1. The article by Zewei is all about the evolution of China as a country in terms of it's economic, political and social system, culture and structure. The article is divided into four sections that are section one is describes the world of Chinese Confucianism centered on the Celestial Empire of China and the tributary system. The second and third sections are about the interaction between the ancient Chinese Confucianism and the dominant modern western system (international law on world order, foreign trade, treaty regime, the unequal treaty etc.) and the fourth section is about the conclusions of the author.
The said evolution happened when the "more traditional" system known as traditional Confucianism which predominated ancient China interacted with the western "more dominant system" thereby creating a completely new political, economic and social system. As per Zewei (2011), the process of evolution happens through domination by the more dominant system in which the weaker system is coerced to either directly or through compromise change its system. One of the notable issues in Zewei’s piece is the fact that China's international relations policy and practice remained uninfluenced despite the integration process this according to Zewei is because China's only applicable than was the Unequal Treaty Regime. The main thesis is that the collision and integration of ancient China's Confucianism and the dominant western system gave rise to modern China through the death of the Confucianism.
2. Steinberg in his article The Politics of NGOs, Human Rights, and the Arab-Israel Conflict, examines and presents the role of the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) also known as Civil Society Organizations (CSO), he mainly talks about the political influences of these organizations and how they apply “soft power” in order to achieve their objective which ranges from issues related to environmental rights to the most complex and controversial ones like human rights and humanitarian assistance or aid by asserting pressure to their governments from outside. In a very particular manner, the author studies the role of the NGOs in the Israeli conflict through what he calls the “political NGOs”. The main foundations of the NGOs are their adherence to the human moralities and the perceived opinion that they exist to fight for the less fortunate ones in the society by insisting that everyone must be treated equally and that their political rights are respected and enforced. The author further affirms that NGOs work on behalf of the people and are generally not politically driven. However, there are some NGOs with very clear political agenda like the one he mentions operate in the region of Arab-Israel conflict. He further says that most of the NGOs get their funding from the so-called developed countries and their organizations. Despite the positive things about the NGOs, the author also tackles the limitations of the NGOs, like them, not being accountable and the need to help them be more transparent in their dealings. (Steinberg 24-54).
3. According to the authors, Cragg, Arnold and Muchlinski, the whole issue of business and human rights being addressed in the international forums started in the early 1990s. It is a common belief that it was the duty of the government to ensure the welfare and enjoyment of rights by the people (Ruggie 2006 and 2007) that is people has always looked up to the government with the view that their rights will be protected. However, with the globalization there came into existence multinationals and transnational organizations whose actions started being viewed in the light of human rights. As noted by Stepan Wood as quoted by the authors (Cragg, Arnold and Muchlinski, 2012, p. 4-5), the corporations influence a lot the actions of the other human beings hence has the duty or moral obligation to protect the fundamental human rights. The cause of the delay of the being discussed in the international forums was the conviction that it was the duty of the Governments to provide and protect the human rights.
