SHANGHAI - The 12th China-European Union summit, held at Nanjing, the capital
city of Jiangsu province, on Monday, focused on strengthening cooperation on a
range of issues, including combating the global financial crisis, trade and
investment, human rights and nuclear non-proliferation.
This signals that both sides want to put their bilateral relationship, which
has suffered setbacks in recent years, back on track. Analysts caution that
there is still a long way to go for China and the EU to form the strategic
partnership they have pledged to create.
This was seen in comments by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at a press conference
after the summit, which was co-chaired by
Wen, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and Swedish Prime
Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Wen said China and EU, as strategic partners, should not only make joint
efforts in coping with the global financial crisis and overcoming difficulties,
but should "stand high and see far in shaping the future", to promote the
establishment of a just and rational political and economic world order.
He called on the two sides to abandon discrimination, confrontation and
containment and to promote equality, dialogue and cooperation. He said the two
sides should enhance mutual trust and always be friends and not opponents,
adding that they should respect each other's cultural traditions, social
systems and values.
Wen called on the two sides to properly handle trade frictions and abandon
protectionism. He said China hopes the EU will relax control over
high-technology exports to China to achieve a balance of trade between the two
sides.
Since 1975, when China established diplomatic relations with the European
Community, the predecessor of the EU, the relationship has remained mostly
stable. However, China's rising economic and political influence since the
start of the new millenium has led to intensified competition in areas like the
race for natural resources and political influence in Africa.
In 2006, the European Council, the EU's legislative and most powerful
institution, adopted a new China strategy named "Partnership and Competition",
which obliged the EU to accept tough Chinese competition while pushing China to
trade fairly. Since then, Sino-EU tensions have been exacerbated by events such
as the ethnic-based riots in Tibet in March 2008 and in Xinjiang province last
July.
Thus, while the 12th China-EU summit was an opportunity for both sides to
reaffirm the goal stated in 2003 to upgrade their "constructive partnership"
into a "comprehensive strategic partnership", for now, this remains little more
than a verbal pledge.
China had believed Europe would emerge as an important global partner in the
construction of a multi-polar world but has been disappointed with what it sees
as lack of strength or will on the continent to take on such a role. Beijing
feels this is partly due to Europe's closeness to the United States. As a
result, Europe does not weigh as heavily as it perhaps should in the balance of
China's foreign policy.
In Beijing's view, Europe has failed to play the crucial and constructive role
China thought it would in major international affairs that affect China's core
interests, such the establishment of a more equitable economic order, recovery
from the global financial crisis, climate change and the environment, and
nuclear non-proliferation.
Compared with East Asia and the US, the EU's contribution to China's economic
growth and scientific and technological advancement has become increasingly
less important.
Europe has, in China's view, failed to act independently from the US when it
comes to diplomacy and security. For China's security concerns, the EU's
influence is not as important as that of the US or China's neighboring
countries. This is perhaps due to the geographical distance between Europe and
China and the relative lack of historical and cultural ties.
In short, from a Chinese point of view, the EU does not play an important role
in international affairs nor satisfy China's major interests in many areas, so
Beijing is now reassessing the importance of Europe for China's strategic
interests.
Although there were pledges at the latest China-EU summit to enhance
cooperation, the Sino-Europe "honeymoon" of the last two decades appears to be
over, and more areas of conflict are likely to emerge. These can be organized
into two catergories - functional conflicts and structural conflicts.
In general, functional conflicts stem from substantial, temporary or urgent
issues that can be solved through bargaining or cooperation between the EU and
China. These include the trade imbalance, issues over the Chinese currency,
competition for economic and political influence in Africa, and the EU's arms
embargo on China. It can also apply to recognition of China's market economy
status, and issues such as technical standards.
Structural conflicts, on the other hand, relate to the field of culture and
values, and here there are long-standing problems in China-EU relations. For
example, differences in ideologies unlikely to be resolved easily are often
apparent in the differences over Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan.
Both China and Europe have ancient civilizations, and each cherishes its own
values as embedded in their political systems and foreign policies. However,
while the EU wishes to expand its values to the rest of the world - including
to China - Beijing resists any spread of so-called "universal values" by
coercion. Given some bitter historical chapters in its recent past, China
strongly believes in political and cultural independence.
Thus, these structural conflicts in China-EU relations will likely persist, and
no dialogue (for example, the human-rights dialogue between China and EU) is
likely to bring a quick end to them. Simultaneously, functional conflicts will
be aggravated if structural conflicts cannot be handled properly.
European integration is forging ahead, encouraged by the successful signing of
the Lisbon Treaty and the quick election of a new European Council president
and high representative for foreign affairs. However, according to the Treaty
of Lisbon, which now covers the EU constitution and which came into effect on
December 1, the power of the council's president and the commission's high
representative are limited.
For example, decisions in the council, as an intergovernmental institution of
the EU, are made through "consensus" or "qualified majority" voting systems,
which means the president is merely a coordinator between various member
states. The powers of the high representative have similar limitations.
As a result, the progress of Lisbon treaty and the election of the council's
president and the high representative for foreign affairs are unlikely to
significantly strengthen the EU's hand when it comes to to negotiations and
cooperation with China. Nonetheless, China welcomes any kind of progress that
the EU makes in the process of integration.
In the post-Lisbon treaty era, China and the EU will continually face
functional and structural conflicts. In this situation, to make concete steps
towards a strategic partnership, both sides should build mutual-trust among
politicians as well as among civil society orginizations.
More importantly, it will be necessary for both the China and the EU to
strengthen bilateral relations through coordinating responses to urgent matters
related to global governance, particularly issues such as climate change,
international terrorism, the global financial crisis and reconstructing the
world's economic order.
But to work together on global governance, both sides must abandon concepts
such as creating spheres of influence through power politics. In the era of
globalization, respect for diversity and multiculturalism should become shared
values in international relations. China-EU relations can only be improved if
and when both sides can adapt to this.
Dr Jian Junbo is assistant professor of the Institute of International
Studies at Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
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