China and International Law: Implications for Foreign Policy

Abstract

I N THEIR STUDY of international law, sovereignty, and the state system, Chinese Communist writers and statesmen differ fundamentally from the dominant tradition of Western political and legal theory, which attempts to base general conclusions on valid first principles (ontological and epistemological), so that the conclusions are generally valid over many years and for most if not all nations. The Chinese assume that the formulations of political and legal theory should be wholly subservient to the needs of the Chinese state. Whatever value these formulations have as truth derives from their foundation in Marxist doctrine. Their truth, however, is less important than their usefulness, and this is gauged by how well they serve to justify the objectives of China's foreign policy. This set of basic assumptions leads to several somewhat overlapping aspects of the Chinese study of these basic political concepts, each aspect constituting a significant part of their formulations. Clearly their methodological assumptions profoundly affect their conclusions.