Xi Jinping’s views on Laozi’s philosophy of “running a big country”

Ancient China had sound experience in terms of governance.Xi Jinping: The Governance of China includes an article entitled“Running a Big Country as You Would Cook a Small Fish” – an eye-catching quotation from Laozi that duly illustrates how to run a country.

Laozi was a noted philosopher and thinker in ancient China. When talking about The Origin and Goal of History by German philosopher Karl Jaspers and the Axial Age (circa 800 to 200 BCE) coined by him, General Secretary Xi Jinping placed Laozi before Confucius and Zhuangzi, two eminent ancient Chinese philosophers. An excerpt from Chapter 60 of Laozi’s Tao Te Ching, or the Scripture of the Way, “running a big country as you would cook a small fish” illustrates the art of governance that there is straightforward equivalence between “running a big country” and “cooking a small fish”. In other words, to govern a country, it is necessary to remain serious without slacking off or engaging in excessive human intervention. It takes superb leadership and enormous capacity for governance to operate state apparatus in an ordered manner within the existing framework of the Constitution and law. Only by doing so can the lofty idea of “running a nation as if managing a person’s affairs” be achieved.

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Laozi’s philosophy of “Governance by Non-interference”

Laozi’s idea of governance is very special and profound, for he proposed “governance by non-interference”, whose various interpretations have led to different perceptions about “running a big country as you would cook a small fish”. Some people think this saying means that running a big country is easy because it’s like pan-frying a small fish, which is a cinch. Others hold that it’s tricky to govern a big country. When pan-frying a small fish, you’re not supposed to turn it over often because you’ll ruin the whole thing. In fact, “governance by non-interference” is not to govern without doing anything; instead, it requires that things be done to perfection and at the right time. You can’t be anxious or overreact; you have to do something without actually doing anything.

General Secretary Xi Jinping talked about “running a big country as you would cook a small fish” on two occasions.

The first time was when he gave a joint interview to the BRICS media on March 19, 2013. This was his first overseas visit after he took office as the President of the People’s Republic of China. Before the trip, he had a joint interview with the BRICS media, where he talked about his experiences and hobbies, especially his idea of governance. He said, “China has an area of 9.6 million square kilometers, 56 ethnic groups, and a population of 1.3 billion. When decoding China, one should never make the mistake of taking a part for the whole, like ‘a blind man trying to conceptualize what an elephant is by touching a different part of it’.” He added, “There are lots of things to do to satisfy the people’s needs in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation, ensure the smooth operation of society and the normal workings of the state apparatus, and improve the development and administration of the governing party. It’s the people who put me in such a position of great responsibility, so I must always put them first and live up to their trust. China is such a big country, with an incredibly huge population and extremely complicated national conditions. As the leader, I must grasp the country’s prevailing conditions and truly know what the people want. I have to lead as carefully as humanly possible, as if ‘walking on thin ice and approaching a deep abyss’, always assuming an attitude of‘running a big country as you would cook a small fish’. I must not slack off or do things in a slipshod way. I have to work hard day and night.”

The second time was when he addressed the second plenary meeting of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee on November 12, 2013. The plenary session mapped out a program and a road map of action for comprehensively deepening reform, making it clear that the overall goal of deepening reform in every field is to improve and develop the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernize China’s system and capacity for governance. In terms of how to strengthen leadership in pursuit of deepening reform in every field, General Secretary Xi Jinping said, “Running a big country is as delicate as cooking a small fish. Since China is a big country, we can’t afford to make subversive mistakes on basic issues. If we blunder, we can never make things right again. The next step of reform will inevitably take on deep-rooted social connections and conflicts of interests and reshape the relationships among existing interests. With the far-reaching influence of deepening reform in every field, any major reform measure could have a ripple effect and, therefore, must be carried out as cautiously as possible.” He added, “Our policies must go through considerable discussion and scientific evaluation before they are introduced, in order to be pragmatic and effective and go a long way as well. And we can never implement them “in a casual manner”, because “a miss is as good as a mile”. Of course, being prudent and careful does not mean that necessary reform can be delayed.

We can see that General Secretary Xi Jinping upholds Laozi’s motto. Firstly, he emphasizes that he shoulders the missions and tasks of the new era entrusted to him by the people to properly run the country; secondly, he stresses that his philosophy of governance is to rule “as if walking on thin ice and approaching a deep abyss” while adopting an attitude of“running a big country as you would cook a small fish”, doing things carefully and assiduously, with active and scientific prudence, in an effort to govern the country well. The former is about for whom to govern, while the latter stresses how to govern.

The interview reveals that the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core since the 18th CPC National Congress have clearly realized that the challenge they are faced with is: what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics the new era requires them to uphold and develop and how they should go about doing it. Therefore, it’s necessary to explore China’s current conditions and how to manage the country, namely governance, in the new era.

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