Doctrinal continuity and adaptation
Territorial integrity, non-intervention, human rights, representation, cyber sovereignty, and Taiwan.
Sovereignty remains the most durable organizing principle in China's international legal rhetoric, but its applications now reach far beyond classic territorial disputes into cyberspace, sanctions, human rights, and transnational adjudication.
台湾问题与新时代中国统一事业
Recent PRC white paper on Taiwan policy and reunification.
Shows updated official framing of sovereignty, national rejuvenation, and peaceful reunification.
State Council Information Office, 'The Taiwan Question and China's Reunification in the New Era' (10 August 2022).
反分裂国家法
PRC legislation concerning Taiwan, peaceful reunification, and conditions for non-peaceful means.
Key text for linking sovereignty claims with PRC positions on force and domestic legal authorization.
Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China (adopted 14 March 2005).
网络空间国际合作战略
Policy document advancing cyber sovereignty and international cooperation.
Useful for studying the extension of sovereignty discourse into digital governance.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 'International Strategy of Cooperation on Cyberspace' (1 March 2017).
Canonical General Assembly declaration on sovereign equality, non-intervention, and force.
Frequently invoked in debates over China's doctrinal commitments.
UNGA Res 2625 (XXV) (24 October 1970).
ICJ advisory opinion on unilateral declarations of independence.
Useful comparison point for PRC positions on territorial integrity and secession.
Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo, Advisory Opinion, ICJ Reports 2010.
Postwar legal order baseline for force, sovereignty, and collective security.
China's representation in universal institutions shifts to the PRC.
Maritime legal order becomes central to later Chinese practice.
The Macau SAR constitutional framework is adopted before the 1999 handover.
One country, two systems becomes a major sovereignty and legal-order issue.
Macau becomes the second SAR governed under one country, two systems.
30 items
Asia Pacific Law Review / 2026
Traces China's outbound data transfer regime through security assessment, standard contracts, certification, and free-trade-zone negative lists, emphasizing legal certainty and interoperability challenges.
Asia Pacific Law Review / 2026
Analyzes U.S. state-level measures responding to China-related security concerns and the constitutional boundary between state power and federal foreign affairs authority.
Chinese Journal of Comparative Law / 2025
Compares defamation law across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, focusing on reputation, speech, convergence, divergence, and politicization.
Bing Bing Jia - From Asian-African Solidarity to a Community of Common Destiny - AJIL Unbound - 2025
Essay linking Bandung principles to Chinese perspectives on international legal order.
Journal of the History of International Law / 2025
Reframes late Qing extraterritoriality and nationality law as active adaptation of international law to protect Chinese nationals abroad.
Hague Journal on the Rule of Law / 2025
Traces the emergence and evolution of China's foreign-related rule of law as a strategic legal and governance concept.
Chinese Journal of International Law / 2025
Compares China, the EU, and Kazakhstan on AI-related personal data protection and identifies normative turbulence in digital rights regulation.
International and Comparative Law Quarterly / 2025
Argues that China advances a context-sensitive doctrine of non-intervention that may partly converge with wider concerns about foreign influence.
Xinyuan Dai and Lucie Lu - Beyond liberal narratives: China and the international human rights order - International Affairs - 2025
Article using UN human rights review data to show how China reshapes parts of the international human rights order.
Chinese Journal of Comparative Law / 2025
Argues that international law can intensify China-India border tensions by interacting with sovereignty, self-determination, history, nationalism, and rising-power politics.
Xu Kang - Navigating Tensions between Authoritarian Governance and Human Rights - Nordic Journal of Human Rights - 2025
Article on how China's evolving business and human rights regime operates within a dual-state framework.
Huikang Huang - China's Diplomacy and International Law - Springer - 2024
Book-length statement of Chinese diplomatic and legal thinking.
Malcolm Jorgensen - Political Framing in China's Foreign Relations Law - Chinese Journal of Transnational Law - 2024
Open access article on how China's foreign relations law frames international legal order.
William S Dodge - China's Foreign State Immunity Law - Chinese Journal of Transnational Law - 2024
Article introducing China's restrictive foreign state immunity law to English language readers.
Hyunkyu Kim and Sanghoon Park - Expanding China's Influence via Membership - Journal of Chinese Political Science - 2025
Article on Chinese-led institutions and softer UN human-rights criticism of China.
Mikulas Fabry - The Effect of One China Policies of Foreign States on the International Status of Taiwan - Diplomacy and Statecraft - 2024
Article on recognition practice and Taiwan's international status.
Rosemary Foot - Institutional Design and Rhetorical Spaces - Journal of Contemporary China - 2024
Recent article on China's human rights strategies and liberal order contestation.
Jeremy Garlick and Fangxing Qin - China's do-as-I-do paradigm - The Pacific Review - 2023
Recent article on China-led norm diffusion in the Global South.
Cai Congyan - On the International Law-Based International Order - Social Sciences in China - 2023
Article contrasting international law-based order with rules-based order discourse.
Chinese Journal of Comparative Law / 2023
Uses Chinese traditional culture to interpret international rule-of-law ideas and China’s normative vocabulary.
Jiangyu Wang and Huaer Cheng - China's approach to international law - Chinese Journal of Comparative Law - 2022
Core recent article on China's Xi-era international legal stance.
Sienho Yee - Unilateral Sanctions - Chinese Journal of International Law - 2022
Article analyzing unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction.
Bjorn Ahl - Chinese Positions on Global Constitutionalism Community of Common Destiny for Mankind and the Future of International Law - The Chinese Journal of Comparative Law - 2021
Article comparing global constitutionalism with Chinese common destiny thinking about future international law.
Ignacio de la Rasilla and Hao Yayezi - The Community of Shared Future for Mankind and China's Legalist Turn in International Relations - Chinese Journal of International Law - 2021
Article tracing community of shared future language and its legalist turn in Chinese international relations.
Jessica Chen Weiss and Jeremy L Wallace - Domestic Politics, China's Rise, and the Future of the Liberal International Order - International Organization - 2021
Article on domestic variables shaping China's selective engagement with liberal order.
Matthieu Burnay - Chinese Perspectives on the International Rule of Law - 2018
Study of Chinese views on the international rule of law.
Samuel Brazys and Alexander Dukalskis - Canary in the Coal Mine? China, the UNGA, and the Changing World Order - Review of International Studies - 2017
Empirical article on China UNGA alignment and global norm change.
Phil C W Chan, 'China, State Sovereignty and International Legal Order' (2015).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.
Rosemary Foot, 'Rights Beyond Borders' (2000).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.
Ann Kent, 'China, the United Nations, and Human Rights' (1999).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.
6 items
Arindrajit Basu - China's Pivot on Global AI - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - 2026
Recent analysis of China's AI diplomacy and global governance agenda.
Sheena Chestnut Greitens Isaac B Kardon and Cameron Waltz - A New World Cop on the Beat - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - 2025
Report mapping China's nonmilitary security diplomacy and internal-security outreach.
IISS - The Global Security Initiative - China's International Policing Activities - 2024
Research report on policing cooperation under the Global Security Initiative.
Niva Yau - A Global South with Chinese Characteristics - Atlantic Council - 2024
Report on Chinese training programs and governance-model promotion in the Global South.
Lowy Institute - China and the Rules-Based Order - interactive feature
Analysis on China's approach to the rules-based international order.
Robert D Williams - International law with Chinese characteristics - Brookings Institution - 2017
Foundational think tank overview of China's approach across major international law fields.