In recent years, the Middle Kingdom has indeed been placed in the middle of a heated and global debate on the international community’s involvement in complex emergencies. More specifically, global media outlets (as well as celebrities, athletes, and international organizations) have often cited the People’s Republic of China’s growing involvement in the domestic affairs of African nations and its simultaneous refusal to intervene in the complex emergency that has developed in the Darfur region of Sudan.

After many failed attempts to protect civilians from mass atrocities, in September 2005 the international community, through the United Nations, endorsed a new norm called the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) which commits the international community to protect populations from genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. Three years later, much remains to be done to make R2P a reality.