China’s Approach to the Use of Force: A Short Review of China’s Changing Attitudes towards the Justification of Humanitarian Intervention

Abstract

China’s position on the use of force is an important aspect of its foreign policy. China has engaged in a number of use-of-force events since the establishment of the PRC, but has not participated in any humanitarian intervention events. China strongly adheres to a restrictive understanding of the principles of the use of force in the UN Charter, and has been an opponent to humanitarian intervention in contrast to Western states (see Geis/Wagner and Jahn in this volume). In recent years, however, as suggested by its voting in the UN Security Council on a number of humanitarian intervention, China now offers conditional support to humanitarian intervention. Recently, China has proposed the notion of ‘building a community of a shared future for mankind’, which could imply a growing people-, community-, and governance-orientation in its foreign policy. Consequently, this could lead China to hold a more flexible attitude towards humanitarian intervention in the future.