In his keynote speech at the China-Central Asia Summit on May 19, Chinese President Xi Jinping mentioned Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) envoy Zhang Qian's westward journey from Chang'an—today's Xi'an in Shaanxi Province in northwest China—around two millennia ago. With the mission to open the door to friendship and exchanges between China and countries west of China, Zhang had also featured in Xi's speech on September 7, 2013 at Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev University. Titled Promote People-to-People Friendship and Create a Better Future, it outlined some of the basic principles of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a China-proposed initiative that aims to boost connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. But what does the reference to an ancient dignitary signify?

Both speeches resonate throughout Europe today, especially in Spain, the cradle of the Western Hemisphere's second most widely spoken language. On July 1, Spain will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union—a political and civilizational union comprising 27 countries and 24 official languages. Cultural exchanges have played an important role in advancing progress of civilizations for the European region and the world at large, something that merits attention in a year marking the BRI's 10th anniversary as well as half a century of official Spain-China relations. Who could forget that 2014, just one year after Xi's 2013 proposal of the Silk Road Economic Belt in Kazakhstan and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road in Indonesia, collectively known as the BRI, saw the first train to run on the Yiwu (a city in Zhejiang Province in east China)-Madrid line, which surpasses Russia's Trans-Siberian Railway as the world's longest railway link, arrive in the Spanish capital. What ensued, namely, China's promotion of hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars' worth of infrastructure projects and investments along the Belt and Road routes encompassing Eurasia and beyond, is now a well-known fact. 

Two-way exchange 

However, one of the initiative's prominent elemental achievements also lies in the dynamic cultural interaction, vision and exchanges it has generated. The proliferation along the routes, both in China and abroad, of museums, cultural exhibitions and other activities, where Chinese tourists and high-ranking officials rub shoulders with locals, testifies to this effect. It is important to reassess the various axial concepts in China's ancestral and contemporary culture that are mirrored in Europe. They range from "to prosper you must first build a road" to "a journey of 10,000 li (5,000 km) begins with a single step" to "is it not a joy to have friends coming from afar?" as the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius (551-479 B.C.) is quoted as saying in The Analects of Confucius, an ancient book composed of a large collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese philosopher and his contemporaries.

Over the past decade, Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO from 2009 to 2017, has made frequent mention of the contributions the Silk Road has made over millennia to shaping civilizations, catalyzing inventions, fertilizing intellectual scholarship and engendering literary and scientific treasures, not to mention originating traditions and artistic practices that have been inherited across generations.

During his state visit to China in April, French President Emmanuel Macron's meeting with Xi reminded academics of the leaders' previous encounter in 2019, when Macron presented Xi with the original French version of An Introduction to the Analects of Confucius, published in Europe in 1688. Macron remarked on this occasion that such early translations had inspired French thinkers Montesquieu and Voltaire, hence influencing two of the main Western intellectuals engaging in the debate on what constitutes the best form of government. The occasion exemplified a contemporary two-way Silk Road exchange.

In 1999 and 2000, I had the pleasure of lecturing students at the Kazakhstan Diplomatic Academy on China's importance to Europe, on the relevance of learning Chinese and on the foundations of Chinese culture. After Kazakhstan formed official relations with China in 1992, Chinese business people and entrepreneurs established a visible presence in Almaty (Kazakhstan's capital until 1997). But none of my students had been to China. This highly rewarding sojourn made me realize the huge potential of cultural exchanges among countries along the Belt and Road routes and their importance.

In hindsight, this experience taught me two things. First, that Chinese modernization has the power, by learning from the past, to transform the present and future, and to catalyze dreams. And second, that diplomatic academies and schools, such as those in Madrid, Rome and other European capitals, including the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and certainly those in China, have played a very important role in promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

Like dynamic museums housing books on theory and practices, and professors who promote imaginative strategies for understanding and resolving conflict, the more these institutions successfully encompass past and present, the better they can project and plan for the future. Nankai University in Tianjin Municipality, alma mater of the first premier of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai (1898-1976), is another example. It is indeed imbued with distinctive university traditions that include a museum. Culture thus matters. It is no coincidence that Eugenio Bregolat Obiols, a three-time ambassador of Spain to China and an honorary professor at the Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University, since 2013, is also a literary man.

Spanish diplomat Luis Francisco Martínez Montes, probably one of today's most enlightened European diplomats and currently posted in Brussels, considered the de facto capital of the European Union, is another distinguished man of letters. In May, he presented his most recent work, Mundos Illuminados (Illuminated Worlds), a 12-volume global history of Spain, at the Diplomatic School in Madrid. In the context of today's multipolar world, Martínez Montes in this work advocates a common present and future narrative between different civilizations in prominent locations of the Chinese and Hispanic-speaking worlds.

Tangible value 

A revaluation of the role of cultural exchanges leads us to look at the role of railway connections through different eyes, particularly the significance of the world's longest railway link, the Yiwu-Madrid line. The railroad crisscrosses along China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, France and Spain, and extends to Italy and even Britain.

In November 2018, I was fortunate enough to welcome Zhejiang International Studies University students at the Railroad Museum in Madrid on the occasion of the Yiwu-Madrid line's fourth anniversary, which coincided with Xi's visit to Spain in honor of 45 years of bilateral diplomatic relations. Bearing the banner Yixinou Study Tour, November 2018 (Yixinou referring to the Yiwu-Madrid line) against the backdrop of platforms and tracks displaying old locomotives, Chinese students engaged in lively conversation with local students and people from all sectors of society, including entrepreneurs. Witnessing history in the making was an emotional moment for me.

It was, moreover, tangible. This we see in the waning hegemony of the U.S. dollar in favor of a return to transactions in various currencies between more countries along the Belt and Road routes. In this respect, museums, where art and history coexist, including coins, harbor spaces for dialogue in a world of broader nuances in these multipolar times.

The author is director of the Spain-based Dialogue With China project. This is an edited excerpt from an article first published in China Today magazine 

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon 

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