Chinese publishers are playing it by the book

This year, ACA Publishing of the United Kingdom will publish the first of a 10-volume collection called Chinese Stories, in association with The People's Publishing House.

"Imagine, if the Communist Party of China were a country, its population would rank 21st largest in the world. In addition to developing and organizing its 87 million members, it had to embed them among a population of 1.38 billion people so the Party could lead and guide the world's biggest population to develop from economic backwardness after years of war and destruction to become the second-largest economy in the world in nine decades," said a senior editor at ACA.

The People's Publishing House is just one of many publishers telling the story of the CPC and events in China to a global audience.

The series Understanding the CPC, published by The Foreign Language Press, planned and written by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, "offers the CPC explaining the CPC", said international strategist Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

Liu Yuhong, director of the company's promotions department, said the English version of Exploring the Miracle: the Truths behind China's Modernization was successfully launched in New York last year. A German version of the book will be published this year.

"These are not dispassionate, academic critiques, but real-life expositions of how the CPC interprets itself, presenting reflexively what the CPC wants the world to know.

The Understanding the CPC (series) is the story of the Party told by the Party. This is how the Party thinks," wrote Kuhn, in an introduction to one of the books.

According to Liu, two more books from the series will be launched in German and French. They will focus on the Party's anti-corruption campaign and related issues.

In October, Governing China: the CPC's Philosophy in Practice will be available in English, German and French. It will focus on the Party's governing skills and methods of improving them.

The Foreign Language Press will also publish two books about the Party's history - one full-length, the other a brief account - in a number of languages. The longer version, written by the Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee, was approved by the Central Committee, meaning it will be an authoritative version.

Editor Li Huiping, of the Renmin University Press, said the company will publish a book by eight younger scholars from the Party School of the CPC Central Committee to offer the views of the younger generation on the reasons behind the CPC's continued momentum and China's recent success.

In addition to histories and books on polemics and strategy, other books - more lighthearted and less academic - are being prepared in the hope that they will appeal to a wider audience.

In November, The Foreign Language Press will publish resent China 100: 100 Keywords of the CPC in a number of languages, plus a multilingual graphic book explaining how the CPC selects and recruits leaders at different levels.

A new book from The People's Publishing House features famous quotes from the Party's founding leaders, including Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong.

Fang Fei, director of the international cooperation department of Time Publishing and Media in Anhui province, said one of the group's new-media publishing branches will launch an e-book featuring about 300 paintings on the theme of key moments in contemporary China.

One volume worth special attention is The CPC Members that Get the Most Likes, published by The People's Publishing House, which tells the stories of 12 Party members from a range of professions - rail workers, farmers and the court judges - via interviews and photos, and explains why have been praised by President Xi Jinping as role models.