Let more Myanmar readers learn President Xi’s thoughts on governance

People’s Daily

U Ko Ko Hlaing reads the second volume of the book Xi Jinping, The Governance of China to prepare for translation. (Photo by Zhao Yipu/People’s Daily)

U Ko Ko Hlaing is translating the second volume of the book Xi Jinping, The Governance of China into Burmese, and expects its publication as soon as possible to let more Myanmar readers learn President Xi’s thoughts on governance.

Glorified with many titles such as chairman of Myanmar's Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former presidential political advisor, he values the title as a translator of Xi Jinping, The Governance of China most.

“China is like a book that you can re-read again and again. The more you have a thorough knowledge of it, the more you can understand the profound truth unveiled in the book,” said U Ko Ko Hlaing.

During his visit to China in 2016, he was presented with an English edition of Xi Jinping, The Governance of China. Brilliant ideas in the book had him deeply captivated when he read it on the plane back to Myanmar for the whole journey.

Since then, the idea of translating the book into Burmese to let more Myanmar readers understand the contemporary China was engraved on his mind.

In April of that year, a translation team with scholars from both China and Myanmar was officially established, and U Ko Ko Hlaing became the head of the Myanmar team. In July 2018, a release ceremony for the Burmese edition of the first volume of Xi Jinping, The Governance of China was held in Naypyidaw.

President Xi’s governance philosophy, which is full of wisdom, holds the key to China’s steady and sustained development, U Ko Ko Hlaing said, adding that the translation of the book is a process to comprehend Xi’s thoughts on governance.

“It takes much more brain power to translate quotations from classics and many vivid metaphors in Xi’s book, but I am benefiting from the process of thinking over the wisdom reflected in those quotations,” he noted.

He gave an example of “Governing a big country is as delicate as frying a small fish” when Xi quoted ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi to explain how to govern a country during his interview with BRICS media in 2013. The metaphor full of ancient Chinese wisdom has impressed many readers, U Ko Ko Hlaing added.

The Burmese version of the first volume of Xi Jinping, The Governance of China was well received in Myanmar and was collected by the Library of Congress.

China has enjoyed all-round and rapid development with greater international influence in recent years. What impresses U Ko Ko Hlaing most is the country’s achievements in poverty reduction. According to him, China’s success in lifting so many poor people out of poverty in a short period of time and contributions to the development of humanity cannot be separated from the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China and President Xi’s extraordinary leadership.