{"id":58020,"date":"2020-08-05T11:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T01:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=58020"},"modified":"2020-08-05T09:54:52","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T23:54:52","slug":"shaping-from-within-a-un-with-chinese-characteristics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/shaping-from-within-a-un-with-chinese-characteristics\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaping from within: a UN with Chinese characteristics?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Chinese President Xi Jinping is\u00a0urging<\/a>\u00a0China to \u2018lead the reform of the global governance system\u2019 and to \u2018actively participate in the formulation of international rules\u2019. Such statements suggest that we now should be able to gain better insight into Beijing\u2019s vision for the world order. What can we learn from its efforts to reshape how the United Nations operates?<\/p>\n

China\u2019s active engagement is evident within many well-established international organisations, and it has created new global and regional institutions. But the UN is a particular focus of Chinese attention. Over the past five or so years, Beijing has provided the UN with significant resources and\u2014as its confidence and influence grows\u2014now seeks higher-level positions within the secretariat and in specialised agencies. It is also working to shape UN norms and procedures.<\/p>\n

These efforts have increased alongside the UN\u2019s evolution into an organisation that promotes a\u00a0redefinition of security<\/a>\u00a0to include human protective elements such as the protection of civilians in armed conflict, the \u2018responsibility to protect\u2019, and the shielding of those who endure conflict-related sexual violence.<\/p>\n

This multilateral setting does impose structural and image-related constraints on China\u2019s behaviour. The UN has an interdependent three-pillar structure comprising international peace and security, development and human rights. As UN secretaries-general constantly declare, attention to all three elements is the best means of achieving the organisation\u2019s core objectives\u2014and that formulation is difficult to overturn. A China that seeks to resist or change the balance among these three interdependent elements has its work cut out.<\/p>\n

Beijing\u2019s main method of addressing UN attachment to the three-pillar approach is mobilising support for an alternative triadic model. This model accords a central role to strengthening the government in power, promoting domestic social stability and focusing on long-term economic development as the \u2018master key to solving all problems\u2019, as Xi put it in\u00a02017<\/a>. Compared with the UN formulation, this most obviously downplays attention to human rights.<\/p>\n

China promotes this model rhetorically and increasingly by behaviour. Beijing articulates positions that support a more traditional perspective on security and a narrow interpretation of which events constitute a threat to international peace and security. It would prefer to\u00a0restrict<\/a>\u00a0the range of items that make it onto the Security Council agenda. In Beijing\u2019s view, the Security Council should follow the principle of \u2018national ownership\u2019 by addressing accountability issues through domestic judicial institutions and seeking host state consent before any external intervention.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s promotion of social stability manifests itself in statements that indicate it is the duty of governments to maintain public order, that social media needs to be controlled and that non-governmental actors need to be \u2018guided\u2019 by the government in power.<\/p>\n

The development arm of China\u2019s triadic formulation is given particular prominence. Beijing argues for a structural focus on economic development as the root cause of conflict. It perceives this as essential in UN attempts to prevent, manage or resolve conflict, and so advance human protection.<\/p>\n

For Beijing, the UN\u2019s women, peace and security agenda becomes a question of supporting individual states to empower women by increasing their\u00a0socioeconomic opportunities<\/a>. In China\u2019s view, UN capacity building for fragile states unable or unwilling to prevent egregious instances of civilian harm should not unduly emphasise reforming the security sector or developing the rule of law and human rights institutions. Instead, it should focus on socioeconomic development and offer the\u00a0material assistance<\/a>\u00a0that the state in question determines is needed.<\/p>\n

In the Human Rights Council resolutions that China sponsored between 2017 and 2019, Beijing hammered home its belief that rights are best guaranteed when development is given a foundational role. After economic development is achieved,\u00a0other rights<\/a>\u00a0might eventually flow.<\/p>\n

To advance UN member-state support for these beliefs, Beijing leverages its identity as a post-colonial state and its position as the leading economic partner of many UN members. It draws to its side governments that prefer a conservative UN that operates on a constrained interpretation of its core mandate and acts as an inter-state governance organisation. Beijing is also aided by the relative decline in Western influence and the setbacks in enacting the UN\u2019s complex human protection agenda.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, some of these Chinese propositions attract resistance. The argument that economic development is unlikely to be sustained without accountable political institutions and independent national human rights institutions still carries weight. This is reflected in the UN\u2019s 2030 agenda for sustainable development. It is also reinforced by Beijing\u2019s own frequent resort to repressive measures, regular occurrences of social instability in the country, and weaknesses in addressing domestic governance problems during its economic transformation. UN actors recognise that the absence of independent civil society perspectives is detrimental to sustainable outcomes.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s attempt to return the UN to a body that reflects a minimalist and pluralist conception of world order remains a complex and arduous task. Its accomplishment would mean a world that draws directly on what Beijing projects as its own experience since \u2018reform and opening\u2019\u2014and incidentally would enhance the security of the one-party regime in China itself. For the UN, it would mean reducing the body to a resource rather than a leader or partner in dealing with the serious collective-action problems of our time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chinese President Xi Jinping is\u00a0urging\u00a0China to \u2018lead the reform of the global governance system\u2019 and to \u2018actively participate in the formulation of international rules\u2019. Such statements suggest that we now should be able to gain …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1187,"featured_media":58023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,584,249,92],"class_list":["post-58020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-china","tag-development","tag-human-rights","tag-united-nations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nShaping from within: a UN with Chinese characteristics? | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/shaping-from-within-a-un-with-chinese-characteristics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shaping from within: a UN with Chinese characteristics? | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chinese President Xi Jinping is\u00a0urging\u00a0China to \u2018lead the reform of the global governance system\u2019 and to \u2018actively participate in the formulation of international rules\u2019. 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