A Theoretical And Empirical Research Of The EU’s Human Rights Diplomacy Towards China

The EU is widely regarded as a champion of human rights,both inside and outside of its borders.The evolution of its identity as a worldwide promoter of human rights reflects the path that led to the development of an international human rights regime.The emergence of the international human rights regime originated at the end of World War II: in 1948,the United Nations drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,which is regarded a decisive step in the formation and promotion of international human rights.EU and China official statements agree that for the past years human rights dialogues have provided an opportunity for both sides to engage in in-depth discussions but yet there are many issues that persist.This thesis will analyze the root causes of the difficulties of EU and China Human Rights diplomacy and it will discuss the EU commitment to put human rights at the heart of its foreign policy.The EU has enormous potential to promote human rights at the diplomatic level by using its numerous instruments and its official dialogue,but some scholars have argued that pressing China actually makes things worse in terms of the actual practice of human rights on the ground.Since the establishment of the EU-China strategic partnership,the international political structure had a great impact on the cooperation between EU and China.On the early stage of the cooperation the EU enjoyed a privileged position in comparison to China,due to its more developed economy,but today,China‘s rise has changed the nature of the relationship.Moreover,this thesis will analyze the concept of strategic partnership,looking at its formulation,meaning and implications.Consequently,as a question pertinent to research rationale,it will address the question of human rights fitting into a strategic partnershipThe theoretical foundation supporting this thesis relies on mainly realism and constructivism.The realist view in international theory argues that human rights should not be determinant factors of foreign policy-making.The modern state system which is based on sovereignty,equality and non-interference in domestic affairs,is seen as a guarantor of order in international relations because it enables coexistence between states with different values,and a foreign policy which promotes human rights has been regarded as idealistic and naive.On the other hand,the constructivist perspective argues that norms shape states‘ identity,interests and behavior.These factors will be analyzed in this thesis to understand the cultural ground of each side: while human rights are today defined by international law,the EU-China relation has seen moments of tension due to cultural differences that have a deep impact on the way they interpret human rights.This thesis recognizes the legitimacy of international human rights law but it wants to highlight that in the relationship between these two European and Asian partners there are other factors which are decisive in grasping the incongruences of the human rights diplomacy and they cannot be minimized if we want to have a more comprehensive view of EU-China relationship.