'Unprecedented Challenges': How China Defends its Status as a Developing Country

The past half-decade has witnessed increased conflict within the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO). A central plank of contention in this regard comprises the differential rights accorded to developing countries, chief amongst them the People’s Republic of China (PRC). As developing country status in the WTO is not linked to a fixed set of economic criteria, but is determined on a self-declaratory basis, the continued self-identification of the PRC as a member of the Global South holds particular controversy. The Trump administration’s use of trade defence measures against the PRC and its blocking of key WTO institutions adds geopolitical salience to this issue. Against this backdrop, this paper examines how the PRC has defended its status as a developing country since the Buenos Aires Ministerial Conference in 2017. Qualitative analysis of PRC statements and submissions before the WTO reveals five sets of arguments employed by Chinese diplomats to promote China’s status as the ‘world’s largest developing country’: On the one hand, the adequacy of economic indicators as measures of a country’s development level is questioned. Alternative socio-economic data is marshalled to underline the continued bifurcation of the world economy into an industrialized North and an underdeveloped South. The legal norm of Special and Differential Treatment (SDT), which encapsulates the rights that accrue to the PRC as a developing state, is in turn portrayed as a central pillar of a multilateral system at risk. Defence of the status quo consequently entails the maintenance of China’s developing country status. The ability for this SDT norm to act as a motor of global economic integration is also promoted as an argument for its preservation as is. Finally, the supposedly model behaviour that the PRC has displayed in the WTO since 2001 counters portrayals of China as a spoiler of the international trading system. The PRC’s recent defence of its rights under WTO law further adds nuance to an emerging literature on the branding of China in international relations. While scholars have previously separated the external identity of the PRC into an economic one – akin to industrialised states – and a political one – based on notions of solidarity with the Global South – this paper argues that even in specific forums and contexts, China’s foreign policy identity represents a more fluid mix of different interests, ideas and historical legacies.