Xi Jinping's bestseller, the resistance manual of the president who lived in a cave for seven years

The moment you step into a Shanghai bookstore that bills itself as "the first specialized in feminist literature," you're surprised to find a shelf dominated by books bearing the signature of Chinese President Xi Jinping . The front rows feature his famous four-volume work ( The Governance of China ), which has been translated into 37 languages and distributed in 170 countries. These 500-plus-page tomes feature numerous speeches, historical notes, and sugar-coated bibliographical details from the man who is arguably the most powerful man in the world, in terms of political authority concentrated in a single person.

"Yes, we know, these works aren't very feminist. They basically highlight the achievements of a man and his inner circle of collaborators, all of whom are also men," admits one of the bookstore managers. "A few months ago, after organizing several discussions of very activist local women writers, several officials came to inspect the books we were selling. They said we could get into trouble because we were encouraging the breaking of established social rules and insinuated that some of the works hadn't been vetted by the General Administration of Press and Publication (the censorship agency that determines which books are appropriate for open access by Chinese citizens). Since the officials said they would return for another review, we placed Xi Jinping's entire collection of books at the entrance," she explains.

China's propaganda channels claim that President Xi's best-sellers , which are required reading in both schools and universities, have been devoured by illustrious international figures such as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk , who wanted to delve deeper into the Asian superpower's successes by carefully studying the Chinese leader's Marxist-Leninist way of seeing the world.

In the volumes, which in Spain would be the equivalent of Pedro Sánchez's Resistance Manual , but with an even thicker reading and dominated by the newspeak that Chinese leaders usually use to explain simple things in unintelligible phrases, there are also many images of Xi's career and some more personal notes.

For example, when it is explained that, during the Cultural Revolution, this son of a revolutionary hero purged by Mao Zedong spent seven years sleeping on a bed made of bricks and clay inside a cave in Liangjiahe, a small village in the mountains of Shaanxi Province, in northern China. And that, in 1974, when Xi began his political career, he was elected Communist Party secretary in that village, where he directed the construction of wells to provide villagers with access to running water and a large dam that would transform a vast mountainous area of arid land into productive fields. Today, in the restaurants of Liangjiahe, one of the birthplaces of patriotic tourism, a pickled cabbage dish named after the president is offered.

Xi Jinping's works beyond China

A few days ago, Xi's governance manuals were launched in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan , at an event sponsored by that country's culture minister. Another presentation of the works also took place recently in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia . And at this year's book fair in Tunisia , there was a stand dedicated to the Chinese leader's writings.

In June, in Madrid , the Cátedra China Foundation, a think tank very close to Beijing that promotes relations with the Asian giant in Spain, organized a symposium to present the Spanish version of another work that compiles Xi's speeches on respect for and protection of human rights. Yao Jing, China's ambassador to Spain, was present at the event, along with several Spanish academics. "This book offers readers a clear and rational lens through which to understand human rights practices in China, going beyond preconceived notions," noted Marta Montoro, the event's promoter.

Xi's literary work also includes a collection detailing the supreme leader's policies to lift millions out of extreme poverty, his anti-corruption campaign that has claimed the lives of more than 1.5 million officials at all levels, and his ambitious Silk Road project , the vast global infrastructure financing program spanning more than 150 countries.

To break out of the party’s well-oiled propaganda machine, one can also find (though not in China, because they are censored ) other books by Chinese and foreign authors that paint a more critical picture of China’s president. Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister, this year published On Xi Jinping: How Xi’s Marxist Nationalism Is Shaping China and the World .

Rudd points out in his work that, since the early decades of the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong, no one has concentrated as much power in China as the current president . Xi, in addition to being general secretary of the Communist Party (CCP), a giant political monster that last week announced that it had surpassed 100 million members, also heads the military commission that oversees and commands an army with more than 1.5 million troops.

Rudd recalls that, after eliminating presidential term limits, Xi broke an unofficial rule in 2022 that leaders had to retire at 68. Surrounded by a team of loyalists, the extreme cult of his figure has been consolidated with an ideology, socialism with Chinese characteristics , captured in his works. His sobriety never leaves room for improvisation: he has not given interviews for over a decade, does not participate in press conferences, and does not have a press office.