China, the UN, and Human Protection: Beliefs, Power, Image

Rosemary Foot

May 2020 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

Over a relatively short period of time, Beijing moved from dismissing the UN to embracing it. How are we to make sense of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) embrace of the UN, and what does its engagement mean in larger terms? This study focuses directly on Beijing's involvement in one of the most contentious areas of UN activity -- human protection -- contentious because the norm of human protection tips the balance away from the UN's Westphalian state-based profile, towards the provision of greater protection for the security of individuals and their individual liberties. The argument that follows shows that, as an ever-more crucial actor within the United Nations, Beijing's rhetoric and some of its practices are playing an increasingly important role in determining how this norm is articulated and interpreted. In some cases, the PRC is also influencing how these ideas of human protection are implemented. At stake in the questions this book tackles is both how we understand the PRC as a participant in shaping global order, and the future of some of the core norms which constitute that order.

About the author

Rosemary Foot is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, and an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. In 1996, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Her publications include China, the United States and Global Order (with Andrew Walter, CUP, 2011) and Rights Beyond Borders (OUP, 2000). Her research interests cover security relations in the Asia-Pacific, human rights diplomacy, China's influence on regional and global order, and China-US relations.