(China Daily, June 12, 2023) Although modernity as a set of values was formed in the West from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment, this does not mean that the set of values belongs to the West. In fact, that period of Western history was characterised by openness and inclusiveness. The West absorbed and incorporated many values from other civilisations and cultures, particularly the Chinese civilisation and culture.
The contributions of Chinese civilisation are material, institutional, and ideological. In terms of its material contribution, the greatest is China’s technological inventions, especially the “four great inventions” — the compass, printing, papermaking and gun powder. The West’s application of these technologies laid a solid foundation for its modernisation.
China’s institutional contribution lies in the separation of religion from politics and business from politics, as well as a professional bureaucratic system.

Taoism’s emphasis on wuwei, or letting things take their own course, if not nonintervention, had a far-reaching influence on the evolution of Adam Smith’s idea of a market economy. Confucianism’s stress on education for all proved to be a source of inspiration for the West’s popular education today. And the Chinese civilisation’s concept of datong, or pantisocracy or a world with universal peace, and its concept of tianxia, or the original idea of an international community, both contribute to the good governance of the modern world.

Since the late 19th century, China’s pursuit of modernisation has also focused on the three levels: material, institutional, and ideological (or human). On the material level, all countries pursue a good life of material prosperity. In this respect, China is not very different from other countries; however, at the institutional and human level, China’s modernisation is very different from that of other countries, as its modernisation is based on its own traditions and practical national situations, rather than the models of the West.

It is the pluralism of modernisation that should be respected today. Different civilisations not only have different understandings of the meaning of modernisation, but also different contents and different ways of pursuing modernisation. Only when a country’s modernisation conforms to its own civilisation, culture and national conditions can it succeed.
China’s emphasis on its own path to modernisation means that it will not impose its model of modernisation upon any other parties, as some Western countries do. Instead, it advocates dialogues and mutual learning among civilisations to jointly advance the modernisation of the world through seeking common development along different paths.