Pacific Affairs: An International Review of Asia and the Pacific

Volume 77, No. 1

 

Helping to keep the Peace (Albeit Reluctantly): China's Recent Stance on Sovereignty and Multilateral Intervention
By Allen Carlson

 

Abstract

This article argues that the conventional wisdom about Chinese intransigence on intervention (and sovereignty) is inaccurate. It does so by illustrating that a subtle yet significant shift in the Chinese stance on both issues took place over the course of the last fifteen years. Indeed, since the early 1990s, the Chinese have committed to a series of multilateral endeavours that gradually modified China's stance on intervention and, by extension, sovereignty's role in international politics. This development was initially the product of a historically framed set of calculations within China concerning the relative costs and benefits involved in allowing for a redefinition of the balance between state sovereignty and intervention in the international arena. However, these considerations were supplemented over the course of the decade by two new forces: (1) repeated Chinese participation in humanitarian operations created a new precedent which affected the way some within the foreign policy community interpret the legitimacy of intervention; and (2) growing interest in Beijing in portraying China as a responsible member of the international community pushed the Chinese to make more compromises on the sovereignty-intervention nexus.