A leading strategist said in Beijing Sunday that China's peaceful rise embodies the revitalization of its civilization, reflecting a peaceful, civilized and benign China to the outside world.

Zheng Bijian, chair of the China Reform Forum, a non-governmental and non-profit think tank, said China's unique culture combined its own traditions and the best of other civilizations.

"We advocate the priority of harmony, tolerance, mutual trust and friendship, and good neighborliness," Zheng said.

"A socialist harmonious society should be exemplified in material goods, politics, spirit and ecology," Zheng said at the China Sciences and Humanities Forum.

In the movement towards civilization revitalization, Zheng said,the Chinese needed to combine their great traditions with reform and innovation and forge a new international image.

In the 21st Century, Zheng said, China is confronted with many challenges, including energy shortages, deterioration of its ecology and environment, and an imbalance between economic and social development.

"We must transcend the old model of industrialization and advance a new one; transcend the traditional ways that great powers have emerged as well as the Cold War mentality that defined international relations along ideological lines; and transcend outdated modes of social control and build a harmonious socialist society," said Zheng, a former executive vice-president of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China.

"China links itself with globalization and realizes its economic development through cooperation with the international community," Zheng acknowledged. "We rely on ourselves for economic and social development and will never pass our own burdens to other countries.

"Therefore China's growth mode should not pose a threat to the world."

The China Sciences and Humanities Forum was initiated three years ago by Zheng himself, along with China's leading science strategist Lu Yongxiang, who is also president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The forum hosts Chinese and foreign leaders, as well as well-known scholars and experts, to speak.