Human Rights as a Policy Tool in Asia: Hypocrisy or Commitment?
Niklas Swanström
Introduction
The human rights situation in Asia has been in a steep decline over the last few years, from Myanmar’s attacks against students and the civilian population, China’s offensive against civilian and religious communities in Xinjiang and Tibet, Hong Kong, to longer-term concerns in North Korea, Laos, and several other countries. Recently, China has received a lot of attention in the media and in policy discussions, with a focus on the re-education camps and the deculturation of the Muslim communities in Xinjiang, the crackdown on the democracy movement in Hong Kong, and the plan to nominate its own Dalai Lama in an effort to delegitimize the exiled Tibetan government. This is, of course, something that the Chinese government has vigorously denied and referred to as China’s own domestic affairs.
The full paper is available on ISPI’s website.
Related Publications
-
Europe’s Involvement in the Indo-Pacific Region: Determined on Paper, Timid in Reality
Introduction France adopted its Indo-Pacific strategy in 2018, Germany in 2020 and the EU in 2021. None of this comes a minute too soon as geo-political and geoeconomic competition in […]
-
The Dawn of the Digital Yuan: China’s Central Bank Digital Currency and Its Implications
Summary The COVID-19 pandemic has driven digital innovation and proved to be an enabling episode for the technology industry; the growing focus on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) comes within such a context. China has rushed to […]
-
The Problem of Whitsun Reef
Introduction More than a month has passed since a statement relating to the presence of Chinese fishing vessels at Whitsun Reef was released by the Philippine Coast Guard and the […]
-
The Next Generation Problem: The Ups and Downs of Sweden’s Huawei Ban
Abstract After months of pending legal challenges, Sweden proceeded with the long-delayed 5G-frequency auctions in January this year, finally allowing Swedish telecom providers to continue the 5G-rollout; however, still without […]
-
Russian Foreign Policy in 2020: Strengthening Multi-vectoralism
Sino-Russian Relations: Expectations, Illusions, and General Trends by Niklas Swanström Abstract China and Russia have consistently been building strategic cooperation between one another. Even as Russia has sometimes used the […]
-
Taiwan-Paraguay Relations: Convergent Trajectories
Abstract Paraguay’s ongoing diplomatic recognition of Taiwan rests upon a common historical foundation and reflects a parallel trajectory. Successive regimes have maintained diplomatic relations even as the external environment has […]