Selective adaptation and human rights to health in China

This article advances an alternative paradigm for making judgments about China's compliance with its international obligations in the realm of health and human rights, grounded on the reality that non-local rule regimes are interpreted and applied according to the extent of commonality between the norms underlying these international rule regimes and local cultural norms. This paradigm, "selective adaptation", allows us to determine that China complied with its international obligations in the case of SARS, but not HIV/AIDS. It makes visible how during SARS China eventually complied with the spirit of the international sanitation regulations but the lack of commitment to improving access to health care for persons living with HIV/AIDS reflects a failure by China to guarantee the right to adequate health care.