China and The OSCE’s Security Identity Crisis

Abstract

AbstractThis study attempts to explore how China as an external actor bordering the OSCE region facilitates and amplifies the norm contestation in the OSCE’s wider region. We argue that China can use the OSCE’s internal leadership and security crisis for its own strategic advantage by further weakening the OSCE participating States’ commitments in the human dimension and their support for democratic institutions. We discuss the aforementioned through the case of the persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang. The research findings indicate that China uses its policy tools to accomplish its objectives: it seeks to expand and strengthen the network of supporting states in regard to Xinjiang; it uses its diplomats as outlets of propaganda and disinformation to deny the persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang and to present China as a benign actor; it uses multilateral institutions such as Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as a platform to build support for its alternative regional security governance model. We conclude that this policy posture undermines the work of the OSCE and trust in its values, norms, and practices.