Prime Minister Hun Sen made a pitch for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s newly translated book “The Governance of China” yesterday, urging officials and ordinary Cambodians to read the collection of speeches and policy directives.
At a ceremony yesterday marking the publication of the book in Khmer, Mr. Hun Sen suggested it could promote a better understanding of good governance.
He said his favorite parts of the book, which was translated by the Royal Academy of Cambodia, concerned the strengthening of ties among all nations.
“The relationship between Cambodia and China is a good example for other countries to learn from,” he said.
First published in 2014 to great fanfare by the Chinese state media, and peppered with vague urges to “promote the conduct of the ‘three stricts and the three earnests’” and “make full preparations for adversity,” more than 6.2 million copies of the book have been distributed worldwide since its publication, “surpassing all other Chinese leaders’ works since…the late 1970s,” according to the staterun China Daily.
Simon Shen, a senior visiting fellow at the National University of Singapore, said that despite the book’s broad reach, it was not intended for a general audience, “but rather the educated elites to understand the grand strategy of China.”
Mr. Hun Sen isn’t the only leader telling his followers to read the book. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg told a Chinese news site he brought back copies for his colleagues after a visit to China, according to The Washington Post.
“I want them to understand socialism with Chinese characteristics,” he said.
