Views On Human Rights Differences With China-eu Relations

Human rights are one of the most active conceptual elements in the relations between China and the EU, which could be reflected in almost all important disputes between the two. To study the issue of human rights in China-EU relations therefore is of great significance.Taking a constructivist paradigm, this paper studies the influence of the difference of human right concept in China-EU relations. The author argues that the individual culture of an agent in international relations causes preferences of the agent, and hence primitively defines the agent's identity. On the system level, bilateral interactions cause the complex relations between agents and the system. If the preferences of the two agents match, shared knowledge and later collective identity come into being. If not, self knowledge remains. All this knowledge constitutes the international culture of the bilateral relations, which forms an inseparable part of the system culture. This serves to define the preferences of the agents for a second time, forms their respective identities, and finally constitutes"interests"in all senses of the word. The author therefore proposes a theoretical framework to study China-EU relations starting from the individual culture and ending with the system culture. In this framework, the author analyzes the difference of human right concept between China and the EU and the preferences caused by the difference. The difference is analyzed in 5 aspects: individualism and collectivism; universalism and relativism; rights and responsibilities; human rights and sovereignty; regime concern and morality concern.The author applies traditional methodologies such as comparative study, case study, documentary analysis and game theory, to study on the system level China-EU interactions on issues of individual human rights, collective human rights and global human rights. Self knowledge, shared knowledge and degree of identity on each of these categories are analyzed.The conclusion is that the degree of identity of human right concepts has great influence on China-EU relations, and that the degree of identity and the cooperation and conflicts between China and the EU have positive correlations. On issues about individual human rights between China and the EU, self knowledge is stronger than shared knowledge, resulting in a low degree of identity. The cooperation between China and the EU therefore appears far less perceivable than conflicts. On issues about collective human rights, both self knowledge and shared knowledge exist resulting in a medium degree of identity. China-EU relations on these issues appear as cooperation along with some disputes. On global human right issues, the shared knowledge of human right concept of China and the EU, which is positive rather than negative, is far stronger than the self knowledge. This contributes to cooperation between China and the EU and the development of the bilateral relations.The author finally points out that the difference of human right concept between China and the EU as well as the knowledge and the degree of identity on issues about individual rights, collective rights and global rights constitutes an element that cannot be ignored for the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations. On the one hand the great conceptual difference between China and the EU results in the long term existence of arguments between them. On the other, the process of economic globalization and political polarization provides new opportunities and space for coordination and cooperation between China and the EU based on their common understanding. They should continue to accumulate positive shared knowledge, construct shared interests, improve the degree of identity and promote cooperation in order to continuously strengthen and deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU.