Exporting Virtue?

Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, China has attempted to change international human rights values to accommodate its own interests, causing increasing friction with international standards of law and governance. Exporting Virtue? examines human rights as an example of China’s international assertiveness and considers the implications of internationalizing PRC human rights policy and practice. Pitman B. Potter suggests that in the absence of clear and enforceable global human rights standards, China uses its international influence to promote its human rights policies on global governance, freedom of expression, trade and investment policy, and labour and environmental regulation. The PRC’s efforts to export its human rights principles and standards exemplify the rise of authoritarian governance models internationally. Couched in terms of virtue but manifested as authoritarianism, China’s international human rights activism invites scholars and policy makers around the world to engage critically with the issue. Drawing on both Chinese- and English-language sources, Exporting Virtue? investigates the challenges that China’s human rights orthodoxy poses to international norms and institutions, offering normative and institutional analysis and providing suggestions for policy response.