Socialisation of international human rights norms in the context of China's modernisation

Abstract

This thesis is about understanding the dynamics involved in the socialisation of international human rights norms. It examines the process within an analytical framework of transnational advocacy networks, the spiral model, in the context of China’s modernisation. Existing literature points to China’s economic power and potential political influence on the international arena and the Chinese state’s authoritarian regime domestically in explaining the limited achievements transnational advocacy networks have had in inducing human rights changes in China. This thesis responds with a novel perspective constructed in three steps by examining: 1) the relationship between China’s identity and political legitimacy since the beginning of China’s modernisation in the 1840s; 2) how China’s modernisation drive impacts the development of its domestic civil society; 3) the potential of human rights INGOs in inducing human rights changes with case studies of the Dui Hua Foundation and the Rights Practice. It is found that under this novel perspective, the Chinese state’s authority has been limited by rising social problems, which threaten the state’s political legitimacy to rule. Chinese civil society actors play an important role in producing solutions to these social problems, convincing the state to further relax its control. Human rights INGOs contribute to this relationship through strengthening Chinese civil society actors’ capacity in solving social problems and monitoring official institutions, while also informing government officials about reforms that could make domestic practices more compatible to international human rights norms. In this vein, despite the fact that international human rights norms have been altered by China’s power, they remain influential on China’s behaviour by the careful alignment of the human rights work of transnational advocacy networks to suit China’s interest to political legitimacy. This thesis confirms and strengthens the spiral model as a framework to understand the socialisation of international human rights norms. This thesis contributes to understanding the power of international human rights norms, i.e. the extent to which they influence the behaviour and practices of states, as well as the role of transnational advocacy networks in situations where human rights violations persist.