China seeks harmony in diversity
The Panel of Political Science/Public Administration and International Relations at The International Academic Forum in China 2021 in Beijing in mid-October Photo: Zhu Gaolei/CSST
Scholars focused on the world’s diversity and proposed that differences should be respected and a new international governance system should be built, at The International Academic Forum in China 2021, convened in Beijing in mid-October.
Communication and dialogue will help eliminate misunderstandings and enhance cooperation, thus creating a world of harmony in diversity.
“From World War II to the end of the Cold War, to the 21st century, with the changes in international politics and economy, our world has witnessed diverse development models as well as models of international development cooperation,” said Zhou Hong, director of the Academic Division of International Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
Starting from the success of poverty alleviation in Yan’an, China, Li Xinfeng, executive president of the China-Africa Institute at CASS, noted that China’s development experience will help African countries break the “single option” bottleneck in modernization. The new and uniquely Chinese path to modernization has offered African countries a “difference perspective,” the diversity of development paths.
“This kind of diversity is the world’s reality, and the diversity is inevitably manifested in the existence of differences,” said Qin Yaqing, former president of China Foreign Affairs University.
The theory of clash of civilizations regards the differences among civilizations as the cause of their clashes. Chinese culture, however, believes that different sounds can be coordinated to produce a beautiful symphony. Differences are fundamentally complementary, and can be integrated and cooperative, Qin noted.
The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated the world pattern, making it more imbalanced and unstable.
“Will today’s imbalance bring an inevitable conflict? I deeply doubt it,” said Wu Baiyi, former director of the Institute of European Studies at CASS. Wu believes that after a considerable period of time, with joint efforts, “we can gradually fill this gap in understanding.”
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and president of the Schiller Institute in Germany, suggested China engage with the European nations and the US in a dialogue of classical culture, where each side can emphasize the “best and most notable conceptions.” By having a “spirited dialogue” between “Confucius, Plato, Archimedes, Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming, Nicholas of Cusa, Leibniz, Du Fu, and Schiller,” among others, a concept of the “Simultaneity of Eternity” can be developed.
“We can see that the ideas of these great men represent different cultures and different cultural values. Dialogue among civilizations can truly produce a world-wide civilization value,” Qin said. In a world with major differences, conflicts are inevitable, but ultimately it will move towards integration, because the development of civilization witnesses mankind’s common values.
To promote dialogue and cooperation, the current international system needs further reforms.
“I think building a new global governance system is to promote the democratization of international relations and facilitate international fairness and justice,” said Yang Jiemian, a research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. As a large developing country, China is obliged to promote the transformation of the international structure and the construction of a global governance system, and contribute Chinese wisdom and Chinese approaches to a more just and reasonable global governance system.
Reforming and innovating the global governance mechanism is a major long-term, systematic task, and it must be phased, Yang continued. It is necessary to innovate the governance mechanism in a gradual and orderly manner. “Of course, this innovation is based on existing mechanisms.”
Edited by JIANG HONG