The Eus Promotion Of Human Rights In China

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 1,7, Vrije University Brussel (Faculty of Economic, Political and Social Sciences and Solvay Business School), course: European and International Politics, language: English, abstract: This paper examines the impact of policies of the European Union (EU) on the human rights development in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). To this end the definition of human rights from a United Nations perspective will be used. After briefly looking at the history of human rights abuses in China, the paper turns towards the main analysis shedding light on the EU’s conditional engagement policy towards China and the nature of the EU-China relations - whether it be a true strategic partnership or merely a strategic dialogue. The paper then evaluates the success of the EU’s policy by looking at how far it has been able to achieve its objectives set with regard to human rights in the PRC. Moving on from the achievements to date, a critical outlook on the prospects of Europe’s strategy is given comprising an analysis of the opportunities and challenges the EU is likely to face in this respect. Finally, the paper concludes that the impact of the European Union on the human rights development in China remains far from clear-cut. Whereas some scholars and politicians attribute much of the observed advancements to Europe’s conditional engagement policy, others challenge this view and contest that developments in this area are predominantly related to China’s overall economic progress. While the truth probably lies somewhere in between these two opposing views, future human rights development in the PRC will nevertheless remain a challenging task. Whereas developments on the economic and social side are also in China’s interest and will thus be relatively easy to promote, holistic progress - including civil and political rights - will only be possible if substantial differences between the EU and China can successfully be dissolved. Amongst other things, this will require the development of deep mutual cultural understanding and the discovery of sophisticated, novel negotiation approaches. Due to the complexity and sensitivity of the involved issues meaningful progress will only develop gradually, though, and the achievement of a universally acceptable human rights standard in China will still require a substantial amount of time as well as the willingness to compromise on behalf of both parties.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 1,7, Vrije University Brussel (Faculty of Economic, Political and Social Sciences and Solvay Business School), course: European and International Politics, 73 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This paper examines the impact of policies of the European Union (EU) on the human rights development in the People's Republic of China (PRC). To this end the definition of human rights from a United Nations perspective will be used. After briefly looking at the history of human rights abuses in China, the paper turns towards the main analysis shedding light on the EU's conditional engagement policy towards China and the nature of the EU-China relations - whether it be a true strategic partnership or merely a strategic dialogue. The paper then evaluates the success of the EU's policy by looking at how far it has been able to achieve its objectives set with regard to human rights in the PRC. Moving on from the achievements to date, a critical outlook on the prospects of Europe's strategy is given comprising an analysis of the opportunities and challenges the EU is likely to face in this respect. Finally, the paper concludes that the impact of the European Union on the human rights development in China remains far from clear-cut. Whereas some scholars and politicians attribute much of the observed advancements to Europe's conditional engagement policy, others challenge this view and contest that developments in this area are predominantly related to China's overall economic progress. While the truth probably lies somewhere in between these two opposing views, future human rights development in the PRC will nevertheless remain a challenging task. Whereas developments on the economic and social side are also in China's interest and will thus be relatively easy to promote, holistic progress - including civil and politi

Reform and governance are of vital interest to both the People’s Republic of China and the European Union (EU). China is facing demographic and environmental challenges and has been experiencing a rapid economic transition. The social tensions arising from these challenges call for a governance system that will allow the Chinese leadership to alleviate social tensions without putting at risk their leadership. A society which is becoming more diverse and facing problems of a global scale that also cause turmoil at the grass roots may be difficult to govern top-down. Notwithstanding the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) grip on Chinese society, there may be ways to integrate public opinion and civil society organisations in governmental decision-making through reforms that do not challenge the current leadership. The EU, on the other hand, faces the same global challenges with a very different and complex governance system. EU foreign and security policy, thus including EU policy towards China, are governed by the EU’s foreign policy principles, which contain, among others, the promotion of democracy, the rule of law and the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms. How successful can the EU be in advancing these principles when engaging with China, while respecting the Chinese political system? How can the EU and China find common grounds in their governance systems so as to enhance their strategic partnership in order to tackle global issues that need a coordinated approach?

The EU's approach towards China on human rights has often been criticised for its conflicting interests, and coordination problems between EU institutions and national member states. However, simply renouncing its efforts in the name of realism or neo-liberalism does not fully explain the EU's commitment to principles of international law, nor does it provide us with understanding as to why its policy has proven so weak and what 'ought' to be done. This thesis proposes a normative power approach to the study of EU human rights policy towards China between 1989 and 2009. Central to it is the assumption that the EU has been and should be a normative power towards China in the field of human rights. To verify this assumption, I adopt a tri-partite analytical framework drawn from existing 'Normative Power Europe' (NPE) literature in order to make sense of the EU's adherence to human rights norms and its linkage with its external identity, illustrate how norms are diffused through a discursive form of power, and how impact should be evaluated normatively in the case of China. In so doing, I seek to achieve two central objectives: 1) to add to the empirical richness of NPE literature by analysing the Chinese case; 2) to apply a normative power perspective to the human rights dimension of EU-China relations. To address the first goal, I apply the NPE approach to two selected cases - the death penalty and the Tibet question, which are both high on the EU's human rights agenda and yet are predicted to produce contrasting results. The second aim is met by operationalising the notion of NPE and developing its analytical and empirical relevance. To that end, I intend to make a contribution to the literature by presenting primary findings in the case-studies and a conceptual refinement of NPE as applied to the Chinese case.

This book provides the first detailed reconstruction and assessment of the EU's responses to human rights violations in China from 1995 to the present day. Using classified documents in the EU's historical archives and interviews with diplomats, officials and human rights experts in Europe, China and the United States, Kinzelbach lifts the veil of secrecy on the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue and provides a rare insight into how the European Union and China conduct quiet diplomacy on human rights.

The contributors attempt to look into how China and Europe differently interpret political concepts such as: sovereignty, soft power, human rights, democracy, stability, strategic partnership, multilateralism/multipolarization, and global governance, to examine what implications of their conceptual gaps may have on China-EU relations.

The notion of Normative Power Europe (NPE) is that the EU is an 'ideational' actor characterised by common principles and acting to diffuse norms within international relations. Contributors assess the impact of NPE and offer new perspectives for the future exploration of one of the most widely used ideas in the study of the EU in the last decade.