Reflections on Xi's metaphors on governance

Editor's note:
Governance topped the agenda of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which started on Monday and ended on Thursday. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has used many metaphors when talking about it on various occasions. Let's take a look.

1. Violets

Whether the path of a country is the right one is a matter to be decided by its people. Just as we do not expect all flowers to be violets, we cannot demand that countries with diverse cultural traditions, historical experiences, and contemporary national conditions should adopt the same development mode. That would make for a dull world.

--Speech at the opening ceremony of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, June 5, 2014

紫羅蘭

一個國家發展道路合不合適，只有這個國家的人民才最有發言權。正像我們不能要求所有花朵都變成紫羅蘭這一種花，我們也不能要求有著不同文化傳統、歷史遭遇、現實國情的國家都采用同一種發展模式。否則，這個世界就太單調了。

——2014年6月5日，在中阿合作論壇第六屆部長級會議開幕式上的講話