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7 Cardozo Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 1 (2024)

handle is hein.journals/icpelr7 and id is 1 raw text is: THE CHINESE BALLOON INCIDENT AND PARTISANISM IN INTERNATIONAL LAW Samuli Seppanen* ABSTRACT This Article discusses the implications of the February 2023 Chi- nese balloon incident for understanding Chinese foreign policy elites' approaches to international law. It argues that the Chinese balloon incident fits the perception of a globally ambitious and activist China. At the same time, the ethically ambiguous context offoreign surveil- lance flights problematizes the stark dichotomies between authoritar- ian and liberal approaches to international law. Chinese legal argu- ments in the Chinese balloon incident followed the Cold War-era playbook of diplomatic exchanges on unauthorized flights in foreign airspace. Moreover, the Chinese commentary on U.S. conduct in the Chinese balloon incident in some ways resembled American Cold War-era perceptions about the Soviet Union. Chinese commentary on the Chinese balloon incident can even be seen as comparable to con- temporary liberal narratives about authoritarian governments. These narratives delegitimize foreign adversaries by presuming them inca- pable of partaking in the international rule-based order in a non-par- tisan manner. These analogies are not perfect, however. The Chinese foreign policy elites have not articulated a theory of international law that denies the United States and other liberal democracies an equal standing on the international plane. I. IN TROD U CTION .................................................................... . 2 II. INTERNATIONAL LEGAL DISCOURSE ON UNAUTHORIZED F L IG H T S ............................................................................. . . 10 A. Unauthorized Flights in Historical Context ................... 10 B. Patterns of Legal Argumentation................................... 16 Associate Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law. I thank Jae Woon Lee, Noam Noked, Teemu Ruskola, and Zheng Silu for their comments on the article. All mistakes are mine. 1

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