GENEVA — The resolution passed by the United Nations’ top human rights body on Friday seemed innocuous, if obscurely worded in places.

Without specifying any immediate action, it called for “a community of shared future for human beings” and “mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of human rights” — words reflecting “the very purpose of the United Nations,” according to Yu Jianhua, ambassador for China, whose initiative it was.

Western officials and rights organizations, however, saw another purpose at work. They share deep concern about the wider intent behind those phrases, seeing them as tools in a developing effort to reshape international norms on rights and make the world a safer place for autocrats.

For most of the decade since the body, the Human Rights Council, became active, China’s posture at its meetings has tended to be defensive, fending off criticism of its suppression of dissent and voting against initiatives to monitor or censure abuses by other states. Not any more: This was the second resolution it has brought forward at the council in the past nine months.