Paper short abstract:

The paper investigates recent Chinese efforts to redefine its policies on international wildlife trade from Africa. It explores how China navigates the complicated international power relations surrounding the issue and how it balances bilateral and multilateral expectations.

Paper long abstract:

As a major destination for African wildlife products China is a crucial actor with the potential of influencing global discourses and policies on the issue of international wildlife trade from Africa. In response to rising global expectations China has assumed a markedly more active and nuanced role on the issue in recent years. The paper investigates how China navigates the complicated international power relations surrounding the issue of international wildlife trade from Africa and how China balances norms and obligations that emanate from both the bilateral and the multilateral level. Interestingly, China's efforts to redefine its policies involve principles that go to the core of its identity as a rising power, such as commitment to sovereignty over national resources and the addressing of structural global inequalities, but also the promotion of multilateral cooperation and of a role as a responsible great power.