What Is Peace? A View from Beijing
摘要
This chapter accounts for and examines the Chinese perspective on peace. It traces the evolving policies, adapting practices, and developing norms that underpin the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) understanding and practice of peace through United Nations (UN) peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and peace-making operations. Like liberal peace, Chinese peace is an evolving discourse with ideology, identity projection, policy formulation, and practices. Chinese peace draws from the philosophical concept of harmony; it projects China’s identity as a great power, and its policy choices are motivated by national interests as China rises. Given the material strength of the Chinese state and desire to play a leadership role in UN structures, the Chinese have begun and can be expected to be playing an ever-increasing role in the global peace and security architecture. Beijing wishes to see an international system based on norms of sovereignty with peace and security reached via consensus and the UN Charter. Human rights are not universal but based on each country’s circumstances.