China's Xi publishes book on governance

Besides Chinese, book has been published in English, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Japanese

BEIJING: China has published a book of President Xi Jinping's remarks, state media reported Monday, as his profile in the country's carefully scripted press eclipses all recent leaders except Mao Zedong.

According to a notice late Sunday by the State Council Information Office, "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" contains 79 articles highlighting Xi's speeches, instructions and other remarks since he became head of the ruling Communist Party in November 2012.

It also features 45 photos of Xi "in order to help readers understand his work and life", the notice said.

Besides Chinese, the book has been published in eight foreign languages, the notice said, namely English, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Japanese.

Its publication will help improve global understanding of China's development as well as its domestic and foreign policies, the notice said.

The book is the latest sign that Xi overshadows most of his predecessors in terms of his promotion on the public stage.

In July a report by the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project showed that Xi's name has graced the pages of the Communist Party's flagship newspaper more frequently than any other leader since Mao Zedong, who led the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

In the 18 months after ascending to the party leadership Xi was mentioned by name 4,725 times in the People's Daily, the researchers found.

Mao, by contrast, was named nearly 7,000 times in the 18 months after the 9th party congress in 1969, when the tumultuous Cultural Revolution was in full swing.

Mao was at the centre of a huge personality cult in China, and the ruling party has since sought to avoid a repetition.

But the report concluded that "since the Deng Xiaoping era (in the 1980s), there has been a gradual rise in intensity" in mentions of top leaders' names.

Since taking power Xi has launched a much-publicised anti-graft campaign which some analysts say he has used to root out political enemies and solidify his grip on power.

The Communist Party under Xi has also arrested scores of activists, journalists, academics, lawyers and others it sees as a threat to its rule, in what rights groups say is the harshest such crackdown in decades.