The multiple audiences dynamic of status (dis)satisfaction: examining China’s shifting response to the emerging global environmental regime, 1950–1972

How does status dissatisfaction shape a state’s behavior? Existing literature suggests that mistreatment and misconception by the great powers could elicit a state’s revisionist conduct. Yet, this unidimensional understanding of international audiences fails to distinguish two distinct groups: those superiorly positioned above the state and those subordinately positioned below it on the status hierarchy. Focusing on two sources of status—recognition from above and deference from below—I propose a two-dimensional framework of multiple audiences dynamic that generates four ideal types of status scenarios. These include satisfaction (high recognition and high deference); unaccommodating elite group (low recognition and high deference); contestation from below (high recognition and low deference); and unaccommodating status quo (low recognition and low deference). I illustrate my framework by examining China’s shifting response to the emerging global environmental regime from 1950 to 1972. Beijing’s status concerns vis-à-vis the United States, the USSR, and the Third World countries induced it to change from initial embracement (1950–1952), challenge from within (1953–1955), persistent objection (1956–1970), to competitive participation (1971–1972) in the United Nations Conference on Human Environment (UNCHE).