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.
47 items
Jack Taggart Han Cheng and Sebastian Haug - Institutional layering as (counter-)hegemonic strategy - Review of International Political Economy - 2026
Article on the Global Development Initiative as layered order-building within UN-centered frameworks.
Dimitrios Stroikos - China, the 'Rise of the Rest' and the Remaking of the International Space Order - International Affairs - 2026
Article on China Global South cooperation and space as a functional sub-order.
Shirley V Scott - China Anti-hegemonism and the Scope for International Law to Facilitate Peaceful Power Transitions - AJIL - 2026
Review essay on anti-hegemonism and international law during power transitions.
Tsinghua China Law Review / 2025
Uses Chinese property law to analyze the state as gatekeeper, enabler, coordinator, and regulator within private-law institutions.
Matthew D Stephen - Beyond Multilateralism - The Pacific Review - 2025
Article on informal transnational policy forums as Chinese order-building tools.
Tadhg O Laoghaire - China and international justice: a research agenda - Ethics and International Affairs - 2025
Review article on how China's rise raises questions for theories of international justice and global order.
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.
Chinese Journal of International Law / 2025
Surveys Chinese public international law practice in 2022 across treaties, legislation, official statements, international organizations, and judicial decisions.
Eugenia C Heldt Henning Schmidtke and Omar Serrano Oswald - Multilateralism a la carte - Review of International Political Economy - 2025
Article proposing a framework for China's selective engagement with global economic institutions.
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.
Kal Raustiala - Normative Contestation in the International Order - International Law Studies - 2025
Essay on whether China is remaking global governance.
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.
Columbia Journal of Asian Law / 2025
Analyzes moralizing and Party-sanctioned keywords in Chinese civil judgments to explain both top-down political signals and bottom-up judicial legitimation.
Steve Chan and Weixing Hu - Rising states and the liberal world order - International Affairs - 2025
Recent IR article on rising China and claims about threats to world order.
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.
University of Pennsylvania Asian Law Review / 2025
Compares U.S. and Chinese foreign relations law as frameworks for contributing to international legal order and shared global goals.
Chinese Journal of International Law / 2025
Examines how China’s great-power identity shaped its negotiation strategies in the biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction agreement process.
Zheng Tang and Congyan Cai - Legalization of Foreign Relations in China - Chinese Journal of Transnational Law - 2024
Editorial introduction to the foreign relations law special issue.
Huikang Huang - China's Diplomacy and International Law - Springer - 2024
Book-length statement of Chinese diplomatic and legal thinking.
Haoming Xiong David A Peterson and Bear F Braumoeller - Reconceptualizing International Order - International Organization - 2024
Review essay on contemporary Chinese theories of international order within Global IR.
Huang Huikang - Milestone of China's Foreign-Related Legislation - Chinese Journal of Transnational Law - 2024
Review article on the PRC Foreign Relations Law and its stated objectives.
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.
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.
Asia Pacific Law Review / 2024
Examines the distinctive Chinese configuration of authoritarian legality and its implications for legal institutions and governance.
Asia Pacific Law Review / 2024
Introduces varieties of authoritarian legality as a comparative frame for understanding legal institutions under authoritarian governance.
Paulo Afonso Brardo Duarte Amit Gupta and Bruna Cristina Delvaje - Multilateralism and Soft Power Made-in-China - East Asia - 2024
Article on Xi-era multilateralism and soft power as complementary strategies for China's role conception.
Amy King - The Collective Logic of Chinese Hegemonic Order - Security Studies - 2024
Exchange essay on Chinese hegemonic order and historical order transition.
Ignacio de la Rasilla and Congyan Cai eds - The Cambridge Handbook of China and International Law - Cambridge University Press - 2024
Major handbook surveying China's engagement across international law fields.
Chinese Journal of Comparative Law / 2024
Empirically studies whether Chinese judges follow wrongly decided precedents and what that reveals about precedent-like authority in China.
Yifeng Chen - International Institutions as Forms and Fora - European Journal of International Law - 2023
Article on Chinese international organizations law scholarship and institutional concepts.
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.
Chinese Journal of Comparative Law / 2023
Compares Chinese sexual harassment law with Western paradigms and argues that China is developing a personality-rights model with reform needs.
Chinese Journal of Comparative Law / 2023
Examines China’s Family Education Promotion Law as family governance, responsible parenting, and moral formation through law.
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.
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.
Alastair Iain Johnston - China in a World of Orders - International Security - 2019
Core article reframing China's compliance and challenge across multiple orders.
Cai Congyan, 'The Rise of China and International Law' (2019).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.
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.
Xue Hanqin, 'Chinese Contemporary Perspectives on International Law' (2012).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.
Pitman B Potter - China and the International Legal System - 2011
Monograph on China's participation in legal institutions.
Alastair Iain Johnston, 'Social States: China in International Institutions' (2008).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.
Ann Kent - Beyond Compliance - 2007
Study of China's behavior in international organizations and security governance.
8 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.
Scott Singer Karson Elmgren and Oliver Guest - How Some of China's Top AI Thinkers Built Their Own AI Safety Institute - Carnegie Endowment - 2025
Report on the emergence of China's AI Safety and Development Association and its role in global AI governance.
Chatham House - China: Balancing the US and increasing global influence - 2025
Report chapter on China's global initiatives and alternative order claims.
Yu Jie - China under siege - Chatham House - 2024
Research paper on threat perception and the world-order frame in current Chinese policy thinking.
Paul Gewirtz - China and the United States and the future of a rules-based international order - Brookings Institution - 2024
Policy analysis on US-China disagreement over rules-based international order.
Niva Yau - A Global South with Chinese Characteristics - Atlantic Council - 2024
Report on Chinese training programs and governance-model promotion in the Global South.
CSIS - Pursuing Global Order in the Twenty-First Century - 2024
Report on changing global order and the role of rising states.
Robert D Williams - International law with Chinese characteristics - Brookings Institution - 2017
Foundational think tank overview of China's approach across major international law fields.