Because all normative orders are contested orders, the notion of human rights is often criticized and resisted, and the international human rights regime is not static but rather subject to continuous adaptation. What role does China play in this process? Is the People’s Republic integrating into the current system or is it trying to alter it? As China rises, what will be the consequences for the international order with respect to human rights?

On the one hand, China has formally endorsed human rights. Not only did China revise its constitution to include a reference to human rights. It is also signatory to a number of key international treaties. On the other hand, China’s firm rejection of public criticism concerning its domestic protection of civil and political rights is well known and exhaustively documented. Less studied is the extent to which – and the manner in which – China challenges the normative order established by human rights law. Has the Chinese government launched a coherent counter discourse on human rights? Or does it seek to redefine how human rights are understood?

Voting patterns at the UN General Assembly point to growing international acceptance of China’s view on human rights. Voting coincidence with China’s position first surpassed that of Western nations in the year 2000. Beijing continued to enjoy this diplomatic success throughout the first decade of the new millennium. But what exactly is China’s position on human rights? And do the voting patterns foreshadow China’s ability to alter the global normative order?

Project objectives

The research project rests on the premise that a coherent counter discourse is a precondition for successful attempts to replace or alter a given normative order. The empirical research to be conducted will include a qualitative content analysis of China’s position on human rights in UN debates from 2000-2010. It is hypothesized that the Chinese government did not engage in a framing contest but instead challenged and undermined human rights norms via an implication contest. The qualitative content analysis will serve to test this hypothesis and will be organized along four main categories, capturing the:

Validity of human rights norms
Purpose of international human rights bodies
Relation between sovereignty and human rights norms
Content of human rights norms

The project aims to contribute to both policy and academic debates on China’s international human rights diplomacy. To this end, it will deliver a detailed content analysis of China’s position on human rights matters under consideration by the UN Human Rights Council, the General Assembly and the Security Council. Beyond the case of China, the project seeks to further our understanding regarding the formation of normative orders.

Project outputs

The research results will be presented in the form of a journal article.

For more information on this project, please contact Katrin Kinzelbach.