The evolution of the Chinese position on UN Security Council reform: changes in power and normative strategies

This study focuses on the evolution of the Chinese position on UNSC reform, a topic that has rarely been addressed in extant literature. We show that, contrary to the view that China mostly stayed out of this debate, in fact, it has come to contribute to it in meaningful ways. Moreover, its position experienced subtle yet important shifts over the past three decades. We build on the norm contestation literature to develop a set of arguments that can explain these changes. We especially draw from the work focusing on the five possible strategies of defusing normative pressures: yielding, narrowing, broadening, challenging, and withstanding. We posit that the choices for such strategies are greatly shaped by a state’s relative power vis-à-vis other states, especially, its main rival. Then, using a broad array of primary and secondary sources, we show that the country’s position indeed followed the expected strategies as it became more powerful. We draw a set of theoretical and practical conclusions based on these findings.