Constructing a new Great Wall: Chinese foreign policy and the norm of state sovereignty

The dissertation examines the manner in which Chinese foreign policy elites have practiced the norm of sovereignty during the 1980s and 1990s. It contends that China has developed a differentiated approach to sovereignty, an approach which has changed significantly during the time period under consideration, and which sheds new light on the wider issue of the process by which states contribute to the construction of sovereignty's meaning within the international system.; Beginning with a review of each of the main variations of the “new sovereignty”literature in international relations theory the first of five chapters argues that it is essential for students of international politics to develop an empirical research project which allows for analysis into the extent to which the role of sovereignty is changing within an increasingly complex international system. It contends that such research can be conducted through identifying each of the four main components of the norm, the three practices that states enact vis a vis such components, and the differences between boundary reinforcing and boundary transgressing interpretations of sovereignty.; Each of the following four chapters investigates the practices which Chinese foreign policy elites have enacted in regards to the four components of the norm. The second chapter finds that China has consistently promoted a boundary reinforcing interpretation of territorial sovereignty. In the third chapter, it is demonstrated that the Chinese approach to the jurisdictional aspect of sovereignty has become more defensive and boundary reinforcing during the 1990s. In the fourth chapter, it is shown that during the 1990s China's position on sovereign authority has shifted, and begun to contain both boundary reinforcing and transgressing traits. The fifth chapter reveals that China's approach to economic sovereignty has changed even more extensively, and that such change hinges upon an increasing willingness on China's part to cede a significant level of the insulation afforded it by a boundary reinforcing interpretation of sovereign rights.