Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, proposed the Global Civilization Initiative at the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting Wednesday.
Delivering a keynote address at the meeting, Xi, also Chinese president, called for respect for the diversity of civilizations.
Countries need to uphold the principles of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness among civilizations, and let cultural exchanges transcend estrangement, mutual learning transcend clashes, and inclusiveness transcend any sense of superiority, he said.
Stressing the importance of common values of humanity, Xi said peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom are the common aspirations of all peoples. Countries need to keep an open mind in appreciating the perceptions of values by different civilizations and refrain from imposing their own values or models on others and from stoking ideological confrontation.
He said that the inheritance and innovation of civilizations should be highly valued and countries need to fully harness the relevance of their histories and cultures to the present times, and push for the creative transformation and innovative development of their fine traditional cultures.
The Chinese president also called for jointly advocating robust international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation, saying countries need to explore the building of a global network for inter-civilization dialogue and cooperation, enrich the content of exchanges and expand avenues of cooperation to promote mutual understanding and friendship among people of all countries, and jointly advance the progress of human civilizations.
He said that the CPC is committed to strengthening exchanges and cooperation with other political parties to pursue the just cause together and is ready to deepen interactions with political parties and organizations in other countries to expand the convergence of ideas and interests.
He called for leveraging the strength of a new type of party-to-party relations for building a new type of international relations and expanding global partnerships by fostering stronger partners with world political parties.
Chinese modernization
Xi, at the video meeting, also hails the Chinese path to modernization, saying it's a sure path for China to build a stronger nation and realize the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Chinese modernization is rooted in China's national conditions and draws on the experience of other countries. It carries the imprint of history and traditional culture and also contains modern elements, Xi said.
He added that modernization is not "an exclusive patent" of a small handful of countries, nor is it a single-answer question. It cannot be realized by a cookie-cutter approach or simple "copy and paste." For any country to achieve modernization, it needs not only to follow the general laws governing the process but more importantly consider its own national conditions and unique features, Xi said.
He stressed that Chinese modernization is also a path the country must take to seek progress for humanity and harmony for the entire world. It not only delivers benefits to the Chinese people but also boosts the common development of the entire world.
China's path toward modernization is on the right course of peaceful development, Xi noted. He added that in pursuing Chinese modernization, China will neither tread the old path of colonization and plunder, nor the crooked path taken by some countries to seek hegemony once they grow strong.
The CPC will continue to safeguard international fairness and justice and promote world peace and stability, Xi said.
(With input from Xinhua)