There are differences among civilizations, but also a lot of parallels. “And it’s heartening that we are discovering more of these similarities,” said Herman Van Rompuy, former Prime Minister of Belgium and former President of the European Council, in a recent interview with Beijing Review reporter Ma Miaomiao in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Edited excerpts of his remarks follow:
We always speak about East and West as if we have totally different cultures, which is not the case. What is different is the general approach, but the values are the same—the values of togetherness, charity, compassion and humanness.
