China and Sovereignty: Approaches to Sovereignty in the Chinese Expert Environment
Abstract
Sovereignty is a key issue in the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of
China. In the paper, I focus on the understanding of this key notion and
phenomenon by Chinese experts. The main research question of the paper
is how the Chinese expert (academic) sphere approaches sovereignty and
how the notion of sovereignty is conceptually or theoretically developed
within the Chinese sphere. In the paper, I show that one dominant model,
which is identical with the so-called conservative (absolutist, Westphalian)
understanding of sovereignty, can be identified. However, in some specific
cases, Chinese authors demonstrate a relatively high degree of creativity
and, hence, move beyond the conservative understanding of sovereignty.
These cases are related to China’s relations to Taiwan and Hong Kong,
connections between sovereignty and human rights, and the concept of
inter-temporal law.
Keywords
China, sovereignty, theory of International Relations, Hong Kong, human rights, law, expert knowledge
Supplementary File(s)
Příloha - Appendix - seznam analyzovaných článku (Czech)Author Biography
Aleš Karmazin
Aleš Karmazin, born in 1987, he is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Political Studies, the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, and a lecturer at the
Department of Asian Studies, Metropolitan University Prague. He received
his MSc(Econ) in International Relations from Aberystwyth University and
his MSc in China in Comparative Perspective from the London School of
Economics. He was also a visiting research fellow at Peking University. His
research interests include constructivist and critical theoretical approaches
in IR, the domestic and foreign policies of China and India, international
relations in East Asia, the issue of international order and state sovereignty.