Abstract:
Recent scholarship of China's international relations has concentrated on the idea of "state responsibility" and how China acts in line with this notion. Rationalists understand China's "responsible power" pursuit as either political rhetoric or material cost-benefit calculations. This study analyses China as a responsible power through a social constructivist approach. Establishing the theoretical framework upon existing norm diffusion and state socialisation literature, this project examines the processes of how the international community has socialised China into the concept of "state responsibility" and how China has responded to this normative engagement in a dynamic international social environment. Comparing evolving international criteria of "responsible power" with China's interpretation, the content analysis suggests that China's definition of state responsibility is a combination of the acknowledgement of rules of sovereignty and non-intervention, and the willingness to participate in international regimes. However it has not fully embraced the notion of individual security and freedom which is now a standard for "responsible power" in international society. The thesis uses two case studies to explore the findings of the content analysis. Focusing on China's foreign behaviour in the UN Security Council, the first case discusses how the international community has sought to socialise China into the norms of human rights during "Arab Spring". It finds that the social pressure from an enlarging normative group has motivated China to "silently" approve the Libyan intervention; while the lack of social rewards has generated China's non-cooperative behaviour in Syria. The second case maps a social network of the international environmental community, emphasising China's improving social status. It argues that by effectively employing social rewards, the normative group has successfully engaged China to fulfill its responsibility in biological diversity. However, the diverse interests and relatively small-sized normative group have weakened the socialisation effect on China in mitigating climate change. The case-studies suggest China's interpretation of responsibility is greatly shaped by the external normative factors; but China also provides its own insights and interpretations associated with the idea of "responsible power" during socialisation processes. Therefore, China should be regarded as both "norm-taker" and "norm-maker" in the social construction of "responsible power".