Human rights in Chinese foreign relations : defining and defending national interests

Author / Creator

Wan, Ming, 1960-

Available as

Online

Physical

Summary

"In Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations, Ming Wan examines China's relations with the three states or groups of states most important to its economic and political survival - the United State...

"In Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations, Ming Wan examines China's relations with the three states or groups of states most important to its economic and political survival - the United States, Western Europe, and Japan - and with the United Nations human rights institutions. What is the impact of and motivation for exerting pressure on China, and why has this tactic failed to achieve significant results? How has Beijing responded to the initiators of this pressure, which has contributed to rising nationalist sentiments in both Chinese government and society? Wan shows that, after a decade of persistent external pressure to reform its practices, China still treats human rights diplomacy as traditional power politics. (Beijing's engagement in this arena has only marginal impact on how it defines its national interests.) Human rights exchange with the West has mainly taught China how best to deflect pressure from the West - by mobilizing its propaganda machine to neutralize Western criticism, by making compromises that do not threaten core interests, and by offering commercial incentives to important nations to undermine a unified Western front. Furthermore, at the UN, China has largely succeeded in rallying developing nation members to defeat Western efforts at censure."--BOOK JACKET.

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