China and Sovereignty in International Law: Across Time and Issue Areas

Sovereignty is a singularly prominent element in China’s approach to international law throughout the People’s Republic of China era, but its centrality and specific content have varied over time and across issue areas. During Mao Zedong’s era, a vulnerable China in a hostile international environment strongly embraced sovereignty. In the early Reform Era, an increasingly secure China pursuing international engagement adopted more flexible positions, especially in international economic law, while largely retaining sovereignty’s primacy. Differences across economic, human rights, and territorial sovereignty law reflect China’s power, interests, and agendas, with the most assertive stances on territorial issues implicating core interests. Under Xi, a powerful China facing a warier world and having less to gain from the international legal status quo has turned back to more uncompromising sovereignty claims, except where its expanding global interests and influence point to a “sovereignty for me but not for thee” posture. China’s approach to sovereignty is likely to sharpen and reconfigure further amid ideological rivalry with the West and the “securitization” of economic and normative disputes.