Decoding Xi's future vision

President Xi's new book reveals his thinking about the country's governance and maps out a path for achieving the Chinese Dream

The Governance of China, President Xi Jinping's new book, is unprecedented. Can analyzing the book elucidate Xi's thinking and illuminate China's future? Consider seven frameworks or perspectives: publishing purposes, overarching themes, content analysis, chain of developmental causation, domestic goals, domestic means and global principles.

Publishing Purposes: substance, symbol, signal. Substance means Xi's political philosophy and wide-ranging policies - organizing 79 speeches and commentaries in 18 chapters - to discern how Xi intends to realize the Chinese Dream, "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". Symbol means recognizing Xi's emergence as China's leader, with greater authority, confidence and support than observers had expected when he first took office two years ago. Signal means communicating Xi's way of thinking to global audiences in nine languages, an original and explicit outreach to engage the world on multiple levels.