Chinese Whispers: does China want to change the international rules-based order?

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🗓️ 2 May 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

China is often accused of breaking international rules and norms. Just last week at Mansion House, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: 'Countries must play by the rules. And that includes China'.

So what are its transgressions, and what are its goals for the international system? My guests and I try to answer this question in this episode through looking at China's attitude to and involvement in international organisations, past and present. Professor Rana Mitter, a historian at the University of Oxford and author of China's Good War , points out that there's a fundamental difference in China's approach compared to, say, Russia. 'Russia perceives itself as, essentially, a country that is really at the end of its tether in terms of the international system. Whereas China still sees plenty of opportunities to grow and expand its status'.

To that end, China is actually a member of dozens of international organisations, most notably – as we discuss in the episode – sitting on the United Nations Security Council, which gives it veto power on UN resolutions (though, Yu Jie, senior research fellow at Chatham House, points out that China is most often found abstaining rather than vetoing). It wants a seat at the table, but it also frequently accuses our existing set of international norms and rules as designed by the West. To begin with, then, China is seeking to rewrite the rules in its own favour – Jie gives the example of China's ongoing campaign to increase its voting share in the IMF, on the basis of its huge economy. 'It's not exactly overthrowing the existing international order wholesale, but choosing very carefully which parts China wants to change.'

This multilateral engagement has a historical basis. Nationalist China was keen to be seen as an equal and respected partner in the international community, and Rana points out – something I'd never thought of before – that China after the second world war 'was a very very unusual sort of state… Because it was the only state, pretty much, in Asia, that was essentially sovereign… Don’t forget that 1945 meant liberation for lots of European peoples, but for lots of Asian peoples – Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaya, wherever you want to name – they basically went back into European colonialism'. This (together with its then-alliance with the United States) gave the Republic of China a front row seat in the creation of the United Nations and, before then, the League of Nations.

It didn't take long for Communist China to start building links with the rest of the world, either. Mao 'had not spent decades fighting out in the caves and fields of China to simply become a plaything of Stalin’, Rana points out, making its multilateral relations outside of the alliance with the USSR vitally important. After it split with Moscow, and before the rapprochement with the US, the Sixties was a time of unwanted isolationism, ' which is well within living memory of many of the top leaders', says Rana, adding more to its present day desire to have as much sway as possible in the world, which still comes through international organisations.

Finally, my guests bust the myth – often propagated by Beijing – that China had no role in the writing of today's international laws, pointing out that Chinese and other non-western thinkers played a major role in the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . What's more, do western ideas have no place in guiding and governing China? After all, Karl Marx was certainly not Chinese, and that doesn't seem to bother his Chinese Communist believers.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator Economic Innovative of the Year awards sponsored by InvestTech are open for entries.
0:07.0	If you are an entrepreneur-led business bringing radical change to its sector, please apply at www.
0:14.0	spectator slash innovator.
0:17.0	We are looking for entries all across the UK and our closing date is the 4th of July.
0:33.2	Hello and welcome to Chinese Whispers with me, Cindy Yu. Every episode, I'll be talking to journalists,
0:38.7	experts and long-time China watches about the latest in Chinese politics, society and more.
0:44.5	There'll be a smattering of history to catch you up on the background knowledge and some context as well.
0:49.2	How did the Chinese see these issues?
0:52.5	In a speech at Mansion House last week, the Foreign Secretary
0:55.2	List Trust gave a warning to China. Countries must play by the rules, she said, and that
1:00.8	includes China. It's a charge often levied against the country where accusers say that it
1:05.9	doesn't respect an international rules-based order. China, on the other hand, says that this rules-based
1:11.3	order is essentially Western-led and with the rules written by the West as well. So who's
1:16.7	right? Joining me to discuss today on this episode of Chinese Whispers is Professor Rana Mitter,
1:22.5	who is a historian at the University of Oxford, and his latest book is China's Good War. I'm also joined by Yu Jia,
1:29.1	who's a senior research fellow at Chatham House. Now, to start with, perhaps you can outline
1:34.5	what are the major organisations that China plays a part in, and which are the multilateral
1:38.7	relationships it wants to enter into in the near future? Well, it's a very big question. Let me begin with the basics.
1:46.0	I think it's the organisation that China is very much interesting in joining
1:51.0	and also has performed well and also holding a big sway
1:55.0	other United Nations.
1:57.0	The reason for that is of this key pillar of the Chinese foreign policy.
	...

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