Illustration. Liu Rui/GT

 
When you ask OpenAI's ChatGPT, "What is a civilization country," the AI-driven tool provides an explanation that "A civilization country is a concept used mainly in political theory and international relations to describe a country whose identity, legitimacy and governance are rooted in a long, continuous civilization, rather than primarily in modern nation-state ideas like ethnicity, borders or ideology." 

It adds that this term is most often used in discussions about China. 

Some Chinese and foreign scholars discussed the topic of "Civilization Country: Why the Chinese Approach Is the Most Practicable," at the Global Times Annual Conference 2026, which was held in Beijing on December 20. 

"Civilizational thinking is second nature to the Chinese. China emerged as a civilization-state and only much later as a nation-state; its primary identity is that of a civilization. This is a wholly different way of thinking. It is why China has a deep understanding of the importance of civilization to the Global South," Martin Jacques, a British scholar and a senior fellow at the China Institute, Fudan University, said at the annual conference. 

Together the four initiatives signal what might be described as the beginning of the sinicization of international relations, Jacques said. 

The British scholar believes that China's four global initiatives, Global Development Initiative (GDI) (2021), Global Security Initiative (GSI) (2022), Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) (2023), and Global Governance Initiative (GGI) (2025) are an articulate summary and statement of China's foreign policy as it has evolved.

The GGI is China's voice and proposal, but it also reflects the shared aspirations of the vast majority of countries around the world, Fu Xiaoqiang, president of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said at the panel discussion under the topic at the Global Times Annual Conference 2026.

GGI embodies Chinese wisdom, Chinese ideas, and Chinese solutions in a concentrated form. One of its core principles is extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, Fu said. 

This principle offers clear guidance for addressing the fundamental challenges of global governance: how to make the global governance system reflect humanity's shared aspirations for peace and development, and how to effectively tackle issues related to development and security, he added. 

Four initiatives in focus 

The implementation of the GDI aims to ensure that growth opportunities are shared by all, promote the inclusiveness of development paths, and enable people of all countries to share the fruits of development, according to an article by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on promoting the implementation of the four initiatives, which was published on October 16, per the Xinhua News Agency. 

The article by Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said the GSI advocates promoting development and security through cooperation, and building a more balanced, effective and sustainable security framework, per Xinhua. 

In today's world, where the future of all countries is closely interconnected, the GCI aims to promote inclusiveness and mutual learning among different civilizations, and advocates respect for the diversity of world civilizations, according to the article.

As the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation, it is ever more important to uphold the original aspiration of peaceful coexistence and firm up confidence in win-win cooperation. To this end, China has proposed the GGI, aiming to work with all countries to build a more just and equitable global governance system and strive for a community with a shared future for humanity, the article noted. 

The changes in the international landscape will affect China's development, and likewise, China's development will influence and drive shifts in the global situation, Ma Xiaojun, a research fellow at the Institute of Global Governance and Development at Renmin University of China, said at the Global Times Annual Conference 2026. 

The success of Chinese modernization will also impact the direction of human civilization. It is in this context that China has proposed its four major global initiatives, Ma said. 

The deeper intention behind them is not to portray China as the "savior of the world," but rather to share its experience of Chinese modernization with other countries, especially those in the Global South, Ma said, adding that this includes the challenges encountered and lessons learned over nearly half a century of reform and opening-up, grounded in the enduring wisdom of five thousand years of Chinese civilization, with the aim of guiding the world toward a better direction. 


New choice 

An article published by The Economist in early 2020, quoting late American political scientist Samuel Huntington, said that the 21st century is witnessing the rise of the civilization-state.

Zhang Weiwei, director of the China Institute of Fudan University, who has brought up the idea of "civilization country" for 15 years, said in October that a civilization country can help us make relatively accurate political predictions, as it offers a thorough deconstruction and challenge to grand narratives such as the Western nation-state model, liberalism, "Western-centrism," and the "end of history." 

Once we fully break free from the constraints of Western discourse, standards, and paradigms, it becomes easier to return to a genuinely fact-based approach, and thus to get closer to the truth and reality, Zhang said in a readout published on the website of Fudan University. 

The postwar order is dying and a new order, though still in its infancy, is beginning to emerge, with China at its heart, Jacques said at the annual conference. 

In this situation it became increasingly incumbent on China to develop and articulate its views on the global order for the rest of the world, above all the Global South. The four initiatives are part of China's response to the gravity of the crisis of the global order that is becoming ever more evident. They are China's response to increasingly widely asked questions: What is China's position on the global order? How should it be reformed? How does China see the future of the international system? These are GGI's subjects, he said.