by Alexia Kosina
Member of the Greek JUADN, Journalist, Communication Specialist Analyst of World Politics, bankingnews.gr (webpage))& ONTime (newspaper), Greece
China is one of the world’s oldest continuous most influential and vibrant civilizations, with a recorded history that spans over 5,000 years, with significant contributions to philosophy, art, literature, science, technology, and governance. It began along the Yellow River (Huang He) and the Yangtze River in what is now modern-day China. Chinese civilization has been ruled by various imperial dynasties throughout its history, such as the Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing. Each dynasty contributed to the development of Chinese culture, which is so diverse and multifaceted, encompassing various traditions, customs, and beliefs, but the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties are considered the most foundational periods of the civilization.
China has produced influential philosophical traditions such as Confucianism, Daoism (Taoism), and Legalism, which have had a profound impact on its thought, society, culture, and governance even nowadays. China is known for its rich cultural traditions, mythology and historical events, performing arts and classical literature, painting, ceramics, poetry, the opera, with its unique style and symbolism and of course the calligraphy…. an art which is connected with one of the oldest written languages in the world, with a system of characters that represent words, or concepts and along the Chinese writing has been a unifying force in Chinese civilization, allowing communication across diverse regions and ethnic groups. Traditional Chinese medicine, feng shui, martial arts, the practice of tai chi and its cuisine, are also important cultural elements that are practiced from many people around the world.
Chinese civilization has been credited with numerous inventions and technological innovations, including papermaking, silk production, printing, gunpowder, the compass, the porcelain, glass inventions that have had a lasting impact on global development. Silk, spices, porcelain, glass, precious stones and many other luxury goods, reached the rest of Asia and Europe and traded through the Silk Road, the most important trade network from Antiquity, until its gradual abandonment after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Apart from its commercial importance, the Silk Road connected different countries, economic – political systems, civilizations, people and became one of the ways Greek and Chinese Civilizations met.
If China laid the foundations of modern Asia, Greece became the cradle and source of Western civilization. Both also, made significant contributions to human development and progress with brilliant cultural achievements and as an old Chinese saying goes, «neither mountains nor seas can separate people with common aspirations», even though they are thousands of miles apart. In the core and essence of both these two real cultures, Chinese and Greek, lies… human: people come first. The exchange and mutual learning between the two ancient civilizations has never stopped for thousands of years. Moreover, the ancient Greek culture was directly, or indirectly connected with China during Antiquity, especially during the years of Alexander the Great’s campaign, a time that migration waves, commercial exchanges and important relations between the two cultures developed, via the Silk Road.
Many Chinese scholars believe that the Clay Army was probably influenced by the Hellenistic art and that there was contact between China and the West, before the official opening of the Silk Road. The Hellenistic kingdoms that flourished during Alexander’s era developed diplomatic relations and cultural ties with China. After Alexander the Great invaded Central Asia in 330 BC, began to expand his rule over many parts of the wider region, expanding, assimilating, transmitting and mixing Greek with local cultures. With the establishment of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in 250 BC, a new page was opened in the history of Central Asian art. Bactriani is a meeting point of Greek and Eastern traditions, resulting in «Greco-Bactrian art and culture».
When the Kushans, occupied many lands in Central Asia and the Bactrian, adopted elements of Greek culture in various ways and forms, which were incorporated into Central Asian art (1st century AD – 4th century AD). This art and the fact thata Kushans emperor Kanishka has been a great patron of Buddhism was the cause that many schools of Greco-Buddhist sculpture flourished. Because the Hellenistic kingdoms in Central Asia and the Kushan Empire bordered present-day Chinese territory, Greek influence through Buddhist art, or other means passed into western China, especially in Xinjiang Province.
For example, at the Buddhist temple in Miran, the remains of a painted frieze depicting winged angelic figures, are particularly striking. One of the oldest cotton textiles discovered in China to date, was found in the tomb of Nyia and has Greek elements: it depicts a goddess holding the horn of Amalthea. On it are also visible the tail and two legs of an animal, possibly that of the Nemean lion. At the site of Sambul (Xinjiang province also), a piece of woolen cloth was found, with depictions of a Centaur and a warrior with a lance and with features probably of a Greek soldier, with a classic Hellenic movement and dramatic intensity, as those on the mosaics found in Rhodes and Delos.
The new Silk Road of 21st century during the «Going West» strategy, China created a «string of pearls», which means, it established cooperation bridges with states in Asia, Europe and Africa, developing commercial, economic relations mutual beneficial till today. This string expanded and grow stronger under the «Belt and Road Initiative» from 2013 on. One of the most important pearls became Greece because it «opened a gate» in modern European Union for China. During a very difficult decade, starting in 2010, marked by a deep socio-economic crisis and political turmoil, Greece was in need of attracting a significant amount of foreign investment and the period 2011 -2021, the People’s Republic of China figured as the sixth most important source of investment capital in the country. This mainly concerns two Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) projects, the port of Piraeus and the national electricity grid as part of the BRI Memorandum of Cooperation signed by the two countries in August 2018.
In terms of trade, China is an important partner for Greece. In 2021, it was the third largest source of imports to Greece, accounting for 7.8% of all imports. Greece exports to China Marble, Petroleum, Furs/skins, Cotton, Minerals (vermiculite, perlite, etc.), Wines, Olive oil, Kiwis, Honey, Juices, Pastry products, Medicines and Varnishes. China exports to Greece, Data processing machines, Sheets and films, Electrical telephone devices, Toys for children, Artificial climate devices, Footwear, Suitcases, Lighting appliances, Articles from plastic materials, Heaters for water. Shipping, being a huge global industry, is an important area of economic cooperation between the two countries, too, as in China greek shipowners construct passenger and cargo ships
Since 2014, the Chinese became the dominant investors through the most favorable in Europe «Golden Visa» program, since the investment in Greek real estate, ensures residence permit and the ability to move freely in the European Union. According to data from the Ministry of Immigration, in January 2024, 12,463 permanent investor residences (Golden Visa) were granted. From these, 7,387 granted to Chinese people, a number which is 9,4 times bigger than the second nationality, the Turkish people (800 approvals) and 11 times from the third nationality, the Lebanese (637). Along with the commercial relations, Greece and China keep steadily developing their cultural ties, with incredibly worthwhile initiatives. I still remember Beijing’s University staging of the Greek Eurepide’s tragedy «Medea» in Delphi theater, during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, or, more recently, the successful cultural and tourism promotion event of the Ancient Water City North of the Yangtze River, Liaocheng, in Athens on July 9, 2024. 2023 was the Year of Culture and Tourism of Greece and China too which closed with an incredible exhibition “The Greeks: From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great” which opened on December 19, 2023 at the Hunan Museum in Changsha. The exhibition will make a long journey to China before ending up at the Capital Museum in Beijing where it will be hosted from December 2024, until May 2025.
In the critical times we live in, despite their huge differences, place in world economy, policies, strategies, needs and concerns, Greece and China can further cooperate in fields of common interests, to promote the values of peace and good neighborhood, development and justice, law, democracy and freedom, in accordance with their own values, and work together to advance the progress of human civilization, by replacing alienation with exchanges, conflicts with mutual understanding, diplomacy, respect and superiority with coexistence.
*The views and opinions expressed in the articles are solely those of the individual authors and do not reflect the position of the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Journalist Network.