Shifting Gears : Rising China’s Conception of State Autonomy in the United Nations

The People’s Republic of China (China) has emphasized their respect for "sovereignty" in coalescing with the Global South in the United Nations (UN). However, after its rise that invoked increasing interests in stepping into the policies of other countries, how does it understand and rhetorically use the concept? This paper takes a qualitative approach and explores the shift of China’s conception of state autonomy in the UN during the Hu Jintao era. It explores the notion comprehended in Chinese academic journals and its rhetorical usage in the Chinese newspaper People’s Daily. In sum, China understands the concept in line with the two critical factors for states when making commitments to international institutions; (i) survival and (ii) state autonomy. China leverages the vagueness of the term and alters what it envisions to be immune to the erosion by certain external forces when applying the notion to the UN agenda on particular countries. In sum, sovereignty is not their guiding principle for behavior at the UN, but a sugar-coated expression of their national interests