The United States, China and the European Union at the UN Human Rights Council

Abstract

This chapter uses the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC or Council) as a window to examine the trilateral dynamics between the United States (US), the People’s Republic of China (PRC or China) and the European Union (EU) over international human rights norms, institutions and politics. At present, the world is witnessing a US that is just beginning to re-engage with the multilateral human rights system after former President Trump’s damaging disengagement policy; a China that has been seeking to advance an agenda that conflicts with long-established human rights principles; and an EU that has been struggling to preserve the rule- and rights-based international order in light of the changing relations between the world’s two superpowers. This set of new dynamics is destabilising the traditional multilateral human rights framework. In the HRC specifically, the PRC, as the most resourceful party-state, has been forming coalitions both with other authoritarian countries that share its illiberal agenda as well as with developing countries that expect, or are dependent on, economic benefits from Beijing. Backed by these coalitions, China’s stratagems – including contesting universal norms, weakening human rights institutions and intensifying polarisation in international politics – are posing a great challenge to the international human rights system. I argue that the international response to this China challenge has been inadequate and recommend a new approach that focuses on preventing international human rights backsliding. In particular, the US and the EU (along with other democracies and non-state stakeholders in Asia and beyond) must now consolidate existing alliances and forge new ones to push back on China’s authoritarian advances and assertively defend the integrity of the international human rights system.