Beijing's initiatives can bury 'clash of civilizations'

American political scientist Francis Fukuyama declared in his 1992 book, End of History and The Last Man, that the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in 1991 marked "not just the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: That is, the end-point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."

Fukuyama's teacher Samuel Huntington, steeped in geopolitics and perpetual war mentality, dampened his student's apparent "optimistic" views with a call for the liberal democratic West to be on the alert. In his 1996 book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, based on a series of articles published since 1993, Huntington advocated that a clash between the dominant Western liberal democratic order on the one hand and the Muslim world and China (because of the "hierarchical command structures in the Confucian Sinic civilization") on the other was inevitable.

In the three decades since these "prophesies" were pronounced, tens of millions of innocent people have been killed, maimed or rendered homeless, seeking refuge in other countries, economies destroyed, and trillions of dollars wasted on weapons and ammunition. The world looks more dangerous than ever, with a Cold War in the best-case scenario and a hot global war in the worst looming. Those in Western corridors of power, drunk with the fantasy of the superiority of the Western liberal democratic system, are sleep-walking the whole human race into extinction through a thermonuclear holocaust.

The only bright spot in the past three decades of wars and economic/financial crises is the rise of Asia with China at its core. More and more nations are gravitating toward this new center of economic power, thanks to their belief in a common future for all humankind. This process was accelerated with the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative by President Xi Jinping in 2013, Fortaleza Declaration of BRICS(Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in 2014, and the expansion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization into a garden of nations.

As the world's challenges increased and became more complex, Xi proposed the Global Development Initiative in 2021, the Global Security Initiative in 2022, and the Global Civilization Initiative at the Communist Party of China in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting on March 15.

The GCI is a unique proposal for setting the goals of global governance and relations among nations and cultures. It raises the bar of political dialogue to address such philosophical issues as the purpose of existence of nations and civilizations and the means through which can be realized peaceful co-existence among countries which are diverse in culture, history, religion, way of life, and political and social systems. The GCI revives the optimistic spirit amid a dangerously divided world today. It has the potential to bury both the "clash of civilizations" and "end of history" fantasies.

As to the important questions on the modernization path China and some other countries may take, Xi provided the answers with clear principles:

* modernization and progress must be people-centered, because "the ultimate goal of modernization is people's free and well-rounded development";

* the cultural and civilizational aspects of modernization must not be ignored, otherwise a materialistic society will become a soulless consumer society;

* the focus should be not only on fulfilling the needs of the present generations but of future generations too;

* countries must seek their independent path toward modernization and there are no "superior" models to copy;

* in a changing world with new opportunities thanks to scientific and technological progress, and challenges created by man-made or natural disasters, countries and political parties must seek new ways, free of rigid ideologies, to realize their national modernization goals;

* we must help others to succeed while seeking our own success, and ensure everyone enjoys the fruits of modernization, because humankind is a community with a shared future;

* the contributions of all civilizations and cultures must be respected and their contributions to human progress throughout history recognized. This will contribute to further promotion of all nations and civilizations.

It is of utmost importance that in these times of deep environmental, economic and security crises, a voice of reason tries to pull humanity back from the edge of the apocalyptic precipice it finds itself on.

Such an initiative to start a "dialogue of civilizations", rather than triggering a "clash of civilizations", reminds people and countries about the purpose of their existence and the meaning of taking the best of what was bestowed upon them by previous generations and civilizations, and what they can contribute to and leave behind for future generations.

There is also a pressing need for discussions on a global scale on the true nature of humankind and its purpose of existence. The Global Civilization Initiative is a timely and perfect launching pad for such discussions.

The author is vice-president of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden.

The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.