media such as Xinhua News Agency and the People's Liberation Army Daily. To access the complete speech, it is recommended to obtain authoritative information through the following channels:

   * Visit the China Military Online website (http://www.81.cn) or the Ministry of National Defense website (http://www.mod.gov.cn) and search for relevant meeting reports from 2021;

   * Consult Volume 4 of "Xi Jinping on Governance of China" and news releases from the National People's Congress, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and important military meetings of that year;

   * Follow special reports from central media outlets such as Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily.

   For further verification, please provide more specific meeting context (such as the National People's Congress PLA delegation meeting, the Central Military Commission enlarged meeting, etc.) to facilitate a more precise search.

   -----

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5. droptablemainSep 2021
   "The extent to which Xi’s reading of classical Marxist texts has inspired this campaign is not clear."

   It seems the article's author has not read Xi Jinping's multi-volume series "The Governance of China," which very clearly lays China's path toward building a "moderately prosperous socialist nation" using fundamentals of Marxist-Leninist thought adapted to China's material conditions -- i.e. "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics."

   It's not a big secret. You can buy an English translation on Amazon or even get a free copy from your local embassy/consulate.

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6. barry-cotterSep 2021
   > This talk of peaceful development needs to be taken seriously. So I set about combing through my two English volumes of Xi Jinping’s Governance of China looking for the phrase and sentiments similar to it. Occasionally I would consult the Chinese edition of the same books when I wanted to see how a certain phrase or idea was conveyed in the original. I then tried to think of major events in the years since Volume II was published where Xi would have had cause to touch on these themes, and eventually realized that the most important certainly would have been the 2018 Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs, which gathered together the politburo, the heads of the intelligence, united front, and foreign affairs bureaucracies, and all of China’s ambassadors under one roof to learn about “Xi Jinping Thought on Foreign Work.” Xi’s speech at that event has not yet been published, but I spent some time going through the Xinhua read-outs of it, as well as reading Yang Jiechi’s two lengthy precis of XJP Thought on Foreign Work for Qiushi.

   https://scholars-stage.org/xi-jinping-and-the-laws-of-histor...

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