He visited Hong Kong in 1963, a trip that was "a live show of the Chinese way of life". In the early 1970s, Kueng met his first Chinese friend Julia Ching from the Chinese mainland, who was teaching at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Her deep understanding of Christianity fascinated Kueng. What attracted him even more was the tight kinship among Ching's family branches scattered across the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and America.

Kueng realized his dream of paying homage to Confucius in 1979 along with 19 American professors, thanks to Ching and their friend Sargent Shriver Kennedy, brother-in-law of former US president John F. Kennedy.

They were the first foreigners allowed to stay overnight at the residence of Confucius in Qufu, Shandong province, after the founding of New China in 1949.

At the reconstructed Confucius Temple in Qufu, which had been destroyed during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), Kueng was a bit surprised to find that Chinese researchers hesitated to detail the historical role of Confucius.

Ever since Western powers invaded China in the 19th century, the Chinese had hankered after "more advanced" thoughts from the West. The "cultural revolution" dealt an especially heavy blow to traditional values as represented by Confucius.

Twenty years later in 1999, when Kueng visited Confucius' hometown again, he was happy to discover a positive trend of re-evaluating Confucius.

In his seven-part documentary Tracing the Way, shot in 1999 and in different parts of world, which aimed at introducing world religions, Kueng says: "We must remember that the core of his (Confucius') teaching is not authoritarian or patriarchal, but is truly humane. In the Analects, humanity - 'ren' - in the sense of concern, goodness, benevolence, is the ethical term most frequently used."

At the World Conference of Sinology, Kueng told a gathering of Chinese and foreign experts that traditional Chinese ethics is one of the foundations for his global ethics theory.

He also borrows the idea of "shu", or reciprocity, as espoused by Confucius more than 2,500 years ago. Kueng says his goal is to find a fundamental ethic common to all existing cultures and religious traditions.

"In the beginning, ethics are always on the weak side, because you cannot enforce them like laws, but in the long run they still have influence," says Kueng, adding that unethical behavior on Wall Street and the lies of former US President George Bush about Iraq, have a "very negative effect" in the long run.

"Ethics don't have sanctions like laws, but they have sanctions in the human conscience," he says.

Wile expressing happiness over the Confucius Institutes established in more than 40 countries, he is concerned over growing materialism in China, and indeed, throughout the world.

"China can only play this weighty global political role when, with respect to its gigantic future tasks in internal and foreign affairs, it turns back to reflect on its impressive ethical traditions," he says.

Next September, students in Hong Kong will get a chance to learn about Kueng's theory, as the Global Ethic Foundation launches Introduction to Major World Religions in cooperation with the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies (ISCS) in Hong Kong.

"The project is aimed at helping students assess the influence of religion in everyday life," says Gao Xin of the ISCS.

"A global ethics program can give hope for the future and bring universal peace to the world," Kueng says. "The great humane traditions of China - its sense of humanity, mutuality and harmony - are an invaluable input."

Professor Yang Xusheng and DPA's Andreas Landwehr contributed to the story.