Analysis On The China's Abstentions In The UN Security Council(1971-2014)

With the daily deepening relationship of all the countries due to the speeding-up globalization,the function of the UN is becoming more and more outstanding to tackle all kinds of security threats and international issues.As the UN Security Council is playing an important role in maintaining world peace and development,the voting in the council not only reflects the process of world peace and development,but also indicates a nation's diplomatic strategy and policy to a great extent.In addition,the voting shows a country's attitudes towards interests and benefits,so the study on the voting of the UN Security Council is very important.China,as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council,shoulders special responsibilities to international peace and security.Her voting,especially the abstention votes,of which the causes,the positions and the tendency are the main concern in this paper.Through the research on the published literatures home and abroad,the composition,authorities and the main rules for voting in the UN Security Council are clearly understood.The statistics on the votes of the five permanent members from November 1971 to December 2014 is analyzed to calculate the proportions of every votes,abstention votes especially,and a table is resulted as followed: The votes of the five permanent members in draft decision of the UN Security Council from November 1971 to December 2014.According to table and the information from the official website of the UN,the relation and difference between abstention vote and not vote are analyzed as well as the every 69 abstention votes by China,then the background of Chinese action of abstention notes is discussed to find underlying cause of them.And on this basis we detail on the influence of abstention votes and analyses the tendency of Chinese votes in UNSC.After thorough analysis,I find that Chinese abstention votes are not that much,and every single of them is the consequence of both Chinese international environment and foreign policy.So each of them is the result of rational consideration,not out of impulsion.From the situation of Chinese votes before,we can see that China is increasingly recognizing the responsibility and standpoint of a great country,and is continuously fighting for her right to speech,and is gradually building her Chinese-featured diplomatic system.She is exhibiting a good example as a responsible great country.