Q: In his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order published in 1996, Samuel Huntington of the United States put forward a view that, after the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the root cause of conflicts between countries would no longer lie in ideology but civilization, and what dominates the world would be the "clash of civilizations." From today's perspective, is China really experiencing a "clash of civilizations?"

A: Some Europeans see the Chinese path as a long-term threat to the Western model of development and democracy. In 2019, Dr. Kiron Skinner, who served as Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, said at a security forum in Washington D.C. that the United States was preparing for clash of civilizations with China. She said that the cold war with the Soviet Union was "a fight within the Western family," but the current dispute with China is "a fight with a really different civilization and a different ideology, and the United States hasn't had that before." She based her argument on the assumption that China poses a unique challenge because the regime in Beijing is not "a child of Western philosophy and history" in her own words.

It can be seen that some people indeed put down the deeper cause of the different paths pursued by different countries to a clash of civilizations.

Q: What seems to be a "clash of civilizations" between nations, peoples, regions, and faiths has indeed happened not infrequently throughout history. The most obvious case in point was the European Crusades. There have also been many conflicts around different values and beliefs within the same civilization. The West experienced conflicts between Catholics and Christians, and China saw conflicts between Buddhists and Daoists.

A: The question lies in whether these conflicts are indeed clashes of civilizations or are they caused by the contestation for concrete benefits between countries, regions, nations, and groups of different civilizations. This is what is worth considering.

Many of the conflicts are rooted in conflicts of social, economic, and political interests. Of course, there might be some people who will attribute them to "civilization" as a device of rhetoric. The impulse of hegemonic powers to intervene forcefully in other countries and regions with different histories of civilizations arises from the shrewd calculation of their geopolitical and economic interests behind what seems to be the clash of civilizations. It is not necessarily the civilization itself that provokes conflicts and creates divisions, but rather the practical interests harbored by people from different civilizational backgrounds.

At an event on the Biden administration's jobs and infrastructure plan on April 6, 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris inadvertently told the truth by saying that she had been to a lot of conferences on foreign policy, and there were wars over the years and generations fought over oil, soon the wars would be fought over water.

Such a confession may cause people to make this deduction: It has been assumed that the United States waged wars for the sake of human rights and democracy, and the Middle Eastern countries they attacked happened to have petroleum. Next, people would not be surprised to find the United States spreading democracy to countries that have water resources. It would be logical to use the "clash of civilizations" rhetoric to justify their doing so when these countries that have water resources, just as the Middle Eastern countries have petroleum, happen to have different civilizations from the United States. Some Western netizens have indeed made such reasoning.

Q: Is it really so difficult for civilizations to exist side by side in harmony?

A: On this planet where we live, with a population of more than 7 billion, more than 200 countries and regions, more than 2,500 ethnic groups, more than 5,000 languages, and a wide variety of religious beliefs, it is indeed difficult to live in harmony. However, it is possible to do so, as long as the diversity and differences of different civilizations are recognized with inclusiveness and tolerance, and one civilization does not attempt to replace other civilizations. If each civilization is adequately confident, not only are different civilizations able to exist side by side but they can also learn from one another and complement each other.

Nearly two hundred years of learning from the West did not turn China into the West and the foundation of Chinese culture is still firm. Generations of Chinese people grew up reading Western poetry, novels, and artworks, and watched Western movies and TV series. These cultural and artistic works have not only brought them happiness and aesthetic enjoyment but also influenced them greatly with education on Western history, systems, values, attitudes to life, and customs and traditions. In the eyes of the Chinese, such cultural exchanges work to facilitate progress in civilization.

Some philosophers in modern Western world did not reject Chinese culture; on the contrary, they showed great interest in and appreciation for it.

German scientist and philosopher Leibniz wrote in his book Novissima Sinica ("News from China") that the Chinese "surpass us in practical philosophy." Voltaire, one of the greatest of French writers and an Enlightenment philosopher in the 18th century, praised China as the fairest and most humane nation in the world. He admired Confucius and even named his study "Confucius Temple" and published essays sometimes simply under the pen name of "Master of Confucius Temple." The great German poet Goethe believed that in China, everything was clearer, purer, and more moral than in Europe.

These philosophers' acknowledgment of China did not necessarily mean they lacked confidence in their own cultures. Instead, it showed that they were amazed by the civilization in the East and were curious about it and intended to use it to complement and further develop Western civilizations. This was a magnanimous West in its rising stage of history.

Even today, the average Westerners do not reject Chinese culture. Works that display traditional Chinese elements often win praise from them. For example, a girl named Li Ziqi from Mianyang City, Sichuan Province who used short videos to display the pristine life in rural China attracted a large number of overseas fans and broke the Guinness World Record for the Chinese YouTube channel with the most subscribers.

Q: What causes the sentiment of "conflict" in Western media regarding Chinese civilization?

A: The West used to see China as a uniquely economically successful country, but things are not so simple now. After China's development put it in the spotlight on the world stage, people began to look at China from the perspectives of politics, social structure, civilization and values.

Although the "voice" of Chinese civilization is becoming increasingly more distinct, it's far from balanced with Western public opinion, and not well-matched with China's economic and political influence. Some of those Westerners who attempt to size up Chinese civilization are actually unfamiliar with it. Such unfamiliarity is a hotbed breeding speculation and assumptions.

In a 2018 global survey, the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies interviewed 11,000 people in 22 countries. It found that most respondents in developed countries believed that Chinese food is the most representative element of Chinese culture, while in developing countries, the respondents believed traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts are the most representative elements of Chinese culture.

What the world knows about China and what is chosen by the respondents to represent Chinese cultural elements are not enough to reflect the essence of Chinese culture.

The reason why it is not so easy for Westerners to have a deep understanding of China's cultural characteristics is partly related to the fact that they may have some difficulty accepting Chinese ways of thinking and self-expression.

The traditional Chinese way of thinking stresses "do not do unto others what you do not want them to do unto you," that is, you should not force others to do whatever you do not want to do yourself. The Chinese people are used to the idea that "each has its own merits and advantages and all are complementary to each other," which implies that each one may have their own preferences and habits and can be inclusive enough to accommodate and appreciate other's preferences and habits and there is no need to negate or change others. These values are the logic for the Chinese people to look at international relations and are the cultural root from which China advocates peaceful coexistence, peaceful development, and mutual benefits.

However, no matter how sincerely China has been trying to spread these concepts and abide by these principles in international exchanges, some Westerners think of them as mere slogans and find it hard to have a real understanding and recognition of them. It is because their discourse system is a system of expressions based on their individualism and values of liberalism.

Q: Will a deeper understanding of the differences between Chinese and Western cultures free the world from being troubled by the "clash of civilizations?"

A: Of course not. The West and China have different traditions of making choices when responding to cultural differences.

The Western political ideology seems to have an inherent prejudice against and aversion to a different culture and model of civilization, and will be reflexively critical of China's propositions in the framework of a zero-sum mindset. For example, when China proposed the "community of a shared future for mankind" concept, Andrea Worden, an American scholar, wrote in an essay that the new world order that China envisioned would not include Western universal values, but a body of human destiny with Chinese norms, values, and discourse at its core. Or some may simply take the global community of a shared future and its concept as typically utopian.

In my opinion, the Chinese tradition of seeking harmony but not uniformity has extended their imaginative and creative power to create a model of civilization for mankind. The tradition of individualism and liberalism, on the other hand, has led to narrow-mindedness and prejudices that have limited some Westerners' imagination, cognition, and judgement.

Fu Ying, a senior Chinese diplomat, in her book Seeing the World, relates one of Kissinger's views. According to Kissinger, both the United States and China think that they are unique, but the Chinese seek to be respected by others, while Americans seek to convert others. In the history of the United States, few people have studied Chinese philosophy, and the United States tends to turn all problems into legal problems, while China tends to see problems as historical processes. This is the challenge of conceptual differences that we have to deal with.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former Prime Minister of France, says in his book Chine—Le Grand Paradoxe ("China, the Great Paradox") that it is becoming increasingly clear that the West wants to impose its ideas on China, while the Chinese are trying to prove that they can offer a different "Chinese solution." Westerners believe that there are sure to be conflicts between things that are opposite to each other and there is only one single truth. However, according to the Chinese concept of balancing between the two opposite principles of nature yin and yang, different things can coexist. Such cultural differences cause Europeans to look at China with an attitude of contempt and arrogance.

Western countries took the lead to reach the highland of modernization and have long stayed up there, accustomed to taking a condescending view of the world, with a fixed cultural vision and a sense of cultural superiority. When they see cultures different from their own, some people will naturally think of the "clash of civilizations."

As developing countries learn from other countries and try to catch up in their modernization process, they have received both gains and condescending criticism from the West. When the West comes across a confident "student" like China who registered good grades and keeps to his own path of modernization, it is only natural that they see China as a "different breed" or as a "rival."

I am afraid this is the root of such complex relations between China and the West.

In addition, China has taken a different approach from the West to cultural differences.

To catch up in its modernization process, China has kept making efforts to understand, study and learn from Western cultures for nearly two centuries, without opposing anything because of the belief that it is different from the West.

The Chinese approach to cultural differences is called "seeking common grounds while reserving differences," which means that people understand differences before they find common grounds for interactions and pursuing common goals, hence gradually diluting and eliminating conflicts that are easy to be caused by "differences."

Q: How should the world be freed from being troubled by the "clash of civilizations" argument? What would you suggest to solve the problem?

A: There are not that many followers of the "clash of civilizations" argument. Most people believe that China's rise and development have brought challenges to Western values, but they are challenges resulting from objective conditions, and do not necessarily pose a threat to other civilizations.

In today's world, every country is faced with challenges when trying to develop its civilization. The best approach for each country is to "free their minds" and come out of their habitual way of thinking.

There are already many wise proposals before us.

Kerry Brown, of King's College London, said that Westerners had to recognize the existence of China as a large civilization that would coexist with the Western system for a long time to come even if they do not recognize Chinese values.

Even Huntington, who proposed the "clash of civilizations, "offers some useful wisdom in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. He says that Western civilization is valuable not because it is universal, but because it is unique, and that the primary responsibility of Western leaders, therefore, is not to try to remake other civilizations in the image of the West, which is beyond their declining power but rather to preserve, maintain, and revive the unique qualities of Western civilization.

The interviewee is Chen Jin, Former committee member of the Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of CPC.

Liu Xian /Editor    Wu Yongqiang /Translator

Yang Xinhua /Chief Editor    Ren Qiang /Coordinator

Liu Li /Reviewer

Zhang Weiwei /Copyeditor    Tan Yujie /Image Editor

The views don't necessarily reflect those of DeepChina.