CYIL vol. 13 (2022)

MAX HILAIRE CYIL 13 ȍ2022Ȏ a vstoupila do Světové obchodní organizace. Čína uznala následující mezinárodní normy jako hlavní zásady: svrchovaná rovnost, nezasahování, územní celistvost, diplomatická imu nita a mírové soužití. Jako hlavní mocnost se Čína stala asertivnější a zaujala odlišný postoj k mezinárodnímu právu. Čína neimplementovala do svého vnitrostátního právního systému zcela všechny smlouvy o lidských právech; čínské soudy nemohou rozhodovat o sporech mezinárodního práva; Čína nepřijala obligatorní jurisdikci Mezinárodního soudního dvora nebo jiných mezinárodních tribunálů; Čína plně nedodržuje své závazky vůči WTO. Čína důsledně vetovala rezoluce Rady bezpečnosti odsuzující porušování lidských práv a mezi národního humanitárního práva a blokovala pokusy Rady bezpečnosti zasahovat do regi onálních konfliktů z obavy, že by to mohl být nebezpečný precedens. Čína také lobovala u rozvojových zemích v Radě pro lidská práva OSN, aby hlasovaly proti odsouzení její politiky v oblasti lidských práv. Key words: Unequal treaties; Unfair trade practices; South China Sea disputes; History of international law in China; Treatment of Uighurs; US-China tariff war; Restricted market access; Xi Jinping leadership; Wolf Diplomacy; Opium Wars; Japanese occupation of Manchuria; China’s voting record in the Security Council About the Author: Professor Max Hilaire, Ph.D. , is president & CEO, Global Education, LLC; Former Professor & Chair, Department of Political Science, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, USA Introduction China’s attitude toward international law is shaped by its conception as a nation (civilization) and its early encounters with European states in which it was forced to sign unequal treaties by which it was subjugated to second-class status, humiliated for a century, and eventually forced to surrender some of its territories to European states. 1 China’s perception of international law has a lot to do with the way it was admitted into the international legal order and how it was treated from the unset. Under these so-called unequal treaties that were imposed on it, China was forced to make territorial concessions to various European powers: Britain took Hong Kong, Portugal took Macau, and Japan took Taiwan. 2 China, like much of the non-western world, was treated as an object instead of a subject of international law. 3 China initially rebuffed efforts by European states to establish diplomatic relations with them, and only signed such agreements under duress in the early twentieth century. 4 China always considered itself a superior nation to the rest of the world, and did not wish to extend diplomatic privileges to “barbarians.” The concept of the Westphalian states system as it emerged in Europe following the Thirty Years’ War was new and different from the Chinese conception of a nation (civilization). China never quite embraced the concept of the sovereign state as conceived by the Peace of Westphalia. Nor did it see the need to do so, as it saw itself as an advanced civilization and far superior to Europeans. China considered 1 SCHIAVENZA, M. “How Humiliation Drove Modern Chinese History,” The Atlantic (Oct. 25, 2013). 2 CHAN, M. “Rule of Law and China’s Unequal Treaties: Conceptions of the Rule of Law and Its Role in Chinese International Law and Diplomatic Relations in the Early Twentieth Century,” 25 Penn History Review , (2019), p. 10. 3 KISSINGER, H. On China , (2011), p. 12. 4 Ibid, p. 15.

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