China and Disaster Governance: Assessing the Domestic Sources of a Global Responsibility

This article examines China’s engagement with global disaster governance. It reveals how international sentiments of humanitarian responsibility—understood as the imperative to help one’s own people as well as distant others—resonate deeply with Chinese political and social thought, with important implications for the Chinese leadership in managing the complex challenges presented by natural disasters. Here, modern conceptions of China’s global responsibilities are traced back to historic Chinese thinking on the nexus between political statecraft and able disaster management, and to its experiences in dealing with catastrophic events like the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. Together, these have worked to inform China’s contemporary involvement in disaster relief operations within and beyond its borders.