Coming off a greatly unified National People’s Congress in Beijing, wholly dedicated to the concept of the rejuvenation of China, President Xi immediately launched a new head-of-state diplomacy aimed at establishing a new form of global governance. While China is eager and open to work with the United States in developing the world, it will proceed on its own steam in dealing with the problems facing humanity until the U.S. is willing to treat China and Chinese concerns on an equal basis with their own.
In his presentation on his Global Civilization Initiative to the March 15 “High-Level Dialogue Between the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties,” which annually brings together many political parties from numerous countries in the world, President Xi stressed civilization and culture as a concept, and brought out the importance of different civilizations and cultures as effectively an active living force in the world. He stated that in today’s world, where the future and destiny of all countries are closely linked, different civilizations are inclusive and coexist, communicate and learn from each other, and play an irreplaceable role in promoting the modernization process of human society and prospering “the world’s garden of civilizations.”
To this end, at the core of his Global Civilization Initiative, President Xi advanced:
• “We should jointly advocate respect for the diversity of civilizations in the world, adhere to equality, mutual learning, dialogue and tolerance among civilizations, and use exchanges among civilizations to overcome barriers between civilizations, mutual learning among civilizations to overcome conflicts between civilizations, and tolerance among civilizations to transcend superiority among civilizations.”
• “We must jointly advocate and carry forward the common values of all mankind. Peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom are the common pursuit of people of all countries… not engaging in ideological confrontation.”
• “We must jointly advocate the importance of civilization inheritance and innovation, fully tap the historical value of the history and culture of various countries, and promote the creative transformation and innovative development of the excellent traditional culture of various countries in the process of modernization.”
• “We should jointly advocate the strengthening of international people-to-people and cultural exchanges and cooperation, explore the establishment of a global civilization dialogue and cooperation network, enrich the content of exchanges, expand cooperation channels, promote mutual understanding and friendship among peoples of all countries, and jointly promote the development and progress of human civilization.”
“In the face of various new problems, new situations and new challenges encountered in the process of modernization,” Xi said, “political parties must dare to take responsibility and act bravely, break through the shackles of ideas and concepts, get rid of the shortcomings of systems and mechanisms, explore ways to optimize methods, and constantly achieve innovative breakthroughs in theory and practice. Inject a steady stream of powerful vitality into the modernization process. We must work together to promote the reform and construction of the global governance system, promote the development of the international order in a more just and reasonable direction, and promote the modernization of human society through continuous efforts to promote fair rights, fair opportunities, and fair rules.”
President Xi also clearly distinguished this policy from that of the U.S. in organizing “small groups” of like-minded countries against their “rivals.” Without naming the U.S. in particular, he also criticized the policy of attempting to deprive China of high-technology, noting that “putting out someone’s lamp, will not light your own.” The Chinese government’s news service stressed that there were 500 representatives from political parties around the world attending and participating in the dialogue.
