Description
There have been states in favour of humanitarian intervention as there have been explicitly opposed states who overvalues sovereignty as a right or who is afraid of the abuse of intervention and to be used as a tool for controlling other states. The reason of the latter was because humanitarian intervention lacked the concrete rules and framework to restrict the arbitrariness of states and this triggered the creation of a more criteria-governed and systematic concept, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). However, R2P could not find the support from most of the states whether being UNSC permanent members, as Russia and China, or small states still in fear of being attacked by strong states via R2P as a means for intervention. 150 state leaders included R2P in the 2005 UN World Summit Outcome though without the three pillars it was built on. However, in the end the official support of R2P even by the opponents was established. One of the main opponents, China, has shown its stance towards R2P with the vetoes in UNSC resolutions. In the UNSC resolution 1973 on Libya in 2011 (S/RES/1973), which explicitly mentioned R2P, there was a shift in China’s attitude with the decision to abstain rather than vetoing. After the first UNSC-authorised application of R2P nad weakened the concept, China put forward an alternative concept of “Responsible Protection” (RP) by combining R2P, Just War and the Brazil’s previously suggested alternative, “Responsibility While Protection” (RwP). RP’s basis lies on the stances of China in UNSC and the disputes among the UNSC P5 about the development of any further concept which could be widely accepted.
This paper seeks to analyse the effectiveness of RP on China’s growing role in the world politics as well as her attempts in norm entrepreneurship. To this end, it will be analysed the Chinese statesmen’s discourses on the three concepts, humanitarian intervention, R2P and RP in the UN, both General Assembly and Security Council, since 2001. From the perspective of critical constructivism and as a result of discourse analysis, China’s role in norm entrepreneurship for R2P will be examined.
