The Development of EU-China Relations
This chapter contains a chronological account of the development of EU-China relations from the resumption of relations after the Tiananmen Square unrest to the visit of Xi Jinping in March 2014 as the first Chinese president to pay an official visit to t
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The Development of EU-China Relations
The strategic partnership between the European Union (EU) and China is important from a global perspective as an example of social interaction between two international actors. The bilateral relationship between the EU and China is characterized by an enduring paradoxical quality in that the two actors, who are in many ways each other’s antipodes, were initially dependent on each other’s recognition as international actors to secure their respective ascendancy to global standing. This mutual dependence tied the EU and China together in the first decades of the bilateral relationship, but it is now changing in character driven by the profound transformation of the international system as well as significant internal developments in Europe and China. Before analyzing the current situation in the EU-China strategic partnership, we will, as a first necessary step, spell out the main phases through which the bilateral relationship has evolved. As a second step, we will briefly revisit the main areas of contention between the EU and China in order to get a fuller picture of the challenges that they give rise to and their impact on the future of the EU-China strategic partnership.
The Establishment
of Formal
Relations
At the end of the regime of Mao Zedong and the long spell of relative isolation, China gradually started to reach out internationally. Following the official recognition of the People’s Republic of China by the member © The Author(s) 2017 A. Michalski, Z. Pan, Unlikely Partners? DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3141-0_3
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states of the European Community (EC) in the early 1970s, the EC established diplomatic relations with China in May 1975, and the first trade agreement between the EC and China was signed in May 1978. Mutual, albeit not identical, interests soon emerged between the two, as China saw Europe as a useful counterweight to the Soviet Union and the United States (US) on the global scene, while European leaders realized early the potential of the Chinese market where it to become accessible for international trade. Roy Jenkins (President of the European Commission 1977–1981) visited China in 1979 to pave the way for closer relations between China and the EC. His main aim was to deepen official contacts that subsequently could serve as a platform for expanding trade between the EC and China. His diaries document a meeting with Deng Xiaoping, in which the latter noted with interest the integration among nation-states in western Europe, which he believed would, with time, constitute an important pole in balancing the division of power in the world. Jenkins, in his turn, noted the future importance of China as a global power in terms of its nuclear capacity and economic potential, and concluded that the self-interest of the West lay in assisting China’s modernization process.1 The establishment of formal trade relations between the EC and China continued throughout the 1980s with the signing of a trade in textile agreement in 1979 gra
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