Interview: World's future lies in working together and sharing, British politician says

LONDON, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The Global Civilization Initiative is what the world needs to secure a future as it emphasizes mutual learning among civilizations, which facilitates cooperation, development and sharing, said Joti Brar, vice chair of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist).

"The only way for there to be a future where all of humanity benefits from all the advances that humanity has made so far, as well as the prosperity that we have made possible by modern technologies over the last 200 years, is by working together and sharing the benefits of technology and of people's labor," Brar told Xinhua after she participated virtually in the Communist Party of China in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting held in Beijing on Wednesday.

The initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, called for respect for diversity of civilizations, advocating the common values of humanity, highly valuing the inheritance and innovation of civilizations, and jointly advocating robust international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation.

"When you listen to the response of leaders from all over the world, it's very clear that there's a great thirst in the world for this type of approach to development, to cooperation, to mutual respect, to modernization in a human-centered way, not a profit-centered way," Brar said.

"As we look back on all of human history and development, there are things we can learn from every culture and every civilization. There are good things we want to take forward as we modernize and develop," she said. "There's a way of doing that with respect what we learn from one another, take what's best and leave behind what we no longer need."

She cautioned against global military domination and imperialism, which looted many countries in the past and still "operates according to the logic of maximum profit," leading to the suffering of humanity and the despoliation of the planet.

Brar visited China multiple times and spoke highly of the transformation in both urban and rural areas, especially how organized and clean they are. She said the Chinese have valued caring nature throughout its history, which is a fine tradition that should be harnessed and innovatively used.

Taking traditional Chinese paintings as an example, Brar said she has always found them "restful" and "calming" as they are in colors of nature, while the materials used are simple and natural, such as silk, paper, wood, or even feathers, and there's an economy of style.

China's "balanced and sustainable modernization" shows that "we must use technology in a planned way, not in an aggressive profit-taking way, but in a people-centered and planet-centered way so that we can raise people's living standards without killing our environment on which we depend," she said.

Not only are the Chinese thinking about how they can balance their development with nature, but they're setting an example to the world on what's possible when putting humans' needs and environment at the center of how to organize society and economy, she added.