Amid growing global uncertainty, the fifth volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China is attracting international attention as analysts say the book provides a detailed look at China's governance practices, focusing on practical measures rather than slogans or abstract theory.
They said it highlights how China draws on its long-standing civilization to address modern challenges, navigate complex global changes and offer an alternative development path through example rather than coercion.
First published in 2014, Xi Jinping: The Governance of China has grown into a five-volume series, translated into more than 40 languages and reaching readers in over 180 countries and regions. The fifth volume was released in July in both Chinese and English.
Kenneth Hammond, a history professor at New Mexico State University, said one concept that stands out in the fifth volume is governance resilience, which he linked to the dialectical relationship between theory and practice.
"China's ability to creatively draw on those elements within its 5,000-year cultural heritage that can contribute to the modern tasks of socialist construction has been vital to its success," he said, adding this emphasis on review and adjustment has been critical to China's modernization.
The book reveals that China's development path stands in contrast to Western approaches to modernization, he said. "The idea of 'socialism with Chinese characteristics' directly implies that other countries, other peoples, will have their own paths toward the future."
Unlike "the recent era of Western hegemony", he said China does not seek to impose its model on other countries, but offers its vision of a future of shared prosperity and a new multicentric world order.
Ben Norton, a United States political analyst and founder of the media outlet Geopolitical Economy Report, said the book reflects an approach to governance built around long-term planning, state capacity and pragmatic problem-solving.
He highlighted China's ability to maintain policy continuity across decades. "China's socialist market economy system has brilliantly managed to create a balance between public ownership and market forces."
This approach, he added, has helped China avoid the pitfalls of speculative finance and rent-seeking that dominate Western economies.
"China's model has shown that a government can serve the needs of the people, significantly raise living standards for the working class, and keep the commanding heights of the economy publicly owned, while also encouraging entrepreneurs to engage in productive commercial activity," he said.
As Western economies grapple with recurring financial instability and rising inequality, Michael Hudson, a distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri, said China offers a fundamentally different approach to economic governance.
The principles outlined in the fifth volume reflect a system that prioritizes productive investment and social stability over short-term financial gains, he said.
"Finance always has lived in the short run," he said. In contrast, he added, China's governance framework repeatedly stresses that finance should serve the real economy rather than speculative interests.
Jon Taylor, chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said that even a preliminary look at the fifth volume highlights issues central to China's current development agenda.
"What's fascinating about it is it's touching upon some topics that are really important thematically for China right now," Taylor said.
He stressed the idea of new quality productive forces, highlighting their role in fostering advancements in high-tech and smart technologies.
"This has led to alarm bells in the West, particularly in the US," he said. "All of a sudden, people are screaming and yelling that China's going to take over the world. China's not going to take over the world."
Integrated view
Melissa Cambuhy, an economics professor and president of the iBRICS+ think tank in Brazil, said the book mirrors an unstable world where risks are interconnected.
"I emphasize the integrated view of development and security," Cambuhy said. "Health, climate, technology and finance require cooperation instead of conflicting and exclusionary blocs.
"The distinctive feature is treating domestic sustainability as a precondition for external credibility," she said. "China links internal goals of decarbonization, clean reindustrialization and common prosperity to an international offer of green infrastructure, accessible financing and technology transfer."
Through this approach, she said the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity "stops being rhetoric and becomes a framework for cooperation grounded in common development".
Tiago Camarinha Lopes, a professor of political economy at the Federal University of Goias in Brazil and a visiting researcher at Northeast Normal University in China, said President Xi, in the book, presents new elements, outlining mechanisms to create and maintain a multilateral global order.
Moving away from confrontation-driven frameworks could help reduce ideological tension, he said. "It is necessary to abandon divisive dichotomies such as 'democracy versus authoritarianism' and 'liberalism versus autocracy'."
Helio Rocha is a freelance journalist for China Daily.
Contact the writers at zhaojia@chinadaily.com.cn
