I promise this is not trying to have a hot-take or anything. I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be getting out of the book. I’ve read like 3/4ths of it now and it seems like mostly normal pretty standard speeches and government stuff.

Some parts gave me a pang of sadness realizing this is what a competent government would look like, especially in the beginning sections where it’s like “we should eliminate poverty starting with rural extreme poverty” because I know that they succeeded. It’s kinda a reminder that these are problems that could be solved and it’s not utopian to believe things could be better.

But most of the book seems to be “we should ensure peaceful, cooperative, and friendly relationships with other countries and expand existing trade relationships…”. + Belt and Road stuff.

I understand that this is a collection of speeches rather than a book about ideology or a textbook, but is there something I’m supposed to be getting out of this that I’m not? Sorry that this question is really open ended.