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The EU’s China problem: A battle over norms

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Abstract

This article contends that China’s rise is negatively affecting the European Union (EU)’s ability to act as a ‘normative’ and ‘civilian’ power in international relations. Specifically, China’s rise, and the European reactions to this rise, are interfering with the EU’s ability to spread ‘new sovereignty’, which holds that sovereignty is violable and interference in other states’ internal affairs is valid, particularly when human rights issues are concerned. New sovereignty not only defines the EU as a political entity, but also the EU has actively pursued it in its external relations. In contrast to the EU, China has been defending ‘traditional sovereignty’, which sees human rights as a domestic matter. These competing notions of sovereignty also lead to contrasting models of economic development by the two powers. In discussions of new versus traditional sovereignty, the article focuses on two crucial areas – the role of human rights in the EU-China relationship as well as the two parties’ interactions with countries in Africa. These discussions offer insights into both the projection of the EU’s power and the impact of China’s rise on the international system.

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Notes

  1. Author’s calculations from World Trade Organization’s World Trade Statistics 2002–2011; numbers are for total merchandise trade by region.

  2. Although Mattlin (2012) and Crookes (2013) mention some of the literature on the EU as a normative actor, differently from this article, the former focuses on the EU’s normative impact on China, while the latter argues against the EU’s normative engagement with China.

  3. Sovereignty denotes the state's ‘entitlement to rule over a demarcated territory’ (Held et al, 1999, p. 52). For a discussion of the concept, see International Politics (2009, p. 46(6)).

  4. The discussions do not assume that China’s effects on the EU are irreversible, nor do they assume they go uncontested. By the same token, the international system could move toward the EU-ideal of new sovereignty without the EU’s efforts. Still, whether the EU can effectively champion new sovereignty is a critical element of understanding the nature of the contemporary international system.

  5. New and traditional sovereignty do not necessarily occupy the extreme ends of a continuum on sovereignty.

  6. The above discussions do not suggest that the EU exhibits impeccable coherence or consistency in the pursuit of the various components of human rights (see, for example, Lerch and Schwellnus, 2006).

  7. As a comparison, the top contributor, Bangladesh, had over 10 000 military personnel across the missions, while Pakistan had over 9000 and India had over 8000.

  8. This information was compiled from Global Policy Forum, www.globapolicy.org.

  9. For overviews of China’s aid and trade relations in Africa, see, for example, Tull (2006), Alden (2007), Broadman (2008) and Campbell (2008).

  10. The important point here is not that the EU applies conditionality in its aid, but rather the kind of political conditionality it applies.

  11. Full text of the Cotonou Agreement can be accessed here: http://www2.ohchr.org/

  12. Non-interference does not mean the absence of economic conditionality, such as the usage of Chinese subcontractors in infrastructure projects, which is extensive in Chinese aid (Alden and Hughes, 2009).

  13. Quoted in ‘Africa holds its own view on aid’, 21 August 2011 in http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-08/21/c_131064221.htm (accessed 10 December 2012).

  14. The analysis of intra-EU divisions over human rights extends beyond the scope of this analysis (see, for example, Smith, 2010). Yet, preliminary studies of these divisions indicate support for this article’s argument that human rights issues have taken a backseat to commercial interests, which leads to economic competition among the Europeans (see UK, House of Lords, 2010).

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Acknowledgements

For helpful comments on early drafts of this work, the author thanks Orfeo Fioretos, Geoffrey Herrera, Mark Pollack, Andrew Orloff and Dominic Tierney.

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  1. Department of Political Science, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, 19081, Pennsylvania, USA

    Ayse Kaya

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Kaya, A. The EU’s China problem: A battle over norms. Int Polit 51, 214–233 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2014.4

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