Dar es Salaam, Sept. 15 -- WHEN a nation translates a book, it is not just an exercise in linguistics, it is a strategic move, a handshake of ideas.

And so, it was last weekend in Tanzania, when the Chinese Embassy, in partnership with Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, unveiled the Swahili version of Chinese President Xi Jinpings book “Up and Out of Poverty” (Kupambana na Kuondokana na Umaskini) during a well-attended symposium in Dar es Salaam.

This was not just average diplomatic token. It was a manual of lessons, a memoir of applied strategy, and an ideological toolkit that Tanzanians can now read, digest, critique, and hopefully implement, one chapter at a time.

Originally penned between 1988 and 1990, when Xi Jinping served a...