China and the future of international norms

• Katherine Morton
• Australian Strategic Policy Institute

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01 July 2011How is China’s growing economic and geopolitical power translating into influence over the norms of international conduct? This is a critically important, but deceptively difficult question to address. To date, attention has largely focused upon China’s ability to comply with international norms rather than its ability to project its own norms and values into the international arena. The centuries-old Western liberal order has provided the prism through which Chinese behaviour has been observed. China’s rising global status means that we are now looking in the opposite direction. The problem is that China’s approach towards advocating international norms is not easy to identify.