China’s project to mediate global disputes underlines divide between the West and the rest

China has a preference for informal, behind-the-scenes engagement over formal arbitration processes. AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

While Switzerland’s attendance at the launch of a Beijing-led global mediation institute added gravitas, questions remain on whether the Chinese initiative will be seen as a break out effort to curb conflict or an attempt to undermine Western rivals.

China has grand plans to set up what it hopes will be the first worldwide body to resolve international disputes through mediation. The response so far only underscores the gulf between allies of Western powers and countries that see Asia’s growing economic giant as a counterweight.

A total of 85 nations from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe attended a launch ceremony on May 30 for the International Organization for MediationExternal link (IOMed) in Hong Kong, China’s Foreign Ministry saidExternal link. Of those, just over 30 signed a convention on the creation of the institution. Serbia and Belarus were reportedly the sole European signatories.

Some see opportunities. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis who was invited by China, told delegatesExternal link that his country supports initiatives that offer “pragmatic solutions” within a stable international order.

Others say the new body’s focus on voluntary agreements could unstick disputes where a legal route has failed, or better represent countries that lack a voice on the world stage. Still, the question remains whether China, at a time of tension with the West, can persuade substantially more nations to sign up to its plan, and overcome suspicions it’s trying to supplant already established arbitration courts built by geopolitical rivals.

Fear of being seen to take sides

“Many states may wish to avoid being seen as taking sides,” said Xinyu Yuan, a researcher in Chinese global governance at the Geneva Graduate Institute. “Signing a China-led agreement could be perceived as aligning.”

Beijing’s standing committee of the national legislature approved the convention on June 27 and indicated it wouldn’t bring World Trade Organization disputes to IOMed, the South China Morning Post reported, citing the state-run Xinhua news agency.

While a full list of founding membersExternal link hasn’t been officially released, Dana Landau, co-head and senior researcher in mediation at Basel-based conflict-reduction foundation Swisspeace, said 33 countries signed the convention in Hong Kong.

The prominent presence of Switzerland, with its history of over a century of mediating disputes in an observer role helped burnish the launch. Still, signatories were primarily from the so-called Global SouthExternal link, a term used to group countries with generally lower average income, including many with a history of being colonised by European empires.

Ignazio Cassis visited Hong Kong for the launch of the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed). In his speech, he underlined Swiss neutrality and firm commitment to promoting peaceful conflict resolution through discreet and pragmatic mediation. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Switzerland and others involved in dispute resolution have faced tectonic shifts, including growing geopolitical rivalry and an erosion of international rules and the bodies that enforce them, according to Landau of Swisspeace. “All of this has made Switzerland’s mediation efforts more difficult in many contexts,” she said.

In recent years, Switzerland’s offers of its good offices have been snubbed on numerous occasions:

Mediation for states and individuals

Beijing is promoting IOMed as an alternative tool to end disputes between governments, as well as between a state and individuals from another state, such as foreign investors. It would also handle international commercial disputes submitted by mutual consent.

Sceptics may view the project in the context of Beijing’s efforts to expand its sphere of influence and push alternatives to a long-standing international order built by Western nations. Those efforts range from overseas investment and lending under its “Belt and Road Initiative”, to engagement with Russia during the war in Ukraine, and promotion of the Chinese yuan as an alternative to the dollar in international trade and finance.

“IOMed signals a new phase in China’s diplomatic strategy as a major power,” Hiroyuki Akita, a commentator for Japan’s Nikkei newspaper and author of books on US-Japan-China relations, wrote in an opinionExternal link published June 15. “If China’s efforts to build a parallel world order continue to accelerate, global polarisation will deepen.”

The Hong Kong governmentExternal link, which will host IOMed in a colonial-era police station, said the body will be “on par” with the International Court of Justice and Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague.

In 2016, Beijing rejected a PCA ruling largely in favour of the Philippines over contested claims in the South China Sea. China didn’t participate in the tribunal, having previously declared that the matter was exempt from such a process because of a key articleExternal link in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The tribunal disputedExternal link its argument.

Human rights record is a concern

“China’s track record on human rights violations, the South China Sea and other issues such as border disputes and international rulings is apparently a concern,” Yun Sun, a Brookings Institution fellow and expert on Chinese foreign policy, told Swissinfo. “I believe the 2016 arbitration is one origin of IOMed. Beyond litigation and arbitration, there can be another way: mediation.”

There’s “no guarantee that other countries will view the IOM as fair, just, and impartial,” she wroteExternal link separately on the Washington-based think tank’s website on June 6.

Chinese officials have argued the body is an addition to the world’s negotiating arsenal. IOMed is a “useful supplement to existing dispute settlement institutions and methods,” Sun Jin, overseeing the creation of IOMed at the Department of Treaty and Law of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has said in a paperExternal link on the matter.

China more favourable to some

At the Geneva Graduate Institute, Yuan said other nations from the Global South may be willing to join up because they believe China is more favourable to them and that their voices aren’t properly represented in current institutions.

The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes saidExternal link that in 2022 almost two-thirds of arbitrators, conciliators and “ad-hoc committee members” appointed to its cases were from Western Europe or North America. Those two regions made up less than half of the world’s economic output that year, or about a third on a purchasing power parity basis, World BankExternal link and International Monetary FundExternal link data show.

Be that as it may, without wider support across the globe, China’s mediation exercise will struggle to resolve the geopolitical divide that its founding has illuminated.

“If IOMed does prove to be effective in mediating international political and economic disputes through its unique location and legal foundation, it will be a serious competitor to the existing international dispute settlement mechanisms,” Sun wrote in her Brookings article. “But the jury is still out.”

Edited by Tony Barrett/ac