“A community of shared destiny” : how China is reshaping human rights in Southeast Asia

Abstract

As China re-emerges in the world stage as a great power, fuelled by intertwined ethno-nationalism and a sense of manifest destiny with roots on its identity as a civilizational state, it is increasingly seeking to reshape the international liberal order that was put in place by the US-led West after the Second World War. Its emergence as a normative power in the field of human rights, prioritizing national sovereignty and economic development over notions of universalism and civil and political rights has been noticed, and a growing number of political leaders have started to see the unique brand of Chinese authoritarianism and “human rights with Chinese characteristics” as models to emulate. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in Southeast Asia, a region with deep historical and economic ties with China, where no one has forgotten the time when Beijing was the centre of the world.