China proposes Global Civilization Initiative
Diverse development paths and dialogue across civilizations
On March 15, 2023, the Communist Party of China (CPC) held a dialogue with other political parties around the world, with the theme of “Path towards modernization: the Responsibility of Political Parties.” Leaders of political parties and political organizations from many countries participated via video, including Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa and President of the Republic of South Africa; Nicolás Maduro, President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; Aleksandar Vučić, President of the Serbian Progressive Party and President of the Republic of Serbia; Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, Chairman of the Mongolian People’s Party and Prime Minister of Mongolia; Daniel Ortega, President of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua and President of Nicaragua; and Dickon Mitchell, Leader of the National Democratic Congress and Prime Minister of Grenada.
According to Global Times, China’s national English language newspaper, Chinese analysts say that conducting diplomacy with foreign political parties is an important part of China’s direction of the nation’s foreign affairs. The approach enables all political groups worldwide to better understand the ideology of the Communist Party of China as well as China´s determination to promote peace and worldwide development.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President of the People’s Republic of China, delivered the keynote address, during which he put forth a proposal for a Global Civilization Initiative.
The central role of political parties that guide and educate the people
Xi began the keynote address by naming the challenges that humanity today confronts: the global economic recovery remains sluggish, the development gap is widening, the natural environment is deteriorating, and Western powers continue to possess a Cold War mentality. Humanity is thus at a crossroads. Will it choose polarization or common prosperity? Will it continue on the old path of materialistic acquisition and zero-sum approaches to international affairs, or will it decide for advancement that is cultural/ethical as well as material, based on win-win cooperation?
In this critical choice, Xi maintained, political parties will play a fundamental role. Political parties are an important force steering the direction of the modernization process in each country. The values, leading capacities, determination, and moral character of political parties are central to the driving force of modernization.
Xi here formulates a conception of a political party that emerges from the Chinese practice of people´s democracy, which is a political practice different from that of the Western model of democracy. In Western democracies, political parties “put almost all their efforts in struggling for power with each other and worsening the political atmosphere of their own countries,” in the words of Global Times. In contrast, political parties in people’s democracies guide, educate, and unify the people. People’s democracy is the form of democracy that is practiced in countries constructing socialism today, including China, Cuba, Korea, and Vietnam. (See “Political Structures in Socialist China: A people’s alternative to Western representative democracy,” October 8, 2021).
Many modernization paths to the universal goal of development
All countries have the goal of development, Xi maintains, and the modernization of their national economies is the key to development. But each country must forge its own modernization path, in accordance with its national conditions.
In pursuing its unique modernization path, each country must follow the general laws governing the process and uphold the fundamental principles of modernization. Such general laws and principles include the quest for a form of modernization that is people-centered, the ultimate goal of which is the free and well-rounded development of persons and the delivery of a happy and stable life for the people, increasing wellbeing not only for the current generation but for future generations.
And such laws and principles include independence, which permits nations to explore different paths toward modernization, in accordance with their national conditions. Thus, the process of modernization does not take a single form. In the current context of a global development gap, it is especially important to respect the right of developing countries to explore the modernization path in accordance with the distinctive features of their national realities. Respect for independent development paths will lead to a new modernization for humanity “that is like a garden where a hundred flowers blossom.”
All countries should help others to succeed as they seek their own success. “Humanity lives in a community with a shared future where we rise and fall together.” To be successful in achieving modernization, countries should pursue development through solidarity and cooperation with other countries. They should seek shared benefits and win-win outcomes. The countries that are in the lead should “sincerely support other countries in their development.” Therefore, China is firmly opposed, Xi maintained, to the practice of preserving one’s own development by suppressing the modernization efforts of other countries, using, I should note, phraseology that perfectly describes the foreign policy of the USA.
Song Luzheng, a research fellow of political studies at the China Institute of Fudan University, told the Global Times that China wants to share its experiences in achieving modernization with political parties of nations that want to achieve modernization but avoid “Westernization,” preserving their traditions, cultures, and autonomy. Song declared that “the CPC is presenting the world with an encouraging example that it is possible for all nations to seek their own modernization in their own way.”
China will never tread the old colonial path of plunder
In the case of China, Xi noted, the Communist Party of China has led the Chinese people for more than 100 years in finding China’s own path to modernization. China will continue on this path, Xi maintained; it will not veer off course or change its system. Recognizing that the future of China is closely connected to that of other countries, China “will strive to provide new opportunities for world development.”
China will accelerate its development strategy of the “high-standard opening” that permits access to its economy in a form beneficial to China. And China will further modernize its industrial system, providing the world with more and better products made in China. Thus, China will increasingly contribute to the expansion of the supply and demand in the world market.
At the same time, China will continue to support and help developing countries in their pursuit of faster modernization and industrialization. China will continue to propose strategies for narrowing the North-South gap and the attainment of common development for humanity. The Communist Party of China is ready to work with political parties in all countries to further advance Belt and Road cooperation and accelerate the implementation of the Global Development Initiative (see “Xi Jinping proposes Global Development Initiative: The President of China seeks win-win cooperation,” October 19, 2021).
“In advancing 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.” China firmly opposes hegemony and power politics in all their forms. China advocates solidarity and win-win cooperation in international affairs. “No matter what level of development China achieves, it will never seek hegemony or expansion.”
In accordance with its vision of common development through cooperation, China rejects the forging of a new Cold War by the Western powers. The world today does not need a new Cold War. “The practice of stoking division and confrontation in the name of democracy is in itself a violation of the spirit of democracy.”
Global Civilization Initiative
Xi declared that “all civilizations created by human society are splendid,” and all have made “important contributions to humanity’s modernization process.” Inasmuch as all countries are closely connected, the advancement of humanity’s modernization process occurs through mutual learning among different civilizations. Therefore, Xi proposes the Global Civilization Initiative.
The Global Civilization Initiative respects the diversity and equality of civilizations. It advocates mutual learning, cultural exchanges, and people-to-people exchanges among civilizations, based in open-minded appreciation of the values of different civilizations. It calls for the building of a global network for inter-civilization dialogue and cooperation, with the intention of making together a garden of colorful and vibrant world civilizations. It maintains that all countries should refrain from imposing their values or political-economic models on other countries, and they should avoid ideological confrontation.
The Global Civilization Initiative calls for balance between inheritance and innovation. Countries need to appreciate the relevance of their histories and traditional cultures to the present times; at the same time, they need to creatively transform and innovatively develop traditional cultures, in accordance with the challenges and conditions of today’s world.
Xi emphasized that the Communist Party of China is committed to strengthening exchanges and cooperation with other political parties, building a new form of party-to-party cooperation.
A March 17 editorial in Global Times described the Global Development Initiative as an effort to inject stability and new hope to the world, in response to the intensification of geopolitical conflicts and the “clash of civilizations” of recent years.
Conclusion
China’s three recent initiatives with respect to global development, security, and civilization, combined with its Belt and Road Initiative and its ties to regional integrationist projects in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Arab World, make evident the important leadership role that China is playing today in world affairs and will increasingly play in the foreseeable future. China’s leadership rests principally on the vision of cooperation among the nations, consistent with the proposals and principles of the Third World project that was initially launched in the 1950s and that has more vitality than ever today.
In contrast, the USA has exercised “leadership” in the now-decadent post-World War II neocolonial world-system, which pretends to protect the equal sovereignty of nations, but it in reality has various structures for political-economic control, thus enabling the access of the few stronger nations to the raw materials, natural resources, cheap labor, and markets of the many weaker nations. It is a system characterized by the subordination of governments and the superexploitation of labor, supported by national elites in alliance with world powers. Inasmuch as the neocolonial world-system is based in a great deception, its “leaders” can do no more that put forth ideological manipulations and half-truths.
China seeks to further develop its economy, but China is not seeking ascent in the neocolonial world-system. Rather, China is emerging as a leading actor in the forging of a different, more just and sustainable world-system. The USA, on the other hand, in decadence and desperation, seeks to maintain its hegemony in a neocolonial world-system that has moved beyond its economically productive phase and can only survive by converting itself into a global military dictatorship under U.S. direction.
If current global trends continue—and are not interrupted by a nuclear, health, or ecological holocaust—the future post-neocolonial world-system likely will be less conflictive and more prosperous, with China playing a key role in moral leadership. The USA would continue to be one of the world’s largest economies, with its level of influence determined by its capacity to adapt to the alternative world-system.
Such a possible future world-system could be described as a socialist world-system, in the sense that countries would have the right to freely decide for socialism, and greater numbers of countries would increasingly opt for the construction of socialism as the world-system evolves. The nations constructing socialism would seek to develop structures of people’s power, enabling control of the state by the people and its delegates and deputies; and they would be oriented to intelligent involvement of the state in the forging of people-centered modernization and development.
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