The Limits of Normative Power Europe in Asia: The Case of Human Rights in China

Abstract

In recent years an increasing number of works on EU international actorness have begun to focus on notions of "normative, value-driven external policy". However, the majority of these works tend to uncritically analyse EU foreign policy without considering its internal complexity and the existing national, supranational and intergovernmental dynamics. This paper first sheds light on these issues by proposing an original theoretical and analytical framework to study European, rather than merely EU, normative foreign policy. Secondly, this paper attempts to empirically apply such a framework in the specific case of European human rights promotion in China. What emerges is that in the case of China, and Asia more broadly, Europe appears more as a normative trap, where the interaction of EU institutions and member states originate policies not in line with the EU human rights normative basis.

Managing Global Challenges

“…In addition to these two monographs, there are several edited volumes on EU-China relations, compiling the results of academic conferences: Men and Balducci's (2010) Prospects and Challenges for EU-China Relations in the 21st Century; Shambaugh, Sandschneider and Hong's (2008) China-Europe Relations: Perceptions, policies and prospects; Crossick and Reuter's (2008) China-EU: A Common Future; as well as Kerr and Fei's (2007) The International Politics of EU-China Relations. As edited volumes, they do not develop an encompassing analytical framework and are not rooted in a common conceptual understanding or framing of the research object.…”

“…For detailed assessments of the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue, see for exampleBalducci (2010) orKinzelbach and Thelle (2011).…”

Setting the limits: Discourse and EU foreign policy

“…In what follows, this article does not take an interest in this particular debate. For one, it seems pretty clear that while the EU does operate in world politics in a way that is different from traditional great powers, at the same time it is fair to say that its own norms are often violated by actors within the EU, be it in regard to arms trade exports (Erickson, 2011) or the disregard of human rights when it comes to strong economic interests (Balducci, 2010;Youngs, 2004). Alternatively, EU norms and interests often cannot be empirically distinguished, as they go hand in hand, for instance in the promotion of particular environmental standards (Falkner, 2007).…”

Normative Power Europe, Once Again: A Conceptual Analysis of an Ideal Type*

“…In many cases, however, the EU has given more weight to its economic interest than its normative interests. This is particularly so in relations with Russia (Forsberg and Herd, 2005) and China (Balducci, 2010), but upholding a normative agenda can be difficult with smaller powers, too. For example, Robles (2008, p. 556) has argued that in relations with ASEAN the EU's agenda was 'being held hostage to the commercial interests of a single French oil company'.…”