Political Framing in China's Foreign Relations Law: International Law and ‘Fundamental Norms Governing International Relations’

The 2023 ‘Law on Foreign Relations of the People's Republic of China’ (FRL) represents China's most comprehensive attempt to date to articulate a legal framework for its international engagement. The stated purpose of the FRL is foremost functional, setting up a legal architecture for foreign policy, yet also serves diplomatic functions of explaining China's vision for international legal and political order. The following comments are concerned with this latter objective and the reception of the FRL by a global audience, including how it fits into existing discourses about the future of international law. Here, advocacy of alternative ‘political frames’ for international law emerges as a principal form of contestation, with China consistently claiming that Western invocations of the ‘rules-based order’ derogate from international law. Yet the FRL contains corresponding forms of political framing, in which the drafters cite ‘international law’ exclusively when paired with the concept of ‘fundamental norms governing international relations’. Interdependency between the terms suggests that the political commitment is increasingly necessary to understand China's interpretation of international legal norms in contentious cases. Comparative analysis emphasises the need for transnational dialogue, to promote better understanding of how emergent political frames are constructing competing meanings of international legal order.