CYIL vol. 13 (2022)

CYIL 13 ȍ2022Ȏ THE ATTITUDE OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA TOWARD INTERNATIONAL LAW invoked the Global Magnitsky Act to impose sanctions on officials in Hong Kong and Xinjiang Province. 88 Although China has had a long tradition concerning the laws of war based on the works of Chinese philosophers such as Sun Tzu. China has signed and ratified some of the most important international humanitarian law conventions such as the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the 1977 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Geneva Protocol on Asphyxiating or Poisonous Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods (1925), the various Hague Regulations, the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons (1972), the Ottawa Antipersonnel Mine Convention, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and Protocols (1980), the Convention on Cluster Ammunitions, the Convention Prohibiting Environmental Modification Technique (ENMOD) (1976), the Convention on the Rights of the Children (1989), and the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (2000), the Arms Trade Treaty (2013), and the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. 89 China, however, is less committed to enforcing international humanitarian law. Whereas China voted in favor of Security Council Resolution 827 (1993) to establish the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), it abstained from Security Council Resolution 955 (1994) to establish the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). 90 China was actively engaged in the negotiations leading up to the signing of the Rome Statute for the creation of the International Criminal Court but ultimately opted not to sign the statute. China provided the following reasons for not signing the Rome Statute: the obligations imposed on non-state parties; the issue of complementarity, which would allow the court to interfere in the internal affairs of state parties; the ICC having jurisdiction over atrocity crimes committed in internal armed conflicts; definition of war crimes and crimes against humanity goes beyond the customary law definition; the inclusion of the crime of aggression in the statute without a proper definition of what constitutes aggression; the ICC would exercise parallel jurisdiction in an area reserved for the Security Council; the proprio motu powers granted to the Chief Prosecutor to launch an independent investigation into crimes committed on the territory of a state party, which it deemed could lead to the politicization of charges. 91 Since the court’s establishment, China has shown no inclination to become a member. However, China abstained from Security Council resolution 1593 (2005) to refer the situation in Darfur to the ICC but voted in favor of Security Council resolution 1970 (2011) to refer the situation in Libya to the ICC. 92 China has remained engaged with the ICC and has spoken about the possibility of joining in the future, but it has continued to resist joining the ICC. China’s fear of investigation into its domestic affairs, particularly the treatment of the Uighurs and allegations of human rights abuse in Tibet are the primary reasons why it may not want to sign and ratify the 88 Ibid. 89 ICRC, Treaties, States Parties and Commentaries, at https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl.nsf/vwTreatiesBy CountrySelected-xsp?xp-countrySelected=CN&nv=4. 90 China’s vote on S/RES 827 (1993) and S/RES. 955 (1994). 91 On International Criminal Court by Wang Guangyia, Head of the Chinese Delegation to the Rome Conference on the establishment of the International Criminal Court, in an interview by Legal daily, (July 29, 1998). 92 KERSTEN, M. China, Libya and the ICC: A New Level of Hypocrisy? at https://justiceinconflict.org/2011/03/02/ china-the-icc-and-libya-a-new-level-of-hypocrisy/.

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