China

China participated in the 2013 UN Human Rights Council discussion on autonomous weapons systems, and has participated in all Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons meetings on autonomous weapons systems. China has stated that autonomous weapons systems ‘face an array of challenges’ when it comes to the implementation of the primary principles of international humanitarian law, and has noted that ‘we cannot expect such systems to distinguish between civilians and combatants like a human’, that such systems ‘cannot make proportional decisions’, and that ‘it is very difficult to trace accountability’ when using autonomous weapon systems.^[1]Statement by China, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 03 August 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-03-08-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading

China supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. At the first session of the 2021 meeting of the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS), China stated that it hopes that, upon reaching consensus as to the definition of autonomous weapons systems, parties to the CCW would ‘negotiate a legally binding instrument to limit and regulate fully autonomous lethal weapons systems.’^[2]Statement by China, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 05 August 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-05-08-2021-PM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading It has further stated that a ‘treaty framework is the right vessel’ to deal with issues raised by autonomous weapons systems,^[3]Statement by China, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 03 August 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-03-08-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading and there is an ‘increasing urgency in adopting some measures’ on autonomous weapons systems.^[4]Statement by China, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 03 August 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-03-08-2021-PM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading

China is involved in the development of weapons systems with autonomous functions. ^[5]See, for example, SIPRI (2017), Mapping the development of autonomy in weapons systems, … Continue reading