Build on the past, shape the future: the ICRC’s 40 years of humanitarian dialogue with the PLA

In 1989, a delegation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) walked into the Geneva headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). A simple handshake built a bridge for dialogue between the Chinese military and the world’s first humanitarian organization. Over the past nearly 40 years since then, from military classrooms to international forums, the two sides have continued to engage in humanitarian preparedness for the contingency of armed conflict, as framed by the Geneva Conventions.

This is part of the ICRC’s global endeavor to engage with armed forces. As part of its humanitarian mandate, the ICRC engages with weapon bearers and military personnel worldwide, to promote the principles of IHL, secure access to vulnerable populations in conflict zones, and ensure that a neutral humanitarian space is preserved even in times of war.

“The first steps toward peace are often humanitarian ones, such as parties agreeing to release and safely transfer detainees back home. More broadly, compliance with IHL provides the necessary enabling environment for sustainable peace.” Among others, he highlighted the links between IHL and peace in his speech at the 12th Beijing Xiangshan Forum in 2025. 

This year, ICRC Vice-President Jürg Lauber was invited to speak at the 13th Beijing Xiangshan Forum. He stated that amidst rising conflict numbers, geopolitical volatility, and rapid developments in military technology, strengthening compliance with international humanitarian law is an urgent imperative.

"It is our duty to remind states that preparing for wars must include establishing systems to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law from the very outset of hostilities. This necessitates integrating IHL compliance into peacetime planning to ensure that the necessary mechanisms are fully operational when hostilities begin."

At the same time, the two sides have maintained communication at the most prominent international security platforms including the Shangri-La Dialogue, while maintaining reciprocal visits between Beijing and Geneva.

The 2004 Asia-Pacific seminar on the law of armed conflict brought together senior officers from 19 countries, while the eighth Senior Workshop on International Rules Governing Military Operations in 2014 gathered senior officers from 62 countries. Subsequent seminars on the law of armed conflict at sea and on operational legal advisers brought exchanges closer to concrete military-operational settings. 

Notably, in May 2018, the ICRC and the Political College of National Defense University co-hosted the 5th Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on the Law of Armed Conflict at Sea in Shanghai, the first time this workshop was held in China. Thirty-five senior naval officers from 19 countries across the Asia-Pacific region engaged in in-depth discussions on issues related to the law of naval warfare and maritime humanitarian operations.

In addition, several experts from PLA were invited to serve as reviewers and contributors to the updated Commentaries on the Geneva Conventions. Chinese-language reference materials, including Lectures on the Law of Armed Conflict, Essentials of the Law of War and the Code of Conduct for Combatants, were translated and produced, while knowledge cards incorporating the “Three Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention” were distributed to grassroots units, further integrating the theorical understanding of the rules of war into military operational practice.