Balducci, Giuseppe (2010) The EU's promotion of human rights in China : a consistent and coordinated constructive engagement? PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis investigates whether the European Union and its member states have
been able to balance normative priorities – specifically the promotion of human
rights – and material priorities – specifically economic interests – within the
strategy of constructive engagement towards China embraced since 1995. In
order to respond to this central question this thesis originally elaborates a liberal
intergovernmental approach for the study of the promotion of human rights
within the EU’s system of multilevel governance in external relations. Such an
approach is applied to analyse the issues of consistency and coordination in the
policies for the promotion of human rights in China elaborated by the European
Community and three selected member states, namely Germany, France and the
UK.
The choice of the country cases serves theoretical and analytical purposes. At a
theoretical level it allows consideration as to whether the EU’s overall policies
were mainly influenced by the interests and policy preferences of the three
selected member states, which had the most bargaining power and the highest
stakes in China, as expected by liberal intergovernmentalism. At an analytical
level, the choice of the country cases allows for consideration of whether the
EC’s policies for the promotion of human rights in China were coordinated with
those of the three selected member states, which had the most conspicuous
development assistance policies towards China and whose approaches to human
rights in the country were broadly representative of the other member states.
This supports the assessment of the achievement, or otherwise, of a significant
EU promotion of human rights through development assistance in China.
From the study it emerges that the EC and its three selected member states have
been unable to devise consistent and coordinated policies for the promotion of
human rights in China. On the one hand these findings suggest that the EU and
its member states have been unable to balance normative and material priorities
in their relations with China. On the other hand this thesis illustrates that this
was due to the influence of the material interests and policy preferences of
Germany, France and the UK, thus supporting the expectations of liberal
intergovernmentalism.
These findings form an original contribution to the study of the EU’s promotion
of norms because they suggest that the EU can promote human rights, as well as
other norms, in a consistent, coordinated and ultimately strategic way, only if
the member states with the most bargaining power and the highest stakes in a
specific policy issue privilege normative interests over material ones.
At the same time this thesis offers an original contribution to EU-China studies
on human rights, as it suggests that due to the present interests of the most
influential member states, the EU’s promotion of human rights should be
reframed to address what Chinese authorities are willing to accommodate in the
human rights field, namely give preference to the support of socio-economic
rights, where a consensus among the EU’s member states can more easily be
built.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JC Political theory J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Human rights -- China, Human rights advocacy -- European Union countries, European Union -- Foreign relations -- China, Great Britain -- Foreign relations -- China, Germany -- Foreign relations -- China, France -- Foreign relations -- China
Official Date:	September 2010
Dates:	Date Event September 2010 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Politics and International Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Breslin, Shaun
Extent:	226 leaves
Language:	eng

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