Conceptual frame
China's vocabulary of sovereignty, development, multilateralism, and reform of global governance.
This guide tracks how official Chinese materials describe the existing international order: not as something to abandon wholesale, but as something to defend selectively, reform institutionally, and reinterpret through development, sovereign equality, and anti-hegemonic language.
携手构建人类命运共同体：中国的倡议与行动
White paper presenting the community of shared future as a broad international-order concept.
A key official statement of China's normative vocabulary for global governance.
State Council Information Office, 'A Global Community of Shared Future: China's Proposals and Actions' (26 September 2023).
关于全球治理改革和建设的中国方案
MFA proposal on global governance reform across security, development, human rights, and institutions.
Useful as a compact statement of China's reformist rather than withdrawalist posture.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 'Proposal of the People's Republic of China on the Reform and Development of Global Governance' (13 September 2023).
中国的和平发展
White paper presenting peaceful development as a guiding framework for China's rise.
Important for assessing how official discourse links development, security, and international order.
State Council Information Office, 'China's Peaceful Development' (6 September 2011).
Foundational treaty for sovereignty, non-use of force, and collective security.
Baseline text for comparing China's doctrine with the post-1945 legal order.
UN Charter (signed 26 June 1945, entered into force 24 October 1945).
Example of China presenting itself as a mediator in regional dispute settlement.
Example of China presenting itself as a mediator in regional dispute settlement.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 'China facilitates Saudi-Iran rapprochement' (2023-03-10).
Postwar legal order baseline for force, sovereignty, and collective security.
China's representation in universal institutions shifts to the PRC.
China articulates a comprehensive peaceful development narrative.
China presents itself as a defender of globalization.
China offers a branded security governance framework.
China highlights mediation as order-building practice.
Xue Hanqin, 'Chinese Contemporary Perspectives on International Law' (2012).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.Cai Congyan, 'The Rise of China and International Law' (2019).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.Alastair Iain Johnston, 'Social States: China in International Institutions' (2008).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.