Inspirations of Human Rights Values from the Global Civilization Initiative

LU Chenyan*

Abstract: As an old Chinese saying goes, “A single flower does not make spring; a hundred flowers in full blossom bring spring to the garden.” The proposal of the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) has profoundly addressed fundamental challenges in the governance of contemporary international human rights, such as clashes of civilizations, value antagonism, historical nihilism, and institutional fragmentation, embodying China’s institutional self-awareness and civilizational stance in reconstructing global governance discourse. Against the backdrop of the international human rights system being mired in instrumentalization and politicization, the Chinese human rights civilization proceeds from respecting the diversity of civilizations, promotes the rooting of the common values of humanity, reshapes the theoretical core and practical logic of human rights discourse by upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, and expands the potential pathways for global human rights governance. In terms of human rights values, the GCI breaks free from the sole dominance of Western human rights discourse and returns to the ontological logic of respecting the diversified development of human civilizations and differences in social structures. In theoretical construction, it is grounded in the basic framework of people-centeredness, development priority, and peaceful co-construction, and establishes a rights system encompassing peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom. In practical advancement, it promotes Chinese human rights diplomacy, adapts to new trends in the digital era, and builds an institutional system with modernist tension and global influence. The GCI demonstrates the systematic transcendence of the Chinese human rights civilization over traditional liberal human rights values, provides a theoretical fulcrum and institutional support for the practice of global human rights governance in the new era, and highlights the distinct advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics in implementing human rights protection.

Keywords: Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy · Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) · Chinese outlook on human rights · Chinese human rights civilization · Chinese modernization