Understanding the Global Civilization Initiative

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, proposed the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) at the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting on March 15, 2023. Coming after the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, the GCI is another international public good from China, aligned with the common need of the international community to enhance dialogue and exchanges among civilizations and promote cultural prosperity and development.

The 78th session of the UN General Assembly on June 7, 2024 unanimously adopted a resolution proposed by China to establish an International Day for Dialogue among Civilizations, designating June 10 as the day.

What is the GCI?

The GCI consists of four proposals. It advocates respect for the diversity of civilizations. Countries need to uphold the principles of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness with cultural exchanges transcending estrangement, mutual learning transcending clashes, and coexistence transcending feelings of superiority. 

It advocates the common values of humanity. 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. 

It advocates the importance of inheritance and innovation of civilizations. Countries need to fully harness the relevance of their histories and cultures to the present times, and push for creative transformation and innovative development of their fine traditional cultures. 

And finally, it also advocates robust international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. Countries need to explore building a global network for inter-civilization dialogue and cooperation, enrich the contents 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.

Looking into the future

This year, China plans to take a step further by institutionalizing the effort. Institutionalization is crucial for the sustainability of cooperation, especially considering the abstract nature of the initiative. How to institutionalize the initiative? China can follow a fundamental principle outlined by Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong in the early 1990s: Everybody cherishes his or her own culture, and if we respect and treasure other’s culture, the world will be a harmonious one.

The first proposal of the GCI seeks to restore the diversity of civilizations. Previously, it was believed that world civilizations exhibited diversity only in ancient times, while modern civilization is a universal civilization without diversity. The West believes, since the ancient Chinese civilization is “dead,” modern civilization must follow the West. In the past, dialogues among civilizations were merely about learning from the West. However, today’s discourse on the exchange and mutual learning among civilizations is about shaping a country’s own civilization. Your civilization should not be defined by others.

Why a political party platform? 

Why was a CPC-hosted dialogue among global political parties chosen as the occasion for proposing the GCI?

It is because the CPC is a new-type civilizational political party that embodies a new type of political civilization. It is committed to creating a new form of human civilization. It cannot be understood through the concept of Western political parties, nor can it be interpreted from the practice of forming cliques for personal gains.

The entire world is delving into the reasons behind China’s success and why the Communist Party of the Soviet Union collapsed while the CPC has endured. Since 1956, China began to diverge from the Soviet model of modernization. The CPC has also transformed from a political party that was originally subordinate to the Communist International into a party with Chinese characteristics. Today it is a political party that integrates the soul of Marxism and the root of China’s fine traditional culture.

The CPC has a mission for the past, the present, and the future of China. To be specific, it needs to ensure the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and resolve future problems based on the Chinese civilization with a history of over 5,000 years.

The foundation for establishing a partnership between political parties is establishing equal relations among them, with sovereign equality and capability equality being the most fundamental forms of equality. Discussing freedom and equality in artificial intelligence in a country without electricity is essentially deceiving them. To address this, China is working to help enhance the autonomous governance capability of other countries and the capability of their political parties to act. The Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Tanzania, supported by the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, is a good example.

Diverse cultures interact with each other to form a harmonious world. How to achieve global harmony? A political party should put people at the center and exhibit a deep commitment to the broader interests of humanity, as Xi has stressed repeatedly. If every political party were to embrace this principle, the world would undoubtedly become a better place. Renmin University of China (RUC) established the School of Global Leadership in 2024, the first of its kind in China. Alongside the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School, these schools are emerging as international institutions that support the building of a global community of shared future.

Promoting global modernization through Chinese modernization and building a global community of shared future represents a brand-new approach China upholds to create a better world for all. To this end, it is essential to take solid moves to implement the GCI for the great unity of the world’s people, and harmonious co-existence of the world’s political parties.

Wang Yiwei is vice president of the Academy of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at Renmin University of China (RUC), a researcher at the Contemporary Political Party Research Platform at RUC, and a professor at the School of International Studies at RUC.