Security and restraint
UN Charter law, peacekeeping, intervention, self-defence, non-use of force, and strategic stability.
China's approach to force is built around Charter formalism, Security Council authority, sovereign consent, and suspicion of humanitarian intervention, while its practice has expanded through peacekeeping, anti-piracy operations, and regional security diplomacy.
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).
全球安全倡议概念文件
Concept paper elaborating China's Global Security Initiative.
Frames security governance through indivisible security, sovereignty, and opposition to bloc confrontation.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 'The Global Security Initiative Concept Paper' (21 February 2023).
Important practice showing evolution from suspicion of intervention to active peacekeeping participation.
Important practice showing evolution from suspicion of intervention to active peacekeeping participation.
United Nations Peacekeeping, 'China joins UN peacekeeping operations' (1988-09-01).
Shows overseas security practice framed around UN-authorized anti-piracy cooperation.
Shows overseas security practice framed around UN-authorized anti-piracy cooperation.
Ministry of National Defense, 'China deploys naval escort task force to the Gulf of Aden' (2008-12-26).
Important practice for assessing sovereignty language, use of force, and non-alignment.
Important practice for assessing sovereignty language, use of force, and non-alignment.
United Nations Digital Library, 'China's votes and explanations on Ukraine-related UN resolutions' (2022-03-02).
Postwar legal order baseline for force, sovereignty, and collective security.
Domestic legislation links Taiwan policy, sovereignty, and possible force.
China articulates a comprehensive peaceful development narrative.
Taiwan policy is restated in the new era vocabulary.
China offers a branded security governance framework.
26 items
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.
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.
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.
Dimitrios Stroikos - Empire of the Stars-Not Yet - The Pacific Review - 2026
Article distinguishing material capability from social authority in space order.
European Journal of International Law / 2026
Shows how China's internalization of UNCLOS concepts helped create incentives for later maritime rights assertion and confrontation in the South China Sea.
Rowan Nicholson - How future actions might affect the lawfulness of an attack on Taiwan - Journal on the Use of Force and International Law - 2025
Article on recognition policy and the lawfulness arguments surrounding a Taiwan conflict.
Crispin Smith - Chinese Lawfare in Conflict - Harvard National Security Journal - 2025
Article on Chinese operational lawfare in potential conflict settings.
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.
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.
Xue Gong - Ponder the path of thy feet - European Journal of International Security - 2025
Article on China's security-development nexus and South-South security cooperation in the Mekong region.
University of Pennsylvania Asian Law Review / 2025
Maps China's use of economic legal tools to coerce or weaken adversaries and considers possible future finance-based or Global South-oriented tactics.
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.
Chinese Journal of International Law / 2024
Compares how great powers including China approach international law formation and contest primary legal rules.
Deyi Ma and Yanlin Zhou - Peacetime Maritime Law Enforcement by Warships - Journal on the Use of Force and International Law - 2024
Article on the evolving legal scope of maritime law enforcement by warships in peacetime.
Sagild and Hsiung - Chinese Re-Examinations of Russia - Journal of Contemporary China - 2024
Recent article on China-Russia strategic partnership debates after Ukraine.
Ka Lok Yip - Reading China's Global Security Initiative Through an International Legal Lens - Chinese Journal of Transnational Law - 2024
Article assessing the Global Security Initiative through international law themes.
Amy King - The Collective Logic of Chinese Hegemonic Order - Security Studies - 2024
Exchange essay on Chinese hegemonic order and historical order transition.
Wen Zha - Southeast Asia amid Sino-US competition - Chinese Journal of International Politics - 2023
Regional order article on Southeast Asia amid Sino-US competition.
Isaac B Kardon - China's Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order - Yale University Press - 2023
Book on China's bid to shape law of the sea rules and regional maritime order.
Darren J Lim and G John Ikenberry - China and the Logic of Illiberal Hegemony - Security Studies - 2023
Article developing a model of Chinese international order.
Olivier Corten, 'The Law Against War' (2021).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.
Alastair Iain Johnston - China in a World of Orders - International Security - 2019
Core article reframing China's compliance and challenge across multiple orders.
Christine Gray, 'International Law and the Use of Force' (2018).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.
Lisa Macleod - China's Security Council engagement - Global Governance - 2017
Article on Chinese beliefs and UN Security Council engagement.
Ann Kent - Beyond Compliance - 2007
Study of China's behavior in international organizations and security governance.
Samuel S Kim, 'China, the United Nations and World Order' (1979).
Launch bibliography item for scholarly review and expansion.
9 items
Sheena Chestnut Greitens Isaac B Kardon and Cameron Waltz - China's Foreign Police Training: A Global Footprint - Carnegie Endowment - 2025
Data-rich report on China's worldwide police and internal security training programs.
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.
Ena Dion and Matt Herbert - How China Uses Police Assistance to Reshape Global Security - USIP - 2025
Analysis of China's use of foreign law-enforcement assistance to reshape security governance.
USIP - China's Global Security Initiative Takes Shape in Southeast and Central Asia - 2024
Special report on how the GSI is taking operational form in two regions.
IISS - The Global Security Initiative - China's International Policing Activities - 2024
Research report on policing cooperation under the Global Security Initiative.
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.
Chatham House GMF and MERICS - China-Russia alignment - 2024
Joint report on China-Russia alignment and implications for European security.
Christopher B Johnstone and Bonny Lin - Responding to a More Coercive Chinese Coast Guard and a Potential PRC Quarantine of Taiwan - CSIS - 2024
CSIS analysis of quarantine scenarios and the legal framing of coast guard coercion.
RUSI - A Transatlantic Approach to China in the Global Commons - 2022
Whitehall Report on China maritime governance and outer space.