Former German Chancellor reviews Xi Jinping's book

BEIJING - Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt wrote a review on Chinese President Xi Jinping's new book on governance, saying the book offers the world a better understanding of China's development.

"Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" contains speeches, answers to questions and instructions by Xi from Nov. 15, 2012 to June 13, 2014. It has been published in at least nine languages since September.

"A book like this will help foreign readers to gain a better and more objective understanding of China from historical and other perspectives," Schmidt wrote.

Schmidt said it was a regret that the Chinese leadership has always had a better understanding of the West than vice versa. The publishing of Xi's new book represents a positive attempt to change the status quo.

The book reveals the philosophy adopted by China's leadership and the strategic guidelines on which China's direction of development is based.

Having faith in China's growth model, the new generation of Chinese leadership with President Xi Jinping at the core also needs to deal with the important, strenuous and complicated tasks brought about by high-speed economic development, he said.

President Xi will pay special attention to problems caused by corruption, environmental pollution, illegal occupation of land, labor disputes, and threats to food safety, the former Chancellor wrote.

He also pointed out several major issues facing China such as pollution, aging population and the household registration system reform.

Schmidt said Confucianism is making a return as a philosophy embedded within the Chinese minds, citing the interpretation of Confucian principles by President Xi in the book. He said during the 5,000-year course of Chinese culture, there has rarely been any trace of imperialist thinking, and China has always honored peace above all else.

"Often times the West finds it hard to suppress the impulse to act as a lecturer with regard to China and its leaders, which usually results in failure stemming from ignorance and arrogance," Schmidt wrote.

"The West needs to apply more common sense, abandon its condescending attitude, and let fair play apply," he said.