Legal diffusion without universalism: China, pragmatic governance, and the pluralisation of the rule of law

Conventional accounts of rule-of-law diffusion are deeply shaped by liberal universalism, treating legal diffusion as a process of norm promotion, ideological persuasion, or institutional transplantation. This article challenges that assumption by examining China as a distinctive diffusion agent whose international legal engagement operates largely without universalist claims. Rather than exporting a comprehensive legal model, China facilitates the circulation of rule-of-law–relevant norms through institutional participation, procedural design, and development-oriented cooperation. Building on diffusionist theory, the article develops an analytical framework centred on institutional embedding, procedural modularity, developmental rationality, and normative ambiguity. It then applies this framework to China’s evolving role in international law, tracing the shift from legal inwardness to selective diffusion across international institutions, domestic governance strategies, and emerging regulatory domains such as space governance. The analysis demonstrates that legal diffusion can occur through practice rather than persuasion, and through functional problem-solving rather than ideological alignment. The article argues that China’s significance for the global rule of law lies not in offering an alternative normative blueprint, but in contributing to the pluralisation of rule-of-law practices through pragmatic, state-led diffusion. This perspective complicates binary narratives of compliance versus challenge and highlights how the rule of law is reshaped through use in a multipolar legal order.