Research on the Paradigm Transformation and Advancement of China’s Participation in Global Human Rights Governance

XING Aifen*

Abstract: Human rights constitute an important hallmark of the progress of human civilization, while global human rights governance forms a core component of global governance. For a long time, the international human rights agenda has been profoundly influenced by the Western liberal paradigm of human rights in terms of aspects such as conceptual interpretation, rule formation, and institutional operation. The politicization, instrumentalization, and application of double standards in human rights have undermined the fairness, representativeness, and effectiveness of global human rights governance. As the largest developing country, a founding member of the United Nations, and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China is duty-bound to serve as a mainstay in global human rights governance. The paradigm through which China participates in global human rights governance is both an external expression of its governance connotations and a channel for realizing governance outcomes. Since the restoration of its lawful seat at the United Nations in 1971, the People’s Republic of China has progressively established a fundamental paradigm for its participation in global human rights governance. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), this paradigm has undergone a transformation and upgrading in terms of concepts, discourse, and practice. Meanwhile, China’s participation continues to face structural challenges, including limited international explanatory power of its theoretical discourse, insufficient effectiveness of cross-cultural communication, inadequate capacity for rule shaping, and insufficient participation of social entities. China should, from the perspective of building a “community with a shared future for mankind” and with forward-looking thinking oriented toward the era of digital intelligence, promote the further transformation and upgrading of its participation paradigm by strengthening an independent knowledge system, enhancing the international translation of Chinese discourse, improving the operation of multilateral mechanisms, reinforcing the rule of law in foreign-related affairs, promoting coordinated participation among diverse social entities, and empowering governance through digital technologies, thereby contributing Chinese wisdom to steering global human rights governance toward a more equitable, just, reasonable, and inclusive direction.

Keywords: the new era ·  human rights ·  global human rights governance ·  paradigm transformation ·  a community with a shared future for mankind