This Article discusses the implications of the February 2023 Chinese balloon incident for understanding Chinese foreign policy elites’ approaches to international law. It argues that the Chinese balloon incident fits the perception of a globally ambitious and activist China. At the same time, the ethically ambiguous context of foreign surveillance flights problematizes the stark dichotomies between authoritarian and liberal approaches to international law. Chinese legal arguments in the Chinese balloon incident followed the Cold War-era playbook of diplomatic exchanges on unauthorized flights in foreign airspace. Moreover, the Chinese commentary on U.S. conduct in the Chinese balloon incident in some ways resembled American Cold War-era perceptions about the Soviet Union. Chinese commentary on the Chinese balloon incident can even be seen as comparable to contemporary liberal narratives about authoritarian governments. These narratives delegitimize foreign adversaries by presuming them incapable of partaking in the international rule-based order in a non-partisan manner. These analogies are not perfect, however. The Chinese foreign policy elites have not articulated a theory of international law that denies the United States and other liberal democracies an equal standing on the international plane.
top of page
bottom of page
Comments