Although it is a signatory of the 1951 Refugee Convention, China is still one of the few industrialized countries that does not have a refugee status determination procedure.

Given this legal vacuum, an asylum seeker in China who wishes to be recognized as a refugee must address himself to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Beijing.

The fact that the UNHCR rather than the Chinese government has the authority to grant refugee status within China is not unusual.

Several governments, mostly in Asia, have delegated this function to the UNHCR. It is a task that the UN refugee agency undertakes satisfactorily, and even more so as in China the numbers are small. In 2012 the total number of asylum seekers and recognized refugees stood at 407.

But this still represents a four-fold increase over previous years, and is a figure set to increase. China will eventually have to tackle the issue itself.

Asylum as a concept is as old as history. But it is only in 1951 that the international community sought to codify some of its principals.

To this effect, the convention includes three fundamental provisions. A refugee is defined as a person fleeing persecution for political, ethnic or religious reasons. The parties to the convention are under no obligation to give asylum to persons classified as refugees; they are however committed to "non-refoulement," that is not to send them back to a country or region where they are persecuted. And considerations of national security or public order take precedence over the convention.

Most Western countries adhered to the 1951 convention soon after its adoption. None of the Eastern bloc countries did.

It was therefore unavoidable that the convention would develop into an instrument of the Cold War, and even more so as the refugee phenomenon at the time was mostly a European one, the numbers were manageable, most asylum-seekers were bona fide refugees, and movements were essentially from East to West.

The granting of refugee status thus became largely a political gesture aimed at stigmatizing the countries of origin.

The legacy of the Cold War weighs heavily on the asylum quandary. China has until now been insulated from the effects of globalized irregular population movements.

But as the country develops, it will unavoidably become a destination for migrants-cum-asylum seekers. Once that junction is reached, China will need its own refugee status determination procedure.

A refugee status determination procedure with Chinese characteristics will unavoidably have to consider particularly difficult issues.

Is adjudicating that a person is indeed a refugee, and hence flees persecution, a form of stigmatization of the country of origin? During the Cold War, the answer was an unqualified yes. Today it is still "yes" albeit a qualified one.

Most states chose to overlook the fact that some of their citizens are recognized as "refugees."

Italy has chosen to ignore the fact that France has given asylum to a small number of Italians accused of collaborating with terrorism.

Conversely, the recognition rate of Chinese applying for asylum in the US can reach as high as 74 percent.

While the political message is undeniable, relations between states have now become so multifaceted that, except for highly visible and hence highly politicized cases, the asylum issue has been mostly ignored.

What cannot be ignored are security considerations. China is currently bordered by areas of potential instability with ongoing cross-border movements. Given the serious foreign policy implications, these should be at best addressed outside the scope of the convention.

China's adhesion to the 1951 convention was a potent contribution to humanitarian law and the protection of refugees. There is no reason to believe that a rigorous but fair refugee determination procedure geared to the present and not hostage to the past should not be in line with China's principles.

The author is Swiss and a former director for Asia at the UNHCR. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn