ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the following questions. Why China by is turns enthusiastic and hostile towards international adjudication? How did this bifurcation come into being? Will it continue to exist in the future? The chapter attempts to answer these questions by exploring the evolution of China’s attitude to international courts and tribunals. It explains China’s interaction with international courts and tribunals in the Qing dynasty, the Republican era and the Mao era, with the purpose of investigating the sources of China’s hostility towards international adjudication. The chapter examines how contemporary China’s attitude to international courts and tribunals shifted from a pure ‘hate’ to a ‘love-hate’ position. It argues that China in the future will show more ambition in exploring a Chinese approach to international adjudication: it was ‘asked’ to accept international adjudication and to abide by many West-centric norms; it attempts to reinterpret, or even to remake the rules of international adjudication.
