ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to examine the position of China towards the International Criminal Court (ICC). It recalls the role of China in the negotiations at Rome in 1998. The chapter considers the subsequent development following the casting of the negative vote by the Chinese delegation in June 1998. The deputy head of the Chinese delegation later went on to become a member of the judiciary of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The Chinese concerns addressed in the chapter are a reality which may, hopefully, change in the development of the Court's work. Among Chinese academics and practitioners alike, the prospect of China's accession to the Rome Statute is seemingly bright. As "routine" judicial proceedings at the ICC begin to take place, questions that have been lingering since the end of the Rome Conference require re-examination. One such issue is the failure to secure the participation of certain states in the Romes Statute.
