Global Times has started a new series entitled “Steering the New Era,” in which they are interviewing renowned scholars and dignitaries with regard to China’s development and governance issues. The second interview published on Aug. 25 was given by Helga Zepp-LaRouche. In the interview, Zepp-LaRouche elaborates on the Schiller Institute, which was based on the concept of a dialogue of cultures. When hearing of President Xi Jinping’s Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), she had become very excited, she said, understanding the significance of this proposal. She related some of her own experience in visiting China many times, and most recently, visiting Confucius’ hometown of Qufu in Shandong province.
She praised China’s poverty-alleviation program, which had raised 800 million out of poverty, calling it “the biggest civilizational contribution to the development of mankind in all of our shared history.” “And contrary to many Western countries, China is not proselytizing its own philosophy onto other nations, but practices the principle of non-interference. This is why many Africans are now saying that China is a true friend to their countries, and even to their continent,” she said.
She also lambasted the Western nations over the ongoing war in Ukraine and the uncalled-for attack on Iran. “First, the West is applying an obvious double standard when it comes to the definition of what an ‘unprovoked war of aggression’ really is. We have entered a period of de facto lawlessness, which, given the existence of thermonuclear weapons, is a very dangerous condition.
“The most important thing that China and Western countries should do, is to officially initiate the creation of a new global security and development architecture, which must take into account the interests of every single country on the planet…. The two most important principles are, first, that for the sake of peace, one has to take into account the interest of the other, and that means all others. And second, one has to replace the policy of revenge with a policy of love. China’s three global initiatives absolutely correspond to that approach, and especially the GCI; opening a true dialogue of civilizations can awaken the minds and hearts of people to arrive at a new epoch in the history of mankind, where we become truly human.”
