With the iconic image of the Great Wall of China – one of the New 7 Wonders of the World – China recalls that in 2024, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 10 as the International Day for Dialogue between Civilizations, and since then, this commemoration has become an active engine to promote a concept that China has proposed for several years: the diversity of civilizations must be a source of understanding, and not of confrontation. The date, proposed by China and co-sponsored by more than 80 countries, highlights the need to promote tolerance and dialogue between civilizations and recognizes that “all cultures and civilizations contribute to the enrichment of humanity.”
In the text of the resolution, the UN also encourages “tolerance, peaceful coexistence, respect, dialogue and cooperation between different cultures, civilizations and peoples,” also recognizing that the achievements of civilizations constitute “the collective heritage of humanity.”
Behind the adoption of this UN resolution, are China’s efforts and the Global Civilization Initiative, a proposal that Chinese President Xi Jinping made in 2023. On a planet marked by geopolitical tensions and a humanity facing shared challenges, this proposal could not have come at a better time. The initiative was raised by the Chinese president during the CCP High Level Meeting in Dialogue with World Political Parties, in a speech that outlined the fundamental features of his vision, which can be explained in four axes: respect for the diversity of civilizations; the defense of the common values of humanity; the importance of heritage and cultural innovation; and the strengthening of exchanges between peoples.
Under these lines of work, China has launched tangible cultural exchanges and cooperation projects that have connected more than 100 countries, that have boosted global relations and that have laid the foundations for a more inclusive international order. One of the forums that has materialized under this proposal was the first Ministerial Meeting of the Dialogue between Global Civilizations held in Beijing in 2025. At that summit, world leaders met to discuss and implement the ways in which global civilizations dialogue with each other. It was also an opportunity to recall the global roots that drive this initiative, such as the African concept and philosophy of Ubuntu, “humanity”, often also translated with the phrase “I am because we are”. The expression was taken up at the event by Kenyan political leader Raphael Tuju, but it has also been adopted by historical leaders such as Nelson Mandela. As the African leader has explained, Ubuntu philosophy underlines the interdependence of human beings and our responsibility towards others.
The idea of harmony and dialogue between different can also be traced in Chinese culture. The Chinese phrase he’erbutong和而不同, which could be translated as “harmony in diversity”, condenses similar ideas and has more than two millennia of existence. The expression was first used by Confucius in his Analectas, in a section describing the ideal leader in passage 13.23, which could be translated as: “The teacher said: the noble man harmonizes without demanding conformity; the petty individual demands conformity but does not harmonize.” The passage underlines, on the one hand, the virtue of harmony between different subjects, while rejecting simple conformity, which in our times is represented, perhaps more clearly, by global hegemonic attempts.
Xi Jinping has declared that “the future of all countries is closely connected, tolerance, coexistence, exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations play an irreplacable role in advancing the process of modernization of humanity and making the garden of the world’s civilizations flourish.” This idea is articulated with a world order that takes into account the realities of a multipolar planet that considers the interests of actors in the Global South, a world of shared challenges. The Global Civilization Initiative and the International Day for Dialogue between Civilizations thus offer a fundamental working path to strengthen international cooperation and build a shared future for all humanity.