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Fareed Zakaria GPS
“Xi Jinping: The Governance of China”
Robert Lawrence Kuhn
October 5, 2014
FZ: What in the world is the leader of the second
largest economy on the planet thinking? That’s a
question many would love to know the answer to,
but in a closed, secretive society, like China, it’s
all but impossible to know. He rarely gives
interviews, and the press in China is far from free.
But now we have something to look at. Chinese
President Xi Jinping has a new book, entitled The
Governance of China, and it’s aiming for
worldwide impact. State media there reports that
the book has been published in nine languages:
Chinese, English, French, Russian, Arabic,
Spanish, Portuguese, German and Japanese.
My next guest, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, says it is a
milestone. Kuhn has advised the Chinese
government for twenty-five years, and is the
author of How China’s Leaders Think. Welcome.
KUHN: Pleasure to be here.
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS XI JINPING THINKING? FZ: First, give us a sense of who this man is for
ers © : eet § our viewers. Who is Xi Jinping, and why is he a
little different from China’s ordinary leaders?
KUHN: Xi Jinping has been involved in all aspects
of what makes China today. His father was one of
the founders of the country, truly a great
revolutionary and a great reformer in the early
days. Xi Jinping graduated from Tsinghua
University [‘China’s MIT’], with a degree in
chemical engineering. Then he went through
4 more than two decades working at the local level.
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS XI JINPING THINKING? Cy Starting in a county, and then a city, Xiamen,
: = working his way up for many years in Fujian
a — 4 , eS province, becoming the governor. Then for five
years Xi was the Party Secretary of, the number
one official responsible for, Zhejiang province,
which is the center of entrepreneurship in China.
So that gives him a great sense of business. And
that was when I first met Xi Jinping, actually, in
2005, and then again in 2006, seeing him doing
the real work of running a province, a local area.
a | President Xi is a person, when you see him, who
is unassuming; he’s big, he has a strong presence
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS X! JINPING THINKING? Cee | in aroom, but you feel very comfortable with
= oro him. He doesn’t put on airs, he’s very warm and
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