In the face of grave challenges confronting humanity, which range from regional conflicts and terrorism to environmental pollution and severe epidemics, China has pledged to channel its efforts into bringing harmony to the international community.
The promise was reinforced recently when President Hu Jintao elucidated the idea in his New Year message for 2006. Titled “Joining Hands in Building a Harmonious World of Lasting Peace and Common Prosperity,” the speech underlines China’s efforts to seek peaceful development, while expressing the hope for world harmony.
“The Chinese people are hoping, earnestly, to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with other peoples all over the world, jointly building a harmonious world with lasting peace and common prosperity,” said the Chinese president.
Hu added that Chinese are willing to join with all nations to promote multilateralism, advance the development of economic globalization toward common prosperity, advocate democracy in international relations, respect the diversity of the world and push for the establishment of a new international political and economic order that is just and rational.
Key concepts in Hu’s message, such as harmony and diversity, are buzzwords that have been on the lips of Chinese political leaders and scholars for quite some time. More notably, they were listed high on the agenda of a number of international forums, like the Beijing Forum held in November 2005. Focusing on the theme of “harmony between civilizations and prosperity for all,” participants in the Beijing Forum shed perceptive light on related issues in the global context.
Equal exchanges
SHOW RESPECT: Professor Tu Wei-ming at Harvard University emphasizes the sense of “recognition” and “respect” in cultural exchanges
According to Zhao Dunhua, Director of the Philosophy Sub-Forum in the 2005 Beijing Forum and Dean of the Philosophy Department of Peking University, Confucianism, Christianity and Islam are the three groups that deserve our greatest attention under the contemporary political circumstance, because they are the focus of many problems in the world today.
He said Confucianism and Christianity represent Eastern and Western civilizations, respectively, adding that whether they can coexist in a harmonious way directly influences the stability and development of the whole world.
Zhao pointed out that a lack of exchanges between Islamic and Western civilizations has resulted in discrepancies and conflicts that are today the most devastating hindrance to world peace. It is Zhao’s opinion that the root cause of discrepancies between the Islamic world and Western world lies in the clash of civilizations. This situation can only be changed when greater attention is paid to dialogue between people, and hostility is turned into friendship through exchanges and mutual understanding.
Professor Tu Wei-ming at Harvard University also underscored the importance of dialogue between people with differing ideologies. “But you must have a sense of recognition―recognition of the other, a sense of respect, and then there is a possibility of mutual reference and mutual learning,” he said.
The professor went on to say that if this recognition and respect were present, it would be of great benefit to society. He also believes this process would eventually contribute to some form of understanding, without which it would be difficult to have a sense of peace.
Dialogue is welcome, but not dictatorship. “I am a little bit afraid of this word ‘global.’ It can always turn into totalitarianism. ‘Global citizenship’ may be a very good idea but it will definitely be exploited by those who have power,” said Professor Marietta Stepanyants, Director of the Center for Oriental Philosophy Studies at the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Stepanyants is apparently worried that many cultures will lose their identity under the so-called “global culture.”
“Should everyone become the same in order to communicate fairly?” he asked. “I am hesitant about any kind of global religion, global ethics, global citizenship. I would prefer the world to be plural and united at the same time. Plural in the sense that every culture keeps its identity, but united in the sense that people could tolerate each other and solve the problems that face them together, whether they are ecological problems, demographical problems or poverty. Perhaps only in this sense can we talk about global citizenship, but not if we belong to one culture.”
No supreme philosophy
COMMON PATH: Over 500 scholars from 41 countries participated in the 2005 Beijing Forum to discuss issues related to harmony and common prosperity
It is also Stepanyants’ belief that no religion shall claim superiority over others. “I don’t think any religion should say that theirs is the ultimate one,” he said, adding that one point of criticism against Islam is that this religion professes to be the last prophecy.
However, Stepanyants suggests that this could be interpreted differently. He cited the interpretation by Muhammed Iqbal, a great Muslim reformer of the 20th century.
Iqbal interpreted the finality of Islamic prophecy in this manner―Islam was not the best religion, but that human beings had matured to the point where God had decided not to send any more messengers, said Stepanyants.
Stepanyants also emphasized that people should not have religion forced on them. He said dialogue between people should not just be of a religious nature, as contemporary society is much broader and secular in nature.
Stepanyants said atheists and people who have beliefs that are not necessarily institutionalized or dogmatic all form part of our society. It should be a free choice, for everyone to be secular, religious, atheist or whatever and that choice is to be respected, according to the Russian professor.
Believing that no ideology should serve as a model to others, Stepanyants said ideologies of one culture or religion could be useful in another culture or religion. The West can learn a lot from oriental philosophies, including Chinese, he said.
“I always emphasize the importance of benevolence, family relations, collectivity and respect. However, such values are not present only among the Chinese, but also in other traditional cultures like Islam and Hinduism. This collectivity and commonality has both positive and negative sides. One has to understand that, in order to be critical, and to be realistic,” Stepanyants continued.
Earlier, the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approved an international normative instrument on the protection of cultural diversity on October 20, 2005, with only two objections from the United States and Israel.
The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions reinforces notions enshrined in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity adopted in 2001, that cultural diversity is a “common heritage of humanity” and that its defense must be considered “an ethical imperative, inseparable from respect for human dignity.”
According to a UNESCO news release, the convention seeks to reaffirm links between culture, development and dialogue and to create an innovative platform for international cultural cooperation. It reaffirms the sovereign right of states to elaborate cultural policies with a view “to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions” and “to create conditions for cultures to flourish and to freely interact in a mutually beneficial manner.”
The convention will enter into force three months after its ratification by 30 states. At the end of December 2005, Canada became the first country to endorse the document.
Different paths, same goal
“Diversity of the world has enabled different civilizations to complement one another through competition, and to realize common development by seeking common ground and putting aside differences, thus enhancing the progress of human society,” wrote Professor Tang Guanghong at Nanjing Political Institute in an article in China International Studies, an English journal published by the China Institute of International Studies.
Apart from cultural diversity, Tang stressed the diversification of the development mode and democratization in international relations. He said these are the methods and approaches of realizing the goal of a harmonious world.
He pointed out that diversity of the world determines that countries should have the right to choose their own way of development and mode of society.
“Diversity extends to all quarters of the earth and exists in the form of interconnection,” he wrote, adding that diversity makes it necessary and possible for different countries to conduct cooperation in political, economic, cultural and security fields.
Tang noted, as the international community becomes increasingly democratic, international relations have undergone certain changes, with non-hegemonic cooperation gradually expanding. It is against this backdrop that China puts forward the proposition of a new international order, adding a variety of fresh contents to the old one.
According to Tang, the basic feature of the new international order is to promote democracy, support justice, restrain power politics and safeguard fairness.
Tang quoted President Hu Jintao in his article as saying, “Diversity means differences, differences call for exchanges, and exchanges promote development.”
Different civilizations’ learning from one another through exchanges and continuously enriching and developing themselves will make the world a more harmonious place, Tang concluded.