China’s Xi calls for ‘harnessing relevance of histories, cultures to present times’

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Calling for harnessing “relevance” of histories and cultures “to the present times,” China’s President Xi Jinping has proposed what he called a global civilization initiative.

“We advocate the importance of inheritance and innovation of civilizations. Countries need to fully harness the, and push for creative transformation and innovative development of their fine traditional cultures,” Xi said.

Xi was virtually addressing on Wednesday a dialogue hosted by the Communist Party of China, which Xi also leads, with political parties from around the globe.

“As the future of all countries is closely connected, tolerance, coexistence, exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations play an irreplaceable role in advancing humanity's modernization process and making the garden of world civilizations flourish,” said Xi as he proposed his new initiative, according to exglish text released by China's State Council of Information office.

Earlier, the 69-year-old Chinese leader had proposed global development and security initiatives.

“We advocate 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 coexistence transcend feelings of superiority,” said Xi.

He said the current challenges and crises are “intertwined.”

“The global economic recovery remains sluggish, the development gap is widening, (the) ecological environment is deteriorating, and the Cold War mentality is lingering,” he said, adding that the modernization process “has once again reached a crossroads of history.”

“We must put the people first and ensure modernization is people-centered. The people are the creators of history and are the strongest bedrock and force in advancing modernization,” he added.

The Chinese president advocated for "diverse paths towards modernization," citing the "principle of independence."

“Modernization is not ‘an exclusive patent’ of a small handful of countries, nor is it a single-answer question. It cannot be realized by a cookie cutter approach or simple ‘copy and paste’,” he said.​​​​​​​