Description
China’s relationship with human security has always been ambiguous. It has acted as the most vocal objector of the concept – contesting whether an individual could be the referent object of security – while simultaneously contributing the most troops of all five UNSC permanent members to UN protection of civilians (POC) peacekeeping missions. Tracing China’s understanding and operationalization of human security in South Sudan, we ask what China’s participation in UN peacekeeping means for human security. We argue that China pursues a dual-track approach to human security, within and outside UN peacekeeping. As part of the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), China upholds the “whole of the mission” principle, operationalizing human security through local community engagement and provision of protection and empowerment by its military and civilian components. Outside UNMISS, China understands the root causes of human vulnerability in South Sudan as development-related and shifts the referent object of security from local communities to the host state. The latter approach could harm the vital core of human security inverting the hierarchy of security referents from an individual to the state. There exists a misalignment between China’s dual approaches when gauged by the human security principle. We draw primary data from publicly available UN documents and elite interviews with the UN and Chinese peacekeeping officials and academics.
