China regularly participates in multilateral forums dedicated to refugee relief and in recent years has increased its public statements and commitments. This section highlights key trends in Chinese diplomatic high-level engagement on refugee issues that are consistent with the country’s approach to foreign policy and multilateral activity.
As noted by Lili Song, China’s pledges of support and financial assistance at the 2016 UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants and the 2017 Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation suggested a growing desire to be seen by the international community as an active contributor to international refugee assistance efforts. Since then, China has actively participated in consultations and affirmed two key non-binding multilateral texts for the governance of asylum and migration – the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
At the UN-led Global Refugee Forum in December 2019, which convened governments and actors to help reach the goals of the Global Compact on Refugees, Chinese officials highlighted the country’s contributions to the employment and livelihoods of refugees through bilateral channels – the Belt and Road Initiative and the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund (SSCAF) – and stated China’s willingness to contribute further in this area.China also co-sponsored the high-level dialogue on jobs and livelihoods at the Global Refugee Forum to provide support for thematic issues, but did not make any formal pledges. Overall, China has remained consistently engaged in UN-led multilateral forums and consultative processes on refugees and migration issues.
Chinese rhetoric on refugee issues conforms with the country’s broader foreign policy messaging. For example, the well-established rhetoric on ‘building a shared community for mankind’ permeates senior Chinese diplomatic leaders’ remarks on refugee issues, confirming the consistency of language across foreign policy issue areas. In September 2020, China issued a position paper on the 75th anniversary of the UN and referred to the ‘principle of common but differentiated responsibilities’ for state contributions to refugee issues. China’s tendency to emphasize its history as a developing country within the UN system is a necessary lens through which to understand its cautious approach to sharing responsibility for refugee relief.
Chinese officials have highlighted poverty and underdevelopment as root causes of instability and human displacement. For example, in 2016, Premier Li Keqiang stated, ‘It must be recognized that war, conflict, and poverty are the main causes of the refugee issue, and the only way out is to realize peace and development.’ In 2019, China’s then permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Chen Xu, in his remarks at the Global Refugee Forum highlighted ‘development as the first priority’. Chinese leaders have often noted in their statements that ‘comprehensive policies covering both the symptoms and the root causes’ are needed to solve refugee issues. Poverty alleviation continues to be a key focus for Chinese officials when engaging with humanitarian and/or peace and security issues – this includes refugee crises.
China’s permanent member status on the UN Security Council renders the Chinese government a political actor on issues of humanitarian access and relief. In 2021, at the UN Security Council, Zhang Jun, China’s ambassador to the UN, called for member states to ‘refrain from using the issue of refugees for political motives’ and for humanitarian access to respect national sovereignty. These statements recall China’s long-standing focus on non-intervention and national sovereignty. In some instances, China’s use of the veto on the Security Council has even stifled humanitarian responses for refugee and internally displaced persons’ relief, for example by vetoing Security Council resolutions on aid delivery and border crossings into Syria.
Chinese government officials have also addressed refugee issues in other diplomatic settings. UNRWA officials highlighted the BRICS summit as a forum in which China has a strong voice and has engaged on refugee issues, for example by endorsing UNRWA’s work on the BRICS summit Johannesburg Declaration in 2018. In China, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi attended the Belt and Road Forum and the Boao Forum for Asia, where leading Chinese tech companies Baidu, Tencent and China UnionPay expressed their willingness to work together to support the plight of displaced people globally.
Finally, refugee issues also increasingly permeate China’s bilateral relations. China has made bilateral in-kind contributions to support refugee relief activities to the governments of Jordan, Lebanon and Bangladesh. In 2017, the Chinese government also positioned itself as a mediator between Myanmar and Bangladesh with a proposed three-step solution to the Rohingya crisis, taking on a front-line role in a refugee situation in the Asia-Pacific region. China’s foreign minister Wang Yi identified underdevelopment in Myanmar’s Rakhine state as a key reason for instability and internal conflicts. At the time, this also enabled China’s support for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Rakhine state in conjunction with poverty alleviation interventions, while the UN considered Rakhine state as unsafe for refugee voluntary return.
