BEIJING: 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.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
