On Sanctions and China

Abstract

Chapter 2 clarifies the definition of sanctions and draws on the existing international relations literature to discuss four different expectations that speak to the central puzzle of this book. These expectations are based on structural, domestic, and cultural factors: China was simply ‘not yet powerful enough’ to employ sanctions in a wholehearted manner; the Chinese political leadership may have at times been constrained by its domestic actors; China’s participation in international institutions shaped its sanctions behaviour; and the Chinese political elite may have inherited certain predispositions that led them to favour the use of ‘carrots’, like economic inducements, over ‘sticks’, such as punitive sanctions. It finds that none of these explanations provide a wholly satisfactory answer to the puzzle.