Opinion | Beijing Declaration on civilisational diversity is a vision for peace

Name: How a teamaker revived a long-lost Chinese tea ceremony in 21st-century Hong Kong
Uploaded: 2025-07-11T12:30:08.000Z
Duration: 2 min 31 s
Description: How a teamaker revived a long-lost Chinese tea ceremony in 21st-century Hong Kong

China-led vision seeks to replace law of the jungle and Cold War mentality with respect for the diversity of civilisations and development

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Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening ceremony of the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilisations in Beijing on May 15, 2019. China has been promoting civilisational dialogue for years. Photo: Simon Song

Xie Maosong

Published: 8:30pm, 11 Jul 2025Updated: 9:24pm, 11 Jul 2025

Beijing’s convening of a dialogue on global civilisations comes at a special time. Themed “Safeguarding the diversity of human civilisations for world peace and development”, the two-day meeting of ministers and representatives from about 140 countries and regions is happening in a year in which the world marks 80 years since the end of the second world war and the founding of the United Nations.

Participants at the dialogue adopted a Beijing Declaration and agreed on a list of 110 cooperation projects.

While the global community seeks lasting peace and sustainable development, conflicts and confrontations continue to intensify. This is fundamentally the result of certain countries still following the law of the jungle and harbouring a Cold War mentality.

The Chinese people share a destiny with the peoples of the Global South. We believe development should not be monopolised by a handful of countries, and security should not be exclusive to one country while making other countries insecure.

President Xi Jinping has put forward China’s Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilisation Initiative for a vision of shared development, security and diversity in the world. Only with shared development and security can we achieve sustainable development and lasting peace. But to have that, we need a fundamental change in our thinking about civilisations.

We should abandon the Hobbesian fear of falling prey in a world ruled by brute force. Mankind should not live like fearful wolves in a jungle; it only leads to a mentality of civilisational superiority and theories of a clash of civilisations. We want to replace these with cross-civilisational dialogues to recognise and affirm the diversity of civilisations.

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How a teamaker revived a long-lost Chinese tea ceremony in 21st-century Hong Kong

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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}China-led vision seeks to replace law of the jungle and Cold War mentality with respect for the diversity of civilisations and development

China-led vision seeks to replace law of the jungle and Cold War mentality with respect for the diversity of civilisations and development