Many thanks to the person who shared that you can ask your local Chinese embassy for a copy of „The Governance Of China“.
I reached out to the Chinese embassy in Vienna and got not only a super friendly response, but also an invite to the embassy + 6 copies of the German translation (2x II, III, IV)!
Well, I got 1-3 and the Belt and Road one for my birthday last year. At that time, they (the shop I got it from) could not get a copy of the 4th book, which was a bummer, nonetheless I see that now I can find it being listed on sites like Amazon as well.
Personally I would not be brave enough to bother them with this, but it would definitely be an option if I couldn't otherwise get to it.
Honestly I felt a bit sad when I looked up how much cheaper they are on the secondhand market, because technically I "wasted" so much money on it, but at the end of the day, I have my own copies, brand new, which I am trying to appreciate to the best of my abilities. I am hunting for the 4th one, I'll see when I can get my hands on it. Good job though, have fun reading!
I‘m sorry to hear that and I definitely didn’t want to inflict the feeling of “I paid to much what someone else was getting for free“ on you. Maybe you can see it as a little donation to China and Xi haha
Also: I also started to buy mostly everything second-hand now. It I rarely got disappointed!
You are so nice, it's not a problem at all.
I am just frustrated honestly, that because of the monopoly this shop has over shipping here (and therefore the reason I got that gift card to this shop for my bday) they can charge basically anything for these books. I payed like ~150$ for them, which is astronomical for the wages people earn here (I live in the poorest county).
I had to choose between Parenti books and Xi's works and because the Parenti books were available to me atm in ebook formats, I went with the other. This year however I have a feeling I might go for the Parenti books, but maybe from elsewhere.
I hope you like your new treasure and will end up reading all his works.