Reflections on Xi's metaphors on governance

Editor's note:
Governance topped the agenda of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which started on Monday and ended on Thursday. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has used many metaphors when talking about it on various occasions. Let's take a look.

1. Violets

Whether the path of a country is the right one is a matter to be decided by its people. Just as we do not expect all flowers to be violets, we cannot demand that countries with diverse cultural traditions, historical experiences, and contemporary national conditions should adopt the same development mode. That would make for a dull world.

--Speech at the opening ceremony of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, June 5, 2014

紫罗兰

一个国家发展道路合不合适，只有这个国家的人民才最有发言权。正像我们不能要求所有花朵都变成紫罗兰这一种花，我们也不能要求有着不同文化传统、历史遭遇、现实国情的国家都采用同一种发展模式。否则，这个世界就太单调了。

——2014年6月5日，在中阿合作论坛第六届部长级会议开幕式上的讲话