EUROPEAN STUDIES

27

EUROPEAN STUDIES
An Interdisciplinary Series in European Culture, History
and Politics

Executive Editor

Menno Spiering, University of Amsterdam

m.e.spiering@uva.nl
Series Editors
Robert Harmsen, The Queens University of Belfast
Joep Leerssen, University of Amsterdam
Menno Spiering, University of Amsterdam
Thomas M. Wilson, Binghamton University,
State University of New York

EUROPEAN STUDIES
An Interdisciplinary Series in European Culture, History
and Politics
27

The European Union and China:

Interests and Dilemmas

Edited by
Georg Wiessala, John Wilson and Pradeep Taneja

Amsterdam - New York, NY 2009

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ISBN: 978-90-420-2741-1
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Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2009
Printed in The Netherlands

NOTE FOR CONTRIBUTORS

European Studies is published several times a year. Each issue is dedicated
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Contributors approach the theme from a wide range of disciplinary and,
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executive editor.
Subscription details and a list of back issues are available from the publishers web site: www.rodopi.nl.

CONTENTS

Authors in this volume

PRADEEP TANEJA, GEORG WIESSALA AND JOHN WILSON
Introduction

9
17

THE CONTEXT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS AND

THE HUMAN RIGHTS DILEMMA
NICHOLAS REES
EU-China Relations: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives 31
FRASER CAMERON
The Development of EU-China Relations

47

NATEE VICHITSORATSATRA
The EU and China in the Context of Inter-Regionalism

65

GEORG WIESSALA
Duality - Dialogue - Discourse:
Some Perspectives on Human Rights in EU-China Relations

83

DAVID ASKEW
Sport and Politics: The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

103

ASPECTS OF THE GEO-POLITICAL SETTING

OF EU-CHINA INTERACTION
JENNY CLEGG
China Views Europe: A Multi-Polar Perspective

123

RAJENDRA K. JAIN
The European Union and China:
Indian Perceptions and Perspectives

139

EUROPEAN STUDIES

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS
Russias Closer Ties with China: The Geo-politics of Energy
and the Implications for The European Union

151

MICHAEL SMITH AND HUAIXIAN XIE

The European Union, China and The United States:
Complex Interdependence and Bi-Multilateralism
in Commercial Relations

167

PAUL JOSEPH LIM

The European Unions Economic Ties
with The Republic of China (Taiwan)

187

ISSUES POLICIES PERCEPTIONS

PETER J. ANDERSON
China, News Media Freedom and the West:
Present and Future Perspectives

209

CARLO FILIPPINI
Trade and Investment in the Relations between
the European Union and the Peoples Republic of China

225

VALERIA GATTAI
EU-China Foreign Direct Investment: A Double-Sided Perspective 241
PRADEEP TANEJA
Chinas Search for Energy Security and EU-China Relations

259

ZOU KEYUAN
Recent Chinese Practice in the Maintenance
of Maritime Security and the European Experience

275

GEORG WIESSALA, PRADEEP TANEJA, JOHN WILSON

Conclusions: Towards an EU-China Research-Agenda 2010

291

AUTHORS IN THIS VOLUME

PETER J. ANDERSON is a Reader in News Media and the Journalism
Research Coordinator at the University of Central Lancashire. He has
published a variety of books, articles and book chapters on both communication and politics, including (with Geoff Ward, eds.) (2007) The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democracies, Aldershot: Ashgate;
(with Anthony Weymouth) (1999) Insulting the Public? The British Press
and the European Union, Harlow: Longman; (with Christopher Williams
and Georg Wiessala, eds.) (2000) New Europe in Transition, London:
Continuum; and (1996) The Global Politics of Power, Justice and Death,
London: Routledge. He also co-edited with Georg Wiessala the September 2007 volume of European Studies dedicated to EU-Asia relations.
He taught previously at the universities of Lancaster and Southampton
and runs a small consultancy on the EU, the news media and the citizenry. (pjanderson1@uclan.ac.uk)
DAVID ASKEW is an Associate Professor of Law in the Faculty of Asia
Pacific Studies of the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan
(http://www.apu.ac.jp). Together with J. S. Eades, he is Series Editor of
Asia Pacific Studies: Past and Present with Berghahn Books. David
teaches various legal courses. His main research interests include Legal
Theory, Human Rights, Intellectual History, and the Sino-Japanese War
(1937-1945). Amongst his recent writings is a piece on Nankin
Atoroshiti Kenky no Genj to Dk Gurbaru na Giron no Shos o
Chshin to shite (The Current Situation in and Movements in Research
of the Nanjing Atrocities: An Examination of Global Perspectives)
(Ritsumeikan Gengo Bunka Kenky, vol. 18, 2007). His latest book
publications include, in addition to (with Paul Close and Xu Xin), The
Beijing Olympiad: The Political Economy of a Sporting Mega-Event
(Routledge, 2006 and (with Kanemaru Yichi), Nankin (Nanjing)
(Yumani Shob, 2008), chapters in B. T. Wakabayashi ed., The Nanking
Atrocity, 1937-8: Complicating the Picture (Berghahn, 2007. He is currently working on an edited volume on Japans Jury System, 1928-1943
and various books on Nanjing, 1937-1938. (askew@apu.ac.jp.)
FRASER CAMERON is Director of the EU-Russia Centre, Senior Advisor
to the European Policy Centre (EPC) and to the European Institute for
Asian Studies (EIAS), all in Brussels. He is also Director of ECAN, an
academic and think tank network linking European and Chinese
researchers and scholars. He is a Visiting Professor at the Hertie School

10

EUROPEAN STUDIES

of Governance in Berlin, at the Europa College in Bruges and at a number of other universities in Europe, the US, Canada and Asia. A former
academic and diplomat, Dr Cameron was an adviser in the European
Commission for more than a decade and served at the EUs delegation in
Washington DC. Dr Cameron was Director of Studies at the European
Policy Centre from 2002-2005. He is the author of several of books and
articles on European and international affairs. His most recent books
include S Foreign Policy after the Cold War (2005) and An Introduction to European Foreign Policy (2007). He is a well-known commentator on international affairs and moderator of conferences and workshops. He has extensive experience of working with the corporate world
in Europe and elsewhere. (fc@eu-russiacentre.org)
JENNY CLEGG is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Central
Lancashire and course leader for the B.A. Hons Degree programme in
Asia Pacific Studies in the School of Languages and International Studies. She is involved in teaching modules on Asia Pacific development
and international relations as well as on China and Globalisation at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her current research interests
mainly focus on Chinas development and its implications for the world
order. Her new book Chinas Global Strategy: towards a multipolar
world was published by Pluto Press in January 2009. In recent years, she
has also carried out research on management and ownership reforms in
Chinas rural enterprises, and has published her results in the form of
book chapters and journal articles. Her other main publications include
Fu Manchu and the Yellow Peril: the making of a racist myth (Trentham Press). She has a Ph.D. from the University of Manchester.
(JClegg4@uclan.ac.u)
CARLO FILIPPINI was awarded a Professorship in Economics at Bocconi
University in Milan in 1981. He is currently the director of ISESAO, a
Research Centre devoted to East Asian economic and social studies. He
graduated in Economics and Management at Bocconi University in 1969
and spent two years at the University of Cambridge, UK as a research
student. He has visited East Asian countries many times and given short
courses, seminars or contributed with papers to conferences in Universities and research centres of the region, in particular Japan, Thailand, and
Vietnam. His research interests presently focus on regional integration
and trade relations between East Asian economies and the rest of the
world. In 19932002 he was the Director of the Master in Economics

AUTHORS

11

programme at Bocconi University and in 2002-2004 the European Coordinator of the European Studies Programme Vietnam. In 2004 he was
awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class.
(carlo.filippini@unibocconi.it)
VALERIA GATTAI was awarded a PhD in Economics from Bocconi
University in 2007 with a thesis on the boundaries of multinational enterprises. Her research interests move within the fields of International
Economics (Foreign Direct Investment, Multinational Firms, Internationalisation) and Asian Studies (Chinese Economy). She is author of a
number of publications on FDI, and she has been invited to many international conferences on the topic. Valeria Gattai is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Bologna University and a lecturer in Micro- and Macroeconomics at Bocconi University. (valeria.gattai@uni-bocconi.it)
HUAIXIAN XIE is a Phd candidate at Loughborough University. Her
thesis on EU-China trade relations will be submitted in late 2009.
(H.Xie@lboro.ac.uk)
RAJENDRA K. JAIN is Professor of European Studies and Chairperson,
Centre for European Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal
Nehru University, New Delhi. He has been Visiting Professor at
Freiburg, Leipzig, and Tbingen Universities and at the Maison des
Sciences de l'Homme, Paris. He is the author/editor of 30 books and has
published 80 articles/chapters in books. He has most recently published
India and the European Union: Building a Strategic Partnership (2007)
(editor). (rkjain13@googlemail.com)
PAUL LIM has been a Senior Academic Adviser at the European Institute
for Asian Studies (EIAS) from October 2007 onwards. He was one of
the EIAS co-founders in 1989. He was the Research Coordinator and
Senior Research Fellow at the EIAS before his departure in 2002 to the
Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, Malaysia, where he set up and ran a
new Master in International Studies (European Studies). His latest publications in 2008 have been European Studies: Any sense in Malaysia and
Living in Two/Three Cultures. His other forthcoming publication will
be European Perspectives of Taiwan which he will co-edit with Assistant Prof. Jens Damm from the Institute of East Asian Studies at Freie
Universitt, Berlin. His chapter in his own co-edited book has the provisional title of The European Unions Relations with the Republic of

12

EUROPEAN STUDIES

China (Taiwan) which he co-writes with Ms. Sigrid Winkler, a PhD

researcher. (pjplim@gmail.com)
NICHOLAS REES is Professor of International Politics and Head of the
Department of Politics and History at Liverpool Hope University. He
was formerly Vice President for Research, National College of Ireland,
and Dean of the Graduate School and Jean Monnet Professor, University
of Limerick. His teaching and research interests include EU institutions
and policy-making, EU external relations, EU-Asian relations, regional
integration, international relations and UN peacekeeping. He is co-author of The Poor Relation: Irish Foreign Policy Towards the Third
World (Gill and Macmillan, 1993), United Nations Peacekeeping in the
Post-Cold War Era (Frank Cass, 2005), EU Enlargement and MultiLevel Governance in Public Policy-Making (eds.) (Ashgate, 2006), as
well as the author of numerous book chapters and journal articles.
(reesn@hope.ac.uk)
MICHAEL SMITH is Professor of European Politics and Jean Monnet
Chair in the Department of Politics, International Relations and European Studies at Loughborough University. His principal areas of research
are transatlantic relations, relations between the EU, the US and Asia, the
making of EU external policies and the role of the EU in post-Cold War
Europe, as well as more general issues of international political economy
and international relations. Among his recent books are Europe's Experimental Union: Rethinking Integration (2000, with Brigid Laffan and
Rory O'Donnell); The State of the European Union, Volume 5: Risks,
Reforms, Resistance and Revival (2000, edited with Maria Green
Cowles); International Relations and the European Union (2005, edited
with Christopher Hill); and The European Unions Roles in international
Politics: Concepts and Analysis (2006, edited with Ole Elgstrm). He is
currently working on the early stages of a project dealing with the European Union and international regimes, and has just published (with Steven McGuire): The European Union and the United States: Competition
and Convergence in the Global Arena. Basingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan,
2008. (m.h.smith@lboro.ac.uk)
PRADEEP TANEJA lectures on Chinese politics, political economy and
international relations in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the
University of Melbourne, Australia. He lived and worked in China for
many years and is a fluent Mandarin speaker. His current research interests include Chinas energy security policy, the rise of China as a regional

AUTHORS

13

and global power and government-business relations in China. He also

works on Chinas relations with the European Union and India. Pradeep
earned his PhD in Chinese political economy at Griffith University,
Brisbane and his MA at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is
the author of Hong Kong and Australia: Towards 1997 and Beyond
(Griffith University, 1994) and co-author of China Since 1978: Reform,
Modernisation and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics (Longman,
1998). He has also contributed to the Dictionary of the Politics of the
Peoples Republic of China (Routledge, 1998), Encyclopedia of Modern
China (Charles Scribners Sons, 2009) and many other publications.
(ptaneja@unimelb.edu.au)
NATEE VICHITSORASATRA is a diplomatic officer at the Department of
European Affairs in the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He recently
completed a doctoral research project at Loughborough University under
the supervision of Professor Michael H. Smith. His thesis was focused
towards international political economy theory, interregionalism and the
evolution of cooperation between the European Union and East Asia .
Natee undertook his undergraduates studies in International Relations at
Chulalongkorn University ( Thailand ) and completed a MA in International Political Economy at Warwick University in 1999. Natee also
worked as a journalist for The Nation newspaper (Thailand) where he
specialised in politics, corruption, technology, and social issues. He continues to contribute to The Nation as a guest columnist on a regular
basis. His wider academic research interests include international political
economy theory, the global information society, and external relations of
the EU. (natee@natee.org)
GEORG WIESSALA is a Professor of International Relations in the School
of Education and Social Science of the University of Central Lancashire
in Preston, UK. He is the Research Co-ordinator for UCLans Faculty of
Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS). Georg has co-edited The
European Union: Annual Review, from 1999 to 2003, and acted as a
Committee member of UACES, the University Association for Contemporary European Studies in London. He teaches on European Studies,
International Criminology and International Relations courses in both
the Asia-Pacific and Europe, and is holding visiting teaching positions in
the European Institute for Asian Studies in Brussels and the Centre for
European Studies of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. His main
research interests revolve around European Union Foreign Policy, Hu-

14

EUROPEAN STUDIES

man Rights, EU Relations with the Asia-Pacific, Australia and New

Zealand, and the Asia-Europe Meeting. His most recent book publications include: The European Union and Asian Countries
(UACES/Sheffield Academic Press, 2002), Re-Orienting the Fundamentals: Human Rights and New Connections in EU-Asia Relations
(Ashgate, 2006) and Reflections and Reorientations: EU-Asia Dialogue
in the New Millennium (Rodopi, October 2007). He is currently working
on a single-authored book on the role of educational exchange and
knowledge-transfer in the East-West dialogue. (gwiessala@uclan.ac.uk)
CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS is currently Head of Politics in the Department
of Education and Social Science, University of Central Lancashire, having previously worked at the Universities of Amsterdam, 1988; Helsinki,
1988-89 and Cork, 1989-91. In the year 2000, he was awarded an Honorary Degree in Political Science by the Institute of Socio-Political
Research, RAN and made a member of the Russian Academy of Political
Science, Moscow. He has served as Secretary of the British Association
for Slavonic and East European Studies from 1998-2001. He has published articles in Revolutionary Russia; Sociology of Health and Illness
and the Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics. His recent
books include Youth, Risk and Russian Modernity (Ashgate 2003); (ed.),
Sotsialnaia politika: Istoriia i sovremenost(Social Policy: Past and Present) (Udmurtskii gosudarstvennyi universitet, Izhevsk, 2005) and Casualties of Change: The rise and fall of the Russian welfare State (Ashgate,
forthcoming 2010). His other works include The Modernisation of
Russian health care: Challenges, policy, constraints in J.R. Smith (Birmingham) and M. Kangaspuro (Helsinki) (ed.), Modernisation in Russia
since 1900, (SKS Helsinki, Studia Fennica Historia 12 2006), pp. 206220; with Zoya Baranova, Zashchita prav detei i profilaktika sotsialnogo
sirotsva v postprestroechnoi Rossiii (The protection of child welfare and
the fate of social orphanages in post-Soviet Russia) Vestnik
Udmurtskogo universiteta: Seria Psikologoya I sotsialnaya pedagogika
2007 and with E. Luchinskaya), Developing and sustaining social work
education and training in Russia Lessons from a Tempus project in
Udmurtia in Matthias Brgel and Andreas Umland (ed.), Higher Education in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Eastern Europe III: Transition and
Stagnation at Post-Soviet Universities (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2007).
(cwilliams2@uclan.ac.uk)

AUTHORS

15

JOHN WILSON is A Professor of Strategy in the Management School OF

THE University of Liverpool. He has also worked at the Universities in
Manchester (where he was awarded his PhD in 1980), Leeds, Belfast,
Nottingham and Central Lancashire, as well as being an Adjunct Professor of Copenhagen Business School. His main interests are strategy and
structure in international business, knowledge transfer issues, management education and training, and international management and business
history. Apart from being executive co-editor of Business History, he has
published extensively in these fields, including the two leading textbooks
in management and business history, as well as a series of other books
and articles that have influenced research agendas in his chosen areas.
Over the next years, with collaborators in nine other European countries,
he is working on a project entitled Mapping Corporate Europe, which
aims to compare strategy, structure and performance across this Continent. (john.wilson@liv.ac.uk)
ZOU KEYUAN is Harris Professor of International Law at the Lancashire
Law School of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), United
Kingdom. He specializes in international law, in particular law of the sea
and international environmental law. Before joining UCLan, he worked
in Dalhousie University (Canada), Peking University (China), University
of Hannover (Germany) and National University of Singapore. He has
published over 50 referred English papers in more than 20 international
journals and his recent books include Law of the Sea in East Asia: Issues
and Prospects (London/New York: Routledge, 2005), Chinas Marine
Legal System and the Law of the Sea (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff,
2005), and Chinas Legal Reform: Towards the Rule of Law
(Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2006). He is member of Editorial
Boards of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (Martinus
Nijhoff), Ocean Development and International Law (Taylor & Francis),
Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy(Taylor & Francis), and
Chinese Journal of International Law (Oxford University Press), and
Advisory Board of the Chinese Oceans Law Review (Hong Kong: China
Review Culture Limited). (kzou@uclan.ac.uk)

EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 17-27

INTRODUCTION
Pradeep Taneja, Georg Wiessala and John Wilson
China is a continent, not just a country. It is a series of identities, some shared, some
differentiated, and some contradictory: modern, Confucian, authoritarian, democratic, free,
and restrained. Above all, China is a plural noun. (Rana Mitter 2008: 11)

There is, indeed, something plural about the relations between the
European Union (EU) and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Perhaps the best way to encapsulate this phenomenon is by reference to the
concepts of contradiction and duality, challenge and opportunity - of
being, at the same time, fundamentally the same, and yet essentially
different.
On the one hand, views on China, more often than not, fall prey to
headline-grabbing, media hype, as witnessed in the discussions about the
European Parliaments 2008 Sakharov Prize award to Hu Jia, a Chinese
human rights activist. Other, more recent, issues have concerned, for
example, the humanitarian and political fallout from the 2008 Sichuan
earthquake, the cancellation of the 2008 EU-China summit and the
problem of unsafe Chinese consumer products. At times, the glare of
publicity has been focused on matters as diverse as anti-dumping taxes
on Chinese candles, cyber-wars and virtual ghost-networks allegedly
attacking the West, Dalai Lama visits and German students throwing
shoes at the Chinese PM in Cambridge1 the list of incidents and issues
could easily be extended.
At the same time though, there is much more than just detail: the
EU-China relationship although at times on rocky roads is the most
1

Reported, e.g., in the Daily Telegraph, 7 February 2009, 18.

18

European Studies

wide-ranging and complex among all EU dialogues with Asian partners;

it certainly receives the most foreign-policy emphasis from the EU. Behind this lie some wider, equally binary, processes and perceptions. Some
of them can be explained by the mixture of admiration and revulsion so
emblematic of many European views of China in former ages. Others lie
in the way in which subject-matters such as freedom and democracy,
human rights, political sovereignty and religion can act as both accelerators and brakes in EU-China relations. Others still reflect different paths
to modernity, law, values and wealth. Behind most of them, we argue,
lies a deeper enigma shaping contemporary EU-China relations. This is
brought to the surface by exactly such issues as are discussed in the
pages of this book: rights to development, economics, regionalism, democracy, tolerance and control, dialogue and respect, contributions to
civilisations and interference in domestic matters.
The crux lies in the two almost diagonally opposing DinosaurViews2 of China, which are still in currency at the moment and if they
persist are in danger of obscuring the commonalities between Europe
and China. Fundamentally, both these views choose to assume a strong
bias, emphasising, respectively, elements of sameness and commonality and aspects of difference and strangeness between China and
Europe.
Mindful of the dangers of over-simplification, the first view can be
described to be wholeheartedly embracing Chinas right to finding her
future place in world affairs, through a method of peaceful rise. Seen
through this analytical prism, the PRC becomes a uniquely successful,
and increasingly assertive, muscle-flexing,3 example of a non-liberaldemocratic, authoritarian state under one-party rule; a socialism-withlocal-flavour system; a country, which achieves staggering economic
development, and superpower-status, in a short time, while retaining
state-control; a paradigm for other developing countries around the
world, especially on the African continent. In spite of perhaps just
because of promoting wealth-creation and socio-economic and cultural
rights over and ahead of civil and political ones, the country has pulled
millions of its citizens out of poverty and introduced significant legal and
institutional reform in an increasingly wealthy society. Within this soci2

Phrase borrowed from: Times Higher Education magazine, 22 January 2009: 26/7.
See, for instance: China tells Europe to Mind its Manners in Far Eastern Economic
Review, March 2009 and: A Time for Muscle-Flexing in the Economist, 21 March 2009: 29.
3

INTRODUCTION

19

ety, the forces of the New Left and the New-Right are vying for intellectual supremacy, influence and political predominance, over issues,
welfare the environment, the rule of law and the scope and optimum
pace of reform (Leonard 2008).
In stark contrast to this, the proponents of an alternative view frequently point to the China-threat: in this perspective, the PRC has mutated into angry China: an accidental empire4 and an aggressive pariahstate threatening both Taiwan and world peace; a country whose defence
expenditure rose by 17.6 per cent in 2008,5 which props up rogue-regimes in Sudan, North Korea and Burma6 and insists, unreasonably, on
its developing-nation-status; a violator of human and personal integrity
rights on a massive scale, which silences human rights advocates, plays
on colonial guilt, hides behind the Olympic spirit and Asian values to
suppress dissent and democracy.7 In this view China is a state which
eradicates autochthonous cultures in Tibet and elsewhere, stifles religious
freedoms and seeks to censure the internet (Ching 2008).
While many aspects of both these points of view can, at times, be
ideologically-motivated, and may be, at times, insufficiently backed-up by
data, they remain, more often than not, influential and persistent bones
of contention, as well as background issues.
A substantial proportion of the theory and political practice of current
EU-China relations is linked to the various interpretations of these disparate views. Concomitantly with this, there is a resurgence of interest in
the academic study of matters relating to Europes China strategy;
throughout 2008/09, both new Confucius Institutes and Chairs of EU-China
Relations have been cropping up on an ongoing basis, while the subject
has been debated at Academic Symposia around the globe.8 And, increasingly, European (and western) debates about how to engage, socialise,
contain and tie-in China are echoed in a Chinese mirror-discourse on

B. Emmott: Opinion, The Times, 22 May 2009; 34.

A. Willis, EU-Observer, 17 March 2009 (http://www.euobserver.com).
6
The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, in May 2009, over-shadowed the 2009 EU-China
Summit, see: http://euobserver.com/9/28135?print=1
7
See: I. Buruma: Culture is no Excuse [] in The Observer, 3 February 2008: 29.
8
One example is the new InBev-Baillet Latour Chair of EU-China Relations, at the
College of Europe in Brugge; recent EU-China related conferences included meetings in
Bristol in May 2009 (Europes China Strategy) and Groningen in December 2009 (Concord
or Conflict?).
5

20

European Studies

how best to manage the decline of the West and shape the world in an
Asian mould (Mahbubani 2007; Leonard 2008).
These perceptions are, of course, ultimately connected to wider discourses about new Great Games: what kind of superpower is China
becoming? Can the PRC perceive the EU as more than a mere counterbalance in its relations with the United States of America?9 What is
Chinas and the European Unions rightful place in global affairs? Which
lessons can be learned from the global economic downturn, and can
China lead on putting them into practice?10 How important are culture
and rights in the debates about politics and human rights? Who will this
century and the next one belong to? What is the most appropriate
way for the European Union to shape its relations with the PRC?
The attempts to resolve these questions, in turn, unfold against a
background of swift, unprecedented, change in China, characterised by
voracious demands for energy, the Chinese wish for market-economystatus, an increasing population imbalance, persistent wealth disparities
between coastal and inland provinces, the emergence of a new largely
conservative middle-class, the Chinese anti-secession legislation of
2005, an unprecedented expansion of higher education and progressive
environmental degradation to name but a few developments recently
commented on (e.g.: OCallaghan 2004; Gungwu and Wong 2007;
Crossick and Reuter 2007; Shambaugh et al 2008; Leonard 2008; Ching
2008).
The Chapters in this Book
On the one hand, Europe should not listen to Europeans who assume Europe
has all the answers for China as though it was somehow cloning Dolly the sheep,
because it does not; on the other hand, China should not listen to those Chinese
conservatives who believe that China is so different that it can only learn from
within. China is and does need to go through a process of enlightenment-style
thinking to underpin its future political, economic and social trajectory and to
rationalize the current contradictions of Marxist-Leninist thought with a freewheeling economy (Gary Hallsworth in Crossick and Reuter. 2007: 221)
9
See: Europes World, autumn 2008, (http://www.europesworld.org), the Economist,
21 March 2009: 15 and FEER, 1 May 2009 (http://www.feer.com).
10
Francis Smith Lessons from the East in Asian Affairs, March 2009: 6; World
Affairs 2001 (Special Issue).

INTRODUCTION

21

It is with these general comments and developments in mind that this

present volume seeks to gather the best of contemporary research on
EU-China relations, in order to offer both an overview of the current
intellectual landscape of the relationship, and to point to some of the key
strands which are set to shape future interaction between the two partners. It can be read in conjunction with a predecessor-volume on EUAsia Relations in this same series (Anderson and Wiessala 2007), and it
seeks to add to the academic analysis of EU-Asia relations in general.
The book is divided into three sections. The principal content and purpose of the first section is evident from its title: the Background of EUChina Relations and the Human Rights Dilemma.
In the first chapter of this book, Nicholas Rees provides a historical
overview of Chinas relations with three of the EUs biggest powers
Germany, Britain and France before examining the impact of those
encounters on contemporary relations. He gives particular attention to
understanding how China and its EU partners view each other and what
this means for the contemporary relationship. While he demonstrates
clearly that the relationship between the EU and China is a multifaceted
one, covering a whole gamut of areas and interests, he also reminds us of
the challenges that lie ahead.
In the subsequent chapter, Fraser Cameron surveys the evolving
status of EU-China relations by examining the contents of the various
policy papers or communications of the European Commission focusing on
China. He also assesses the impact and influence of the other EU institutions in shaping the EU-China relationship. In doing so, Cameron reveals an important shift in EU policy over the past two decades, which
has been evolving from assisting China in its development and reform
process to a focus on dealing with the challenges posed by its rise. His
chapter further examines the views of the European Parliament, which
frequently takes a more strident position than the Commission or the
Member States on issues such as human rights or arms sales to China.
In a broad analysis of the material, institutional, and ideational elements of the EU-China partnership, Natee Vichitsorasatra argues in the
third chapter that the EU has consistently opted for a bilateral strategy
with a priority on material interests in its relationship with China. Using
the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) as an example, he finds that there is
little evidence to suggest that the EU has pursued a multilateral strategy
with China. Describing the ASEM process as passive multilateralism,

22

European Studies

Vichitsorasatra nevertheless cautions that ASEM should not be considered a failure since its role has always been to stimulate and sustain
growth in bilateral interactions.
The chapter by Georg Wiessala offers seven diverse perspectives on
what may well be the thorniest issue in contemporary EU-China relations: the human rights question. The chapter examines the fundamental
ambiguities in Sino-European relations and points to the legacies of past
civilisational encounters. It proceeds to discuss how EU-China relations
can be conceptualised from the point of view of international relations
theory and intellectual discourse in China and Europe. It subsequently
analyses the role of ideas, identity-politics and perceptions in EUChina human rights discussions, and it examines how EU China foreign
policy can be understood to be constructed around some key elements
and frameworks. The chapter closes by emphasising the roles of intellectual exchange and knowledge-based co-operation and by offering a brief
assessment of the likely future course of EU-China debates over human
rights.
Finally, in the first section of this book, David Askews chapter is not
so much a tale of EU-China relations, more a critical examination of the
relationship between politics, sports and human rights. In China, where
sport has long been mobilized to construct narratives of national identity,
the nationalistic pride generated by sporting success has become increasingly important to the Party-state. Askew also reminds us that until the
mid-1970s, the European Commission saw economic development as a
precondition for the realization of human rights, rather than the current
position, which is to see the guarantee of human rights as a precondition
for development. This attempt by the EU to recreate itself as a normative power means that its relationship with China has been a troubled
one because Beijings official position today shares much in common
with the pre-mid-1970s European Commission.
The second section of this book, The Geopolitical Setting of EU-China
Interaction, deals with a number of important, global, facets of the contemporary EU-China relationship. It introduces into the frame of this
book the concepts of multi-polarity, complex inter-dependence, bi-multipolarity, and an in-depth analysis of a number of international partners
other than the European Union, whose relations with the Peoples Republic of China, nevertheless, constitute an important frame of reference
for Sino-EU contacts, such as India, Russia and the US.

INTRODUCTION

23

The main theme of Jennifer Cleggs chapter is how, in developing its

views and policies as regards the EU, China has developed a wider,
multi-polar, approach to international relations. One of the biggest
threats to this approach, of course, have been the unilateralist policies of
previous US administrations, while the widening trade gap between
China and the EU is a cause of major concern especially in a period of
acute economic difficulty. Above all, China has been trying to use the
EU as a buffer with the USA, demonstrating how the multi-polar policy
works in practice.
Rajendra K. Jain provides a fascinating insight into Indian perceptions of the evolving relationship between the EU and China. Starting
with an overview of Indian attitudes towards both the EU and China,
the chapter reveals the countrys concern about the US-orientation that
currently dominates international relations. Jain also makes it clear that
India fears being marginalized by both this trend and the EUs apparent
closeness to China. He then develops a series of policy-recommendations
for overcoming these threats, focusing especially on closer links between
India and the EU in the areas of trade relations, education and research.
In the subsequent chapter, Christopher Williams assesses how Russias links with the EU and China can be improved. Given the substantial border between Russia and China, as well as issues arising from
energy and arms trading, it is clear from this chapter that extensive efforts have been made since the 1980s to devise effective channels of
communication. While these efforts have to a large extent been successful, Williams also warns of potential future problems that could interrupt
the relationship. This reveals the constant fluidity in international relations, a theme that runs effectively throughout many other chapters in
this book.
In this vein, and using the concepts of complex interdependence and
bi-multilateralism as organising and evaluative analytical devices, Michael Smith and Huaixian Xie assess the complex relationships between
China, the EU and the US. The chapter focuses on two linked case studies, dealing with Chinas accession to the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) and the 2005 dispute over trade in textiles, demonstrating clearly
how these complexities create a major challenge for policy-makers. In
particular, the conclusion reveals that the concepts can also be applied to
many other areas, including arms embargoes, other security issues and
the environmental debate.

24

European Studies

Last but not least, for this second section of the book, Paul Lim
assesses in some detail the place of Taiwan in the EUs thinking, and in
EU-China relations. He focuses especially on the One China Policy,
adhered to by the EU in order to maintain good relations with the PRC.
After surveying an extensive amount of archival materials and data on
trade and investment between Taiwan and the EU, Lim demonstrates
that the Union has made every attempt to obviate the One China Policy,
without offending China. Indeed, Lim claims that, working through its
links with the EU, Taiwan has found a place on the international stage,
anticipating further progress in the near-future through further negotiations.
The third, and final, segment of this book aims to home in on a
number of key topics which have been selected for their potential to give
shape to contemporary EU-China relations, and to determine its immediate future. The section is entitled Issues, Policies and Perceptions in EU-China
Dialogue, a choice of title which is meant to hint at the potential of the
subject-areas chosen, not only to be the practical drivers of EU-China
dialogue, but also to function as important indicators of how the two
partners will view one another in the further course of the 21st Century.
This final part of the book does not lose sight of the role of ideas and
perceptions in EU-China relations. However, it enlarges the scope of the
investigation, in order to embrace some of the ways in which present and
future EU-China co-operation is rooted in a range of developments
pertaining to economics, law, security, energy, crime, media freedom and
maritime matters, to name only a few.
The section begins with an essay by Peter Anderson, revolving
around the situation of Chinese journalism, its freedom of manoeuvre
and the limitations imposed upon it in contemporary China. It places a
particular emphasis on the pressures generated by the impact of the
Internet, and on attempts by the Chinese leadership to police it, in the
year of the Beijing Olympics. In 2009, the year which marks the 20th
Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, Anderson investigates
the Chinese Governments perspective on media control and gate-keeping, with reference to national security, stability, political liberty and
education of Chinese students abroad. He offers a range of speculative
political scenarios on the future course and possible extension of journalistic freedoms in the PRC. In some areas, this chapter can be read in

INTRODUCTION

25

conjunction with the chapters about human rights, the Olympic Games
and the context of EU-China relations.
The following two chapters add to the analysis of the state of China
by means of economic evaluation. In the first chapter, Carlo Filippini,
following a thorough examination of the development of economic
relations between the EU and China, focuses mainly on Merchandise
Trade and the Trade in Services. Fillipini relates his analysis, on the one
hand, to the EUs trade deficit with China, and, on the other hand, to
issues of democratic reform in the PRC. He investigates both EU concerns over competition, corruption, regulation and product safety in
China, and analyses Chinese views on the question of Market-EconomyStatus (MES), protectionism and the EU nexus between economic matters and human rights developments. Moreover, Filippini calls for a more
open ranking in the EUs aims for its economic China policy, for the
clarification of competencies, and for a fuller understanding of issues of
language and culture when dealing with China. This latter view relates to
an overall theme of this volume, and it is echoed throughout a number
of other contributions.
The second chapter focusing on economics, by Valeria Gattai, builds
on the previous economic analysis, through her detailed analysis of the
impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) patterns in EU-China interaction. In her chapter, Gattai suggests a double-sided conceptualisation,
examining the EU and China in their respective, mutual, roles as host
and home economies. Gattais chapter is informed, on the one hand, by
a comprehensive analysis of the outward internationalisation of Chinese
enterprises since Dengs 1978 Open-Door approach, and with the goglobal policies implemented by successive Chinese leaderships. On the
other hand, her key concern lies with the physical, normative and psychological hurdles European firms often face when seeking to invest in
the PRC. Gattai, furthermore, seeks to point to other factors, such as
skills, intangible resources and capabilities. In pointing to the challenge,
for example, of cultural distance Gattais chapter relates to the arguments also put forward by other authors in this volume, among them by
Fraser Cameron, Carlo Fillipini and Nicholas Rees.
The final two chapters in this last section of the book are concerned
with different aspects of security in China-EU relations, particularly in
the areas of energy and maritime security. These chapters have been
included, not only because there appears to be a significant dearth of

26

European Studies

analyses of these matters in contemporary EU-China research, but also

on account of their significance for the mid-term future of the EU-China
relationship. The first chapter, by Pradeep Taneja, offers an extension of
the analytical frame of EU-China relations, by means of an analysis of
the role of energy security. The focus of his chapter is on Chinas search
for energy security and its impact on Chinas relations with the European
Union. The author outlines the key initiatives China has taken to ensure
regular and cost-effective supplies of oil and gas. Taneja argues that
Chinas search for energy security has led it to develop closer political
and military ties with a number of countries in Africa, which have traditionally relied on Europe for investment and development assistance.
This is seen by many European politicians and EU officials as undermining their long-term efforts to improve the quality of governance and the
respect for human rights in those countries. While Chinas search for
energy security does cause some difficulties in EU-China relations,
Taneja suggests that this also provides an opportunity for the two sides
to engage in a constructive dialogue on climate change and alternative
sources of energy.
The final chapter in the section on Issues Policies and Perceptions stays
within the area of security relations and highlights the issue of maritime
security in the East and regions of high strategic importance, such as the
East and South China Seas and the Straits of Malacca. The author,
Keyuan Zou, offers a comprehensive analysis of the maritime legal instruments and policies in this area. He is one of the first observers to
connect these to Chinas relations with the EU, examining which lessons
the two world players can learn from one another. Keyuan Zou relates
his investigation to questions of energy demand and terrorism, security
of the sea lanes and trade, criminal law, weapons of mass destruction and
piracy, all of which were newly-resurgent issues in 2009. His examination
is embedded in the wider contexts of the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) and of relevant EU experience in maritime
security. The author offers some in-depth case-studies, contributing to a
perspective which is informed by international law, practical examples
and the details of Chinese policy-formation in this field. In looking at the
issue of sovereignty and the perceptions of EU, US and Chinese maritime diplomacy, Keyuan Zou continues the analysis of an important
strand of thought which is appearing throughout this volume.

INTRODUCTION

27

Taken together, the fifteen chapters in this collection offer a large

variety of contemporary approaches to the critical examination of EUChina relations in 2009. By the time we were putting the finishing
touches to this collection, the 4th June 2009 had crept up on us, and
with it, the 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.
It is with the victims and continuing implications of that act of violence
in mind that we offer for further scrutiny and development, the diverse
findings of the researchers assembled in this volume. Around this poignant anniversary, the world was, once again, mindful of the awesome
power of China, then as now, and of the challenges facing both her
current leaders and the EU. In summer 2009, the media and the academic debate alike, in both China and Europe were thus newly alive with
speculation about whether, and in what ways, China had changed since
then, and where the country would be heading in the space of the next
twenty years.
Although it is, of course, difficult to provide precise answers to these
questions, the editors of this volume hope that the chapters which follow
will provide some of the viewpoints and tools required by present and
future observers to understand the ever-more dynamic, fascinating and
challenging relationship between the Peoples Republic of China and the
European Union.
References
Anderson, Peter and Wiessala, Georg (eds) 2007. The European Union and Asia
Reflections and Re-orientations. Series European Studies, Vol. 25. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.
Andreosso-OCallaghan, B. et al. 2004. Economic Change and Political Development in China [] in: Journal of Contemporary China 13(39): 203-222.
Ching, Frank. 2008. China: The Truth about its Human Rights Record, London:
Rider
Crossick Stanley and Reuter, Etienne. 2007. China-EU A Common Future. London: World Scientific.
Leonard, Mark. 2008 What Does China Think? London: Harper Collins.
Li Jinshan. 2007. Governance in Crossick, Stanley and Reuter, Etienne (eds.)
China-EU A Common Future, London: World Scientific: 215-227.
Mahbubani, Kishore. 2007. The New Asian Hemisphere. New York: Public Affairs
Wang, Gungwu and Wong, John. 2007. Interpreting Chinas Development, London:
World Scientific.
World Affairs. 2001. Special Issue: China: A Focus, October-December 2001.

THE CONTEXT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS AND

THE HUMAN RIGHTS DILEMMA

EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 31-46

EU-CHINA RELATIONS:
HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES
Nicholas Rees
Abstract
This chapter offers and in-depth examination of the origins and the
development of EU-China relations, in the context of the EU-China
Strategic Partnership. The chapter looks at how contemporary, bilateral, Member State relations have formed the background to the
emergence of EU policies with regard to the PRC. It places a particular focus on offering a contribution which can help in our understanding of how the actors in the EU and in China view each other.
The chapter examines how perceptions which shape the contemporary EU-China relationship have been influenced by the legacies of
past encounters.
Introduction
The rise of China and its growing role in international affairs provides
both challenges and opportunities for the European Union and its Member States. The challenges for the EU lie in understanding and working
with China. Economic relations, reflecting trade and European investments in China, tend to dominate the contemporary relationship, although other issues are increasingly on the agenda. The economic relationship also makes it more difficult for the EU to develop a coherent
policy towards China, as those EU Member States with significant economic interests in China are unlikely to agree to a more comprehensive
EU policy towards China that may damage their economic relations. The
challenge for China is to maintain its strong economic and trading relationship with the EU and its Member States while ensuring that any
potentially divisive issues such as human rights, Tibet and Taiwan do not

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Nicholas Rees

damage the development of these relations. It appears that China would

like to have a closer relationship with the EU, especially if it had the
effect of dividing Europe and the United States and provided a means of
balancing US interests. The US and the EU have been supportive of
integrating China into the global system, hoping that this will ensure its
commitment to international institutions and bring about domestic political and social change in China (Shambaugh 2005a: 58).
Early Engagements and Contemporary Bilateral Member State Relations
The fascination with China is not a new phenomenon in Europe and
reflects a past that has included many encounters with China, some of
which shape the contemporary relationship. Europe and China have been
intermittently engaged in relations since as early as 1514, when the Portuguese first arrived in China via Macau (Yahuda 2008: 13). The following analysis focuses only on the German, British and French experiences,
highlighting how past relations have influenced recent bilateral relations
and what this means for the development of the EU-China relationship.
Sino-German Relations
German involvement in China dates back to the 1700s, and its commercial relations today reflect those early experiences and encounters with
China. Germany is also Chinas largest trading partner in the EU and its
economic interests in China are considerable with most of the larger
German companies such as Siemens and Volkswagen present in China.
In its earlier involvement, Germany, like Britain and France in the midnineteenth century, saw opportunities to advance trade and territory in
China. Formal relations were established by Prussia with China in 1861,
through the first Sino-German Treaty. In pursuing its links with China,
Germany faced tough competition from the British. In 1890 the
Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was established and by the end of the 1890s
Germany had gained considerably in economic importance. In 1897
Germany invaded Qingdao and established the Jiaozhou Bay colony
(Kiautschou Bay), thereby providing a naval base and opening up economic opportunities. The intensity of Sino-German relations between the
Boxer Rebellion (1900-1901) and World War I varied, although German
influences and interests were apparent in China. In 1917 China declared
war on Germany and was able to regain some of its earlier concessions
that had been forced on it in 1897. Following the Treaty of Versailles,

EU-CHINA RELATIONS

33

and during the 1920s, Sino-German trade grew with a number of German armament companies establishing links in China. This was reinforced and intensified following the rise to power of the Nazi Party in
1933, with Germany concluding a treaty with China in 1934 On the
Exchange of Chinese Raw Materials and Agricultural Products for German Industrial and Other Products. The relationship, however, faltered
following the outbreak of second Sino-Japanese war in 1937 and the
increasing pro-Japanese line followed by Germany. In 1941, following
the attack on Pearl Harbour, China joined forces with the allies and
declared war on Germany.
The ensuing legacy of the earlier period and the division of Germany
after World War II meant that Chinas relations with Germany have
always been relatively good with less baggage from the past impacting
on the relationship. Germany (then the German Federal Republic) established diplomatic relations with China in 1972 with the aim of underpinning its commercial relations and supporting German companies doing
business in China. This involved an increasing range of bilateral visits,
including annual visits by the German Chancellor to China, as well as the
development of further systematic cooperation. As with the other EU
states, relations between Germany and China dipped after Tiananmen
Square, but were quickly placed back on track reflecting the importance
of the commercial relationship (Stumbaum 2007: 60). Germany, along
with France, has been a strong advocate of removing the EU arms embargo on China. It has also been cautious about criticising Chinas record
on human rights, supporting the EUs approach of constructive engagement.
The relationship between China and Germany hit rocky waters following a private meeting between the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Dalai Lama in September 2007. This was in marked contrast
to the visit by the Chancellor to China the previous August, where she
was warmly welcomed. The meeting with the Dalai Lama annoyed the
Chinese, temporarily leading to a drop to almost freezing point in relations and the cancellation of a number of meetings.1 It also led to criticism from within Germany by a powerful German industrial lobby led
by Jrgen Thumann. The Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats (CDU), including the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Stein1
Pressure Growing on Merkel to Fix Squabble with China, Spiegelonline,
27/11/07 http://www.spiegel.de (accessed 28/01/09)

34

Nicholas Rees

meier (SPD) were also critical of the Chancellors actions. This incident
serves to highlight the dilemma for states such as Germany, who find it
difficult to balance economic interests with issues such as Tibet and
human rights.
Sino-British Relations
Britain is the fourth largest exporter of goods to China in Europe and
second in terms of imports from China (Stumbaum 2007: 66). The importance of China to Britain today reflects not only recent developments
but also a considerable history of relations dating back as early as 1637
when Captain John Wendell arrived in Macau and attempted to establish
trading relations with China. These early attempts failed in the face of
opposition from both the Portuguese and the Ming Dynasty (13881644). During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), British trade developed
with China, although the relationship was often considered highly unequal. The Treaty of Nanjing, signed in August 1842, brought to an end
the first Opium War (1939-42), and led to the acquisition of Hong Kong
as a crown colony.
This was a highly significant development and one that has had a
considerable impact on the development of British relations with China.
Foreign involvement in China later led to the Boxer rebellion, once again
prompting foreign military intervention and suppression of the rising by
a coalition of states, which included Britain. On the Chinese side this left
a lasting impact, with many considering it as imperial aggression and
national shame that has continued to impact on the development of
Chinese foreign policy. Following successful military cooperation during
World War II, where British and Chinese troops fought together against
Japan, the emergence of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in 1949,
presented a fresh set of challenges for British foreign policy.
The British government recognised the PRC as the legitimate government of China, which led to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations
during the 1950s, first with the appointment of a charg daffaires in Beijing
(1950), and later the appointment of a Chinese charg daffaires in London (1954). It was, however, only in 1972 that full diplomatic relations
were established. As early as 1950 trade matters were of growing importance to British companies leading them to form the Group of 48 (companies), which is now the China-Britain Business Council and the SinoBritish Trade Council (1954).

EU-CHINA RELATIONS

35

It could be argued that it was not until 1984, with the Sino-British
Joint Declaration, which led to the return of Hong Kong to Chinese
sovereignty in 1997 that the injustices of the past were addressed and
that relations with China were placed on a better footing. The importance that Britain attaches to its relations with China is reflected in the
fact that the UK government established in November 2003 a China
Task Force, which is chaired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The
task force covers seven areas of possible cooperation and includes
among its members a mix of business leaders, academics, and politicians.2
Relations between Britain and China intensified after May 2004, when
Prime Minister Blair and Premier Wen Jiabao signed a statement on the
establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership and agreed to
hold annual summits.3 This has been exemplified in the intensity of
diplomatic visits, with the visit of Premier Wen Jiabao to Britain in September 2006 and both the British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary
each making two visits to China in 2008. It is also evident in the range of
institutional channels for communication, which include the summit
meetings and task forces, as well as the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue, sector specific dialogues, and the UK-China Human
Rights Dialogue.
These are mirrored on the Chinese side by bodies such as the UK
Task Force. Most recently, in 2009, the UK Government published a
new strategy document on The UK and China: A Framework for Engagement in which it identifies why China matters, the key challenges and
the UK response. It is suggested that China matters to the UK in a number of areas, including in terms of British prosperity, globalisation, climate change, development, international security and the international
system. The document identified three key elements of British foreign
policy towards China: getting the best for the UK from Chinas growth,
fostering Chinas emergence as a responsible global player, and promoting sustainable development, modernisation and internal reform in
China.
In respect to each of these areas, the paper outlines more detailed
targets and deliverables. In seeking to achieve these targets the UK has
2

See http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk for further details on the task force.

UK bilateral relations with China, http://ukinchina.fco.uk/en/working-withchina/bilateral-relations
3

36

Nicholas Rees

developed a strong diplomatic presence in China, including an embassy

in Beijing, Consulates General in Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou and
Hong Kong plus offices of the China-Britain Business Council. In addition to an array of high-level bilateral meetings, the UK also works
through the EU, UN and with the USA. The new strategy document
does refer to the EU and other partners in the EU, although the focus is
largely on the UK response to China reflecting the importance of China
to the UK and its continuing pursuit of its own commercial interests.
Sino-French Relations
French engagement in China followed a similar pattern to that of other
European states, with early interest in and fascination with China in the
1600s and 1700s being replaced in the nineteenth century by a desire to
gain overseas colonies and territories. By 1844, with the Treaty of
Whampoa, France won from China the same type of concessions as their
British counterparts. It later seized Guanzhouwan as a treaty port and
gained concessions in Shanghai. As with Britain, France gained further
concessions and engaged in military endeavours during the second
Opium War, the Sino-French War and in French Indo-China. These
engagements left both a colonial legacy, as well as a deeper understanding of China, thereby providing the basis for the development of contemporary Sino-French relations. In the post-World War II era, France
was one of the first European states to establish diplomatic relations
with the Peoples Republic of China in January 1964, arising out of de
Gaulles recognition of the PRC. The relationship, however, was at times
tempestuous, with various incidents leading to confrontations with
China. In particular, the sale of military weapons (Mirage 2000-5s and La
Fayette-class frigates) to Taiwan in the 1990s, angered the Chinese government and led to the temporary closure of the French Consulate-General in Guangzhou. In 1997, France sought to establish a strategic partnership with China in an attempt to ramp-up its relations and develop
further commercial opportunities. France is the second largest EU exporter of goods to China, as well as being the fourth largest EU investor
in China, so it has a considerable stake in developing and building on
this relationship. It has also sought to promote a greater understanding
of China in France, through events such as in 2004 a year of Chinese
culture, as well as high-level diplomatic visits to and from China, including the French President and the Chinese Premier.The predominant

EU-CHINA RELATIONS

37

focus of many of these activities and visits has been on developing economic relations and trade. Notable examples of major contracts awarded
to French companies include the sale of Airbus planes to China and
cooperation in areas such as energy and information technology. The
relationship, however, has also had its problems. In early 2008 there
were significant public protests in Paris during the Olympic torch relay
about human rights in China and the issue of Tibet. This led to protests
in China, including a campaign by the Chinese to boycott the French
hypermarket Carrefour, as well as warnings from the Chinese government that Sino-French relations could be damaged by such incidents. In
response to this situation, both the French and Chinese governments
sought to calm the situation. An indication of how seriously the French
government took the situation was that President Sarkozy wrote a letter
of sympathy to the Chinese athlete who had carried the Olympic torch in
Paris, which was delivered in person by the President of the French
Senate. However, Sarkozys own meeting with the Dalai Lama in December 2008 had detrimental effects on Sino-French relations, with the
Chinese cancelling the EU-China summit that France was meant to have
hosted as part of its EU Presidency.
The EU and China: Developing a Multi-Faceted Relationship
The EU and China are now engaged in cooperation on a number of
levels, including on international and bilateral issues, reflecting the growing complexity and density of the relations. This reflects the EUs objective of trying to move away from a relationship largely based on economic and commercial interests, towards a more strategic partnership
based on a comprehensive set of relations between the EU and China.
The partnership has also been increasingly institutionalised and formalised, ensuring a continuous dialogue and stream of visitors between
China and the European Union (Men 2008). It has been variously described as a long-term relationship, a comprehensive partnership, a
maturing partnership, a strategic and enduring relationship and closer
partners (Dai 2007). Since the late 1990s, there has been a profusion of
new strategy papers and communications published by the European
Commission, reflecting the increasing levels of EU-China engagement
and activity (see Chapter by Cameron). The titles of these papers are
important as they indicate how the relationship has been evolving, at
least from the European Commissions viewpoint.

38

Nicholas Rees

The overall theme has been one of engagement, linked to development of a strategic partnership that is maturing based on shared interests
and challenges. On the Chinese side, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
response to the 2003 Commission paper published its own strategy paper, Chinas EU Policy Paper, in October 2003. The paper identified
the EU as a major force in the world and one that will play an increasingly important role in both regional and international affairs (MFA
2003, 1). It suggests that the two sides share some common interests,
including support for a strong multi-lateral (or multi-polar) international
system. The paper identifies the objectives of Chinas EU strategy as
being: closer political ties with the EU, continuing economic cooperation
and integration with the EU, and more people to people exchanges to
increase learning from each other. It notes, however, given the differences in historical background, cultural heritage, political system and
economic development level, it is natural that the two sides have different views or even disagree on some issues.
The EU and China are increasingly engaged in a multi-faceted relationship across areas that include trade and aid, human rights, security
and international cooperation. It is, however, trade that dominates the
relationship, with other issues arising on a periodic basis and providing
the basis for dialogue and progress.4 In trade terms, the European Union
is Chinas largest market and China is the EUs fourth largest market. In
2007, the EU imported 231 billion worth of goods from China, while it
only exported 72 billion in goods to it.5 In this trading relationship, the
EU is the primary supplier of technology and goods to China in comparison to the USA. Arising out of nature of this relationship, the EU has
suffered a significant trade deficit with China amounting to 159 billion
in 2007. In 2007, European companies invested 1.8 billion in China,
considerably less than in 2006 (6.2 billion), with Germany being the
largest investor followed by the Netherlands, the UK and France. This
investment is not simply in manufacturing but also includes R&D, highlighting the importance of China to large European companies. However, China is also investing in Europe by directly manufacturing prod4
The EU is also a significant provider of development assistance in China, which is
administered through the Commission Delegation in Beijing.
5
EU-China Trade in Facts and Figures, 23 September 2008 http://europa.eu
/rpid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference= MEMO/08/580&format=H (accessed
28/01/2009)

EU-CHINA RELATIONS

39

ucts close to the market, especially in Central and Eastern Europe

(Verganon 2007: 14).
Underlying these statistics, however, is a somewhat more complicated
trade relationship in which a small number of the larger EU states are
the prime traders with China as discussed earlier. The trade deficit has
been the subject of increasing high-level discussions between the EU and
China (Vergeron 2007: 7). European companies have encountered trade
barriers in trying to access Chinese markets (especially services) and have
found it difficult to overcome these barriers (Godement 2008). As a
result, China is the subject of a significant number of trade defence
investigations and the EU has a large number of anti-dumping measures
in force against Chinese imports. Similarly, there have been claims by
Chinese companies that the EU has been protectionist toward Chinese
goods and investments.
Outside of trade, the issue of human rights has been a continuing
problem in the EU-China relationship, as well as more broadly for the
EU in Asia (Anderson and Wiessala 2007).6 The EU has a strong commitment in its foreign policy outlook to upholding human rights, as
reflected in its enlargement negotiations with accession states, third party
agreements and broadly in its European Security Strategy. In its 1995
China Strategy Paper the EU Commission stated that human rights were
integral to EU foreign policy. The EU has previously condemned regimes that have a poor record of upholding human rights, as well as
imposing sanctions against a number of countries known to be violating
human rights, such as Myanmar and Zimbabwe. In the case of China,
however, the EU has changed its position from one of being openly
critical of China, as typified in the annual support for a resolution against
China in the UN Human Right Commission, to one of trying to engage
China on this difficult issue. In part the change of position represents a
broader EU engagement with China, in a belief that this is more likely to
achieve change through a human rights dialogue, as well as recognition
that some of the larger Member States prefer to pursue human rights
issues on a bilateral basis. The issue of human rights also provides an
interesting example of where the European Parliament has been more
critical of China than the EUs own Member States.

[editors note]: see also the chapter by Georg Wiessala in this volume.

40

Nicholas Rees

In terms of traditional security matters, there is a limited degree of

direct cooperation between the EU and China, which is hardly surprising
given their geographical distance and different foreign policy orientations. It does not feature as an aspect of the EU Country Strategy Paper,
although EU and Chinese leaders at their summit meetings have discussed security issues. For example, following the seventh EU-China
summit (2004), a joint declaration on non-proliferation and arms control
was issued with the two powers committing to work together to
strengthen the international non-proliferation regime (Men 2008: 9). It
does, however, also underlie some of the discussions in other forums
where the EU and China meet including at the United Nations, and
through regional cooperation, such as in the ASEAN Regional Forum
and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) (Rees 2008).
The partners also meet in other regional bodies, such as the Council
for Security and Cooperation in Asia Pacific (CSCAP). In these various
organisations and forums both traditional and non-traditional security
issues are discussed and some common actions agreed. In the areas of
soft security, which includes issues of particular concern to the EU such
as illegal immigration, transnational crime, contagious diseases, energy,
environment and sustainable development, there are possibilities for
cooperation (Shambaugh 2005a: 15). In practice, there are also instances
of bilateral security cooperation between China and states such as Germany, France and the UK, including exchanges of military personnel,
high level visits and some joint military exercises. A major limitation in
this relationship remains the 1989 Arms Embargo, which limits the sale
of military equipment by European firms to China. The lifting of this
embargo, which has been advocated by France and Germany, has been
opposed by states such as Denmark and Sweden.7 The possible lifting of
any such embargo is also likely to anger the United States and Japan,
which continue to see Chinas military growth as a threat, especially to
Taiwan. This ongoing issue is a cause of concern in China and limits the
possibilities for further developing cooperation in the security arena.

7
The lifting of the arms embargo has also been opposed by the European Parliament.

EU-CHINA RELATIONS

41

EU and Chinese Views of Each Other

The relationship between the European Union and China has been
shaped by past historical encounters, the contemporary nature of the two
political systems and their interests in the international system. This is
reflected in their complex views of each other that influence the potential
for the development of a further comprehensive relationship. The European Unions vision of its role in the world is very much as a post-modern actor committed to supporting the development of democracy, good
governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights. In its 2003
European Security Strategy the EU made a commitment to developing
strategic partnerships with a number of states, including China, reflecting
its desire to strengthen its role in international affairs.8
The dilemma for the EU is that, while the European Security Strategy
aims to position the EU as a global player, much of the EUs foreign
policy is focused on the states that border the European Union. China is
physically distant from Europe and is not an immediate security consideration. This means that there is a tendency for the EU to view China
largely in economic terms, given that much of the day-to-day relationship
concerns trade matters. This view is reinforced by the nature of the EU
as an actor with the Commission leading in the economic arena. It is
more likely that political and security matters concerning China will be
handled by the EU Council of Ministers (and its Secretariat), which
means that some of the more thorny and sensitive issues in the EUChina relationship are subject to the machinations of member state discussions. The challenge lies in the fact that the EUs Member States are
likely to pursue their own particular national economic interests in China.
The EUs Member States are well aware that aside from supporting the
development of commercial relations, they must also be seen by their
own citizens to be addressing some of the broader issues of concern,
such as Tibet, treatment of ethnic minorities, the use of the death penalty
in China, state control of the media and freedom of expression. The
discussion of such issues in the public realm in EU Member States may
satisfy domestic opinion, but it tends to alienate the Chinese authorities,
who often feel misunderstood and have engaged in retaliatory measures
when offended. At elite political and officials levels there are clearly
8
The other states indicated as strategic partners in this document included Canada,
India, Japan, and Russia.

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Nicholas Rees

individuals who are well informed and knowledgeable about the EU and
China respectively (Algieri 2008: 67-69). However, public knowledge and
understanding of China is relatively limited, reflecting the geographical
and cultural distances that exist between Europe and China (Crossick
and Reuer 2007).
The effectiveness of the EU as an actor is also questionable and the
Chinese authorities are well aware of this. At the EU level, the Member
States do engage in cooperation by sharing information and coordinating
action and in most instances the EU as a group has more influence than
a single member state (Keukeleire and MacNaughton 2008). Individual
states do, of course, pursue their own economic interests and commercial relations with China. This is inevitable given the importance of the
Chinese market, which has a huge potential for European companies and
which cannot be ignored. This is always likely to make it difficult to
develop a more comprehensive EU view and policy towards China and
makes it easy for the Chinese authorities to exert pressure on particular
Member States when they feel it is to their advantage and when they
want to reward/sanction behaviour.
Nevertheless, as indicated later in this chapter and elsewhere in this
book (see Chapter by Cameron), the EU Member States have coordinated their actions and agreed common approaches towards China on
very specific issues. For example, the issue of intellectual property theft
is a major concern for many European companies and a coordinated EU
approach is more likely to achieve results in China. It is also the type of
issue which the EU through the Commission can pursue in the WTO
and through bilateral links with China. As a result, in January 2009 the
EU and China signed an agreement on intellectual property rights, highlighting the success of a unified EU approach to China.
The Chinese view (or views) of Europe needs to be placed and understood in the broader context of Chinas growing role in international
affairs. In the international system China is striving to establish its position as a major international player or great power. It aims to do this
through a policy of cooperative engagement and the use of soft power
within the international economic system (Narramore 2008: 90; also Gill
and Huang 2006).9 On its immediate borders it has to contend with
9
This initially began under Deng Xiaoping, with the Five Principles of Peaceful
Co-existence, and was then replaced by the new Security Concept, which emphasised
cooperation as an alternative to the Cold War environment.

EU-CHINA RELATIONS

43

Russia, India and other East Asian states, while its relationship with the
United States still remains problematic especially in relation to Taiwan.
Against this backdrop, the European Union is seen as relatively benign
and a potential partner in international relations (Crossick and Reuter
2007: 4). In this context, Chinese political leaders and intellectuals have
diverse views and understandings of Europe (Leonard 2008). They are,
however, engaged in trying to more fully understand Europe and, at the
same time, build an understanding in Europe and elsewhere of China
(Gill and Huang 2008).
There are clearly possibilities for cooperation with the EU and Chinese leaders often find the EUs approach to international relations more
acceptable than that of the United States or Russia. Equally, however,
there is recognition that the EU and United States do work in close
cooperation in organisations such as NATO and on issues such as international terrorism. China has also drawn some lessons from the EU
experience with regional cooperation and has committed itself to closer
regional cooperation in Asia through organisations such as the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation and ASEAN, including ASEAN + 1 (China),
ASEAN + 3 (China, Japan and South Korea), the ASEAN Regional
Forum and ASEM (see Shambaugh 2005b). Chinese political leaders
have a good understanding of how the European Union works and the
role of its Member States than perhaps it is given credit by many Europeans (Sandschneider 2002: 44).
Conclusion
In looking to the future, the challenge for the EU and China is to try to
develop a more long term strategic partnership that enables them to
work more closely together in the international system. There are undoubtedly some similarities between China and the European Union
with both committed to some form of multilateralism, the rule of law,
supportive of regional cooperation and the pursuit of economic and
political objectives by peaceful means. But there are also significant
challenges. First, as is evident from this analysis, the EU is far from a
composite international actor with a clear focus on what it wants to
achieve in its relations with China. China and the EU are very different
types of actors, coming from differing political and ideological traditions
that may make cooperation more difficult to achieve (Scott 2008). Second, the EUs own Member States are committed to pursuing their own

44

Nicholas Rees

economic interests in China, reflecting national priorities and domestic

considerations (Heron 2007). As suggested, this can in some cases lead
to competition for contracts and limit the willingness of states to commit
to developing a stronger EU China policy. Third, China views Europe as
economically important, but still politically (and militarily) weak and as
an international actor that lacks a strong longer-term vision (Vergeron
2007). The failure of the EU to reach agreement on lifting the arms
embargo against China highlighted the inability of the EU to develop a
common position and the continuing influence of the United States and
Japan, who lobbied against lifting the embargo. Finally, China as an
emergent or rising power is committed to developing its relations with its
immediate neighbours through peaceful cooperation. All of this militates
against an emergent China-Europe axis and any attempt by the EU and
China to balance the United States and work more closely together on
international issues such as Iraq, Sudan and Climate change (Shambaugh
2005a; Narramore 2008). It also points to the continuing importance of
the US-EU relationship, where there are greater similarities in values,
cultural and historical backgrounds, political traditions and bilateral
relations (Men 2008: 17).

References
Algieri, Franco. 2008. Its the system that matters: institutionalization and
making of EU policy toward China in Shambaugh, David, Eberhard Sandschneider and Zhou Hong, (eds.) 2008. China-Europe Relations: perceptions,
policies and prospects. London: Routledge: 63-83.
Anderson, Peter and Georg Wiessala. 2007. The European Union and Asia: Reflection and Reorientation. Amsterdam and New York, NY: Rodopi.
Balm, Richard. 2008. A European Strategy towards China? The Limits of
Integration in European Foreign Policy Making in Balme, Richard and
Brian Bridges (eds.), Europe-Asia Relations: Building Multilateralisms.
Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan: 125-44.
Balme, Richard and Brian Bridges, (eds.). 2008. Europe-Asia Relations: Building
Multilateralisms. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Barysch, Katinka with Charles Grant and Mark Leonard. 2005. Embracing the
Dragon: The EUs Partnership with China. London: Centre for European Reform.
Casarini, Nicola and Costanza Musu, (eds.). 2007. European Foreign Policy in an
Evolving International System. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Crossick, Stanley and Etienne Reuter, (eds.). 2007. China-EU: A Common Future.
New Jersey: World Scientific.
Dai, Xiudian. 2007. EU-China Relations in the New World Order: An Uncertain Partnership in the Making. Paper presented at the 57th PSA Annual
Conference, 11-13 April.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). 2009. The UK and China: A Framework for Engagement. London: Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Gill, Bates and Yanzhong Huang. 2006. Sources and Limits of Chinese Soft
Power in Survival 48(2): 17-36.
Godement, Franois. 2008. The EU and China: A Necessary Partnership in
Grevi, Giovanni and lvaro de Vasconcelos (eds.) Partnerships for Effective
Multilateralism: EU Relations with Brazil, China, India and Russia. Paris: EU
Institute for Security Studies, Chaillot Paper No. 109, May: 59-76
Grant, Charles with Katinka Barysch. 2008. Can Europe and China Shape a New
World Order? London: Centre for European Reform.
Grevi, Giovanni and lvaro de Vasconcelos (eds.). 2008. Partnerships for Effective
Multilateralism: EU Relations with Brazil, China, India and Russia. Paris: EU
Institute for Security Studies, Chaillot Paper No. 109, May.
Heron, Tony. 2007. European Trade Diplomacy and the Politics of Global
Development: Reflections on the EU-China Bra Wars Dispute in Government and Opposition 42(2): 190-214.
Keukeleire and Jennifer MacNaughtan. 2008. The Foreign Policy of the European
Union. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Leonard, Mark. 2008. What does China Think? London: Fourth Estate.
Men, Jing. 2008. EU-China Relations: From Engagement to Marriage? Brugge: College of Europe, EU Diplomacy Papers, No. 7.
Mller, Kay. 2002. Diplomatic Relations and Mutual Strategic Perceptions:
China and the European Union in The China Quarterly 169: 10-32.
Narramore, Terry. 2008. China and Europe: Engagement, Multipolarity and
Strategy in The Pacific Review 21, no. 1: 87-108.
Rees, Nicholas. 2008. European and Asian Security and the Role of Regional
Organisation in the Post- 9/11 Environment in Murray, Philomena, (ed.).
Europe and Asia: Regions in Flux. Palgrave Macmillan: 149-169.
Scott, David. 2007. China and the EU: A Strategic Axis for the Twenty-First
Century? in International Relations 21(1): 23-45.
Sandschneider, Eberhard. 2002. Chinas Diplomatic Relations with the States
of Europe in The China Quarterly 169: 33-44.
Shambaugh, David; Eberhard Sandschneider and Zhou Hong (eds.). 2008.
China-Europe Relations: perceptions, policies and prospects. London: Routledge.
Shambaugh, David. 2005a. The New Strategic Triangle: US and European
Reactions to Chinas Rise in The Washington Quarterly 28(3): 7-25.
Shambaugh, David. 2005b. Chinas New Diplomacy in Asia in Foreign Service
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Stumbaum, May-Britt. 2007. Engaging China, Uniting Europe? EU Foreign

Policy Towards China in Casarini, Nicola and Costanza Musu (eds.) European Foreign Policy in an Evolving International System. Houndmills: Palgrave: 5775.
Vergeron, Karine Lisbonne-de. 2007. Contemporary Chinese Views of Europe. London: Chatham House/Foundation Robert Schuman.
Yahuda, Michael. 2008. The Sino-European Encounter: Historical Influence
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and Zhou Hong, (eds.) China-Europe Relations: perceptions, policies and prospects.
London: Routledge: 13-32.

EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 47-64

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS

Fraser Cameron
Abstract
The EU and China have both undergone dramatic changes in the past
20 years. With 480 million citizens, a single currency and the largest
GDP in the world the EU has become an important actor on the
international stage. China, with over 1.3 billion citizens, has undergone dramatic reforms and enjoyed unprecedented economic growth
that has also led to a greatly increased world role. Both the EU and
China are now keen to develop and further deepen their relationship.
As Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner stated in February 2005:
There is no greater challenge for Europe than to understand the
dramatic rise of China and to forge closer ties with it. But what do
Brussels and Beijing mean when they talk of a strategic partnership?
To what extent do they share the same conceptual ideas and principles? The EU proclaims it stands for a values-based foreign policy
with the emphasis on effective multilateralism. China asserts that its
peaceful rise is aimed at developing a harmonious world. But often
the two sides seem to talk past each other. In recent years there has
been a flurry of EU policy papers on China. In contrast, China published just one paper in 2003 which was highly appreciative of the
EU. This chapter reviews the EU approach to China, assesses the
thinking behind the various communications and examines the main
challenges the EU is facing in forging a new strategic partnership
with China.
Introduction
Relations between the European Union (EU) and the Peoples Republic
of China (PRC) have developed remarkably fast over the past decade.

48

Fraser Cameron

The two very different actors now engage in a large number of dialogues
covering issues ranging from trade and development to climate change
and global governance. Both sides are negotiating a new partnership and
cooperation agreement (PCA). The EU side has been prolific in terms of
policy papers about China with the European Commission issuing several Communications which have provoked debate in the European
Parliament and decisions in the Council. Several research institutes,
academics and NGOs in Europe have also produced policy papers and
reports on China. In contrast, China has published only one major document about the EU, in 2003, but there is a growing interest about the
EU in China reflected in the fact that more and more academic institutions and think tanks are studying the EU (Grant 2008).
Although relations between the EU and China have developed rapidly in recent years, there are several contentious areas concerning issues
such as human rights, the arms embargo, the trade imbalance, market
economy status (MES), currency levels and intellectual property rights
(IPR). Increased contact has, no doubt, led to greater understanding
between both sides but there remain considerable misperceptions on
both sides. This could be witnessed during the disputes over Tibet in the
spring of 2008 and in the subsequent divisions within the EU about
whether to attend the Olympic Games.1 Differences over the then EU
President Sarkozys announcement in early November that he would
meet with the Dalai Lama led to the cancellation of the EU-China summit in December 2008. This move was a blow to those who argued that
EU-China relations were on a continuous upward trajectory, although
China stressed that the matter should be seen more as a bilateral dispute
with France, rather than with the EU itself.
This chapter reviews the development of EU-China relations since
the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1984. It focuses on the various China Communications of the European Commission and seeks to
assess the impact and influence of the other EU institutions on the development of the relationship. It does not cover bilateral relations of EU
Member States with China, reviewed elsewhere in this volume. The
chapter highlights how EU policy has changed during the past two decades evolving from a focus on assisting Chinas development and re1
In the end, most EU leaders did attend the Olympics, which were widely regarded as a major success, and which marked Chinas coming-out-party.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS

49

form process to a focus on dealing with the challenges posed by the rise
of China.
The Legal Framework of EU-China Relations
The 1985 EC-China Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement
continues to be the main legal framework for EU-China relations. It was
complemented, in 1994 and 2002, by means of exchanges of letters
establishing a broad EU-China political dialogue. Both sides signed a
Textiles Agreement in 1979 while the following year the EU agreed to
include China in the general system of preferences (GSP). The development of the relationship was not without its problems during the early
period, with Chinas rapid economic rise leading to calls for EU protectionism. Similarly, the issue of human rights in China has also risen up
the agenda and is highly contentious among the EU Member States,
epitomised by the controversy surrounding attempts to lift the arms
embargo. The relationship has also been beset by competition between
EU Member States, which, spurred on by economic interests, have often
sought to develop their own bilateral relations with China. By the 1990s,
the EU-China relationship had significantly altered and expanded with a
broader set of dialogues being developed, including through the establishment of the first Joint Working Group on Economic and Trade
Matters (1993), the establishment of regular meetings between the EU
troika2 and Chinese ministers and annual EU-China summits since 1998.
Negotiations on a more comprehensive Partnership and Co-operation
Agreement (PCA) started in January 2007 and are still on-going, having
reached the half-way stage in January 2009. In 2008, a new High Level
Economic and Trade Dialogue (ETD) format was launched, following a
similar Sino-US model. The EU and China have also concluded a number of sectoral (sector-specific) agreements, notably the following:
The Science and Technology Agreement (1998, renewed in 2004)
The Maritime Transport Agreement (2002)
The Agreement on Cooperation in the EU Galileo Satellite Navigation
Programme (October 2003)

2
The troika is the unwieldy EU representation for political dialogue with third
countries. It comprises the current and future EU Presidencies, plus Commission and
Council.

50

Fraser Cameron

The Approved Destination Status tourism agreement (October

2003)
The Customs Co-operation Agreement (2004) and
The Research Agreement on the peaceful use of nuclear energy
(2004).
A number of new agreements setting up EU-China dialogues have also
recently been inaugurated. They concern diverse areas, such as Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Competition Policy, Enterprise Policy, Textiles, Macroeconomic and Financial issues, Civil Aviation, Labour and
Social Issues, as well as Education and Culture.
Foundation: The Commissions 1995 and 1998 Communications on China
The 1995 Communication from the Commission, A Long Term Policy for
China EU Relations, praised Chinas unrivalled progress since 1945. It
tiptoed around the 1989 Tiananmen Square events, arguing that, the
time has come to redefine the EUs relationship with China. Europes
relations with China were bound to be a cornerstone in Europes external
relations, both with Asia and globally. Europe needed an action-oriented, not a merely declaratory policy, to strengthen that relationship.
The Communication concluded that the EU should encourage China to
become fully integrated in the international community, to widen the
political dialogue to include all issues of common interest and global
significance, to support Chinas WTO membership, to contribute to
reform inside China, to pursue EU concerns on human rights, to promote economic and social reform, and to improve the business environment for EU firms in China. There was little in the Communication,
however, about how these aims were to be fulfilled.3
The Commissions 1998 succession strategy on China was entitled
Building a Comprehensive Partnership with China. The blueprint, once again,
drew attention to Chinas economic transformation. It further noted that
this has been accompanied by a significant evolution in Chinas civil
society, even if the full respect for universal standards in the field of
human rights remains incomplete. The paper stated that most of the
initiatives proposed in 1995 were already under way, while others had yet
to mature.
3

A Long Term Policy for China EU Relations, 24.6.1995 COM (1995) 295.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS

51

The analytical foundations of the 1995 Communication still held true

but a number of significant developments occurred, which would lead
the EU to further upgrade the relationship. These included Chinas
unambiguous commitment to a market economy at the 15th Chinese
Communist Party Congress in 1997; Chinas at once more assertive and
more responsible foreign policy, as epitomized by Chinas role in promoting peace in Cambodia as well as the smooth and successful handover of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997. The EU was
also on the threshold of a single currency and enlargement eastwards,
and with the Treaty of Amsterdam had equipped itself with new means
to assert itself on the world stage.
Such developments, the Commission argued, called both for longterm vision and for active engagement. In the words of the paper, engaging Chinas emerging economic and political power as well as integrating
the country into the international community, may prove one of the
most important external policy challenges facing Europe and other partners in the 21st century. The new EU-China partnership was aimed at
engaging China further, through an upgraded political dialogue; supporting Chinas transition to an open society based upon the rule of law and
the respect for human rights; integrating China further in the world
economy and by supporting the process of economic and social reform
underway in the country. The paper also called for an increase in EU
visibility in China, as well as, for measures being taken to make EU
funding go further.4
Consolidation: The Commissions 2001 and 2003 China Strategies
The 2001 Commission Communication on the PRC bore the title: EU
Strategy towards China: Implementation of the 1998 Communication and Future
Steps for a More Effective EU Policy. In explaining the need for yet another
Communication, the Commission stated that this policy paper aimed at,
defining concrete and practical short and medium term action points for
EU policy, in order to progress more effectively towards the long-term
aims defined in 1998. The papers principle suggestions included:
Engaging China further by strengthening the political dialogue to
ensure greater coherence and continuity in discussions at all levels.
4

Building a Comprehensive Partnership with China (25.03.98) COM (1998) 181.

52

Fraser Cameron

Supporting Chinas transition to an open society through a more

focused and results-oriented human rights dialogue, working with
China to support relevant reforms under way; implementing and
preparing human rights-related assistance programmes.
Integrating China further in the world economy by finalising Chinas
WTO accession, monitoring the implementation of its WTO commitments, and strengthening the sector-specific dialogues and agreements in key areas (information society, environment, energy, science
and technology). By developing new areas of co-operation (enterprise
policy, industrial standards and certification, customs, maritime transport, securities and competition policy).
Making better use of EU co-operation programmes.
Raising the EUs profile in China by strengthening all aspects of EU
information policy vis--vis China.5
The follow-up document to this paper, the Commissions 2003 Communication on A Maturing Partnership Shared Interests and Challenges in EUChina Relations (Updating the European Commissions Communications on EUChina Relations of 1998 and 2001) was largely self-explanatory. The Commission defended the publication of yet another policy paper by insisting
that, much has changed in Europe, China and the world since 2001.
These changes included the advent of the euro, the imminent enlargement of the EU, new responsibilities in justice and home affairs (JHA).
China had also entered a new and challenging phase in its social and
economic reform process, had become increasingly involved in world
affairs, and was rapidly emerging as a major player in the world economy
thanks to its dynamic growth and accession to the WTO. Moreover, a
new generation of leaders had recently assumed power in Beijing and
would be engaging the EU at the highest level for the first time at the
EU-China summit in late October 2003. At the same time, both sides
had to adapt to a fast moving international scene, with terrorism, weapons proliferation and other concerns, such as the threat of SARS, rising
to the top of the agenda. The sluggish world economy and concomitant
negative trends in protectionism and regionalism also loomed as potential threats to global trade and development.
5
EU Strategy towards China: Implementation of the 1998 Communication and Future Steps
for a More Effective EU Policy (15.5.2001); COM (2001) 265.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS

53

Against this background, the EU and China were seen to have an

ever-greater interest to work together as strategic partners to safeguard
and promote sustainable development, peace and stability. Europe had a
major political and economic stake in supporting Chinas successful
transition to, a stable, prosperous and open country that fully embraces
democracy, free market principles and the rule of law. The paper hence
argued that, the EU has much to offer here, stemming in part from its
own experience in integrating accession countries from East and Central
Europe.
The communication proceeded to an assessment of progress since
2001 and to making recommendations for the future. In the terms of the
latter the political dialogue should be improved by systematically addressing global and regional governance and security issues. Moreover,
the paper demanded that the dialogue on illegal migration should be
more result-oriented, and that an agreement on the readmission of illegal
migrants should be concluded soon. Anticipated measures to improve
human rights dialogue included, greater focus on key issues, stronger
continuity and follow-through on issues and individual cases, maximising
synergies with existing bilateral Member State efforts, and raising the
visibility and transparency of the dialogue.
In promoting Chinas economic opening at home and abroad, priorities were to work together to ensure success of the Doha Development
Agenda, monitor and assist Chinas compliance with its WTO commitments, and monitor new regional agreements to ensure WTO-compatibility. Support for Chinas reform process and sectoral co-operation was
to be strengthened through: the launch of new dialogues and co-operation in the fields of intellectual property rights, sanitary standards, competition policy, industrial policy and human resource development; furthermore, through the reinforcement of existing dialogues and agreements on the regulation of industrial products, information society,
environment, energy and scientific & technological co-operation. New
agreements, covering co-operation in research and related peaceful use of
nuclear energy, and in regard to the EU Galileo programme, were also
envisaged.
The 2003 Commission blueprint proposed that the steering role of
the EC-China Joint Committee be reinforced, not only as regards trade
and co-operation, but also for the various sector-specific dialogues. Last,
but not least, new measures aiming at raising EU visibility in China were

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Fraser Cameron

proposed. These were to embrace better understanding of the Chinese

audience, the use of a few targeted messages and closer collaboration
with EU Member States. The paper concluded that, the course ahead is
long and challenging and if it is to be successfully navigated, it is essential that there is full and lasting commitment from all players. On the EU
side, close co-ordination of Union and Member State policies will be
required and China will have to ensure that all branches and levels of its
administration are on board.6
New Horizons: The 2006 EU China Strategy
The 2006 Communication EU China: Closer Partners, Growing Responsibilities marked a significant change in EU attitudes towards China. It stated
that China had re-emerged as a major power in the last decade. It had
become the worlds fourth largest economy and third exporter, but also
an increasingly important political power. China's economic growth had
thrown weight behind a significantly more active and sophisticated Chinese foreign policy. Chinas desire to grow and seek a place in the world
commensurate with its political and economic power was a central tenet
of its policy. Given Chinas size and phenomenal growth, these changes
would have a profound impact on global politics and trade.
With what may well amount to a touch of hubris, the paper asserted
that the EU was capable of exerting a progressive influence well beyond
its borders and Europe needed to respond effectively to Chinas renewed
strength. This meant factoring the China dimension into the full range of
EU policies, external and internal. It also meant close coordination inside
the EU to ensure an overall and coherent approach. The lament about
the failure to coordinate policy on China between the Member States was
a familiar critique.
In the words of the Commissions 2006 China Communication, the
EUs fundamental political approach towards China remains, one of
engagement and partnership. This means that both sides are collaborating, in order to promote a strong and effective multilateral system. In a
rebuff to those calling for a more protectionist stance, the paper stated
that closing Europes doors to Chinese competition was not the answer.
Adjusting to the competitive challenge and driving a fair bargain with
6
A Maturing Partnership: Shared Interests and Challenges in EU-China Relations
(10.9.2003); COM (2003) 533.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS

55

China would be the central challenge of EU trade policy in the decade to

come. This key issue was set out in more detail in a trade policy paper
entitled Competition and Partnership, which accompanied the Communication.7
The Commissions policy paper subsequently touched on Chinas
internal stability which remained the key driver for Chinese policy.
Chinas high growth had resulted in the steepest recorded drop in poverty in world history, and the emergence of a large middle class, better
educated and with rising purchasing power and choices. But the story of
this phenomenal growth masked uncertainties and fragility. The Chinese
leadership faced a range of important challenges including a growing
wealth gap, social, regional and gender imbalances, plus a huge stress on
healthcare and education systems. Furthermore, China was already facing
significant demographic shifts and the challenges of a rapidly ageing
population. The Commission then opined that conditions for stability
would improve as the Party and State relaxed control. A more independent judiciary, a stronger civil society, a freer press would ultimately encourage stability, providing necessary checks and balances.
The document further welcomed the decision at the 9th EU-China
Summit to launch negotiations on a new, extended PCA. This new agreement would provide a single framework, covering the full range and
complexity of our relationship. At the same time, it should be forwardlooking and reflect the priorities outlined in this Communication. The
communication also called for the EU to help strengthen the rule of law
and the development of healthy and independent civil society in China.
On matters of energy, the EU priorities should be to ensure Chinas
integration into world energy markets and multilateral governance mechanisms and institutions, and to encourage China to become an active and
responsible energy partner. Both sides should build on the climate
change partnership, reinforcing bilateral cooperation, and strengthening
international co-operation, meeting shared international responsibilities
under the Climate Change Convention and Kyoto Protocol and engaging
actively in the dialogues on international climate change co-operation
post-2012.
The 2006 policy-blueprint went on to call for improved exchanges on
employment and social issues such as health and safety at work, decent
7

COM (2006) 0632 of 24.10.06.

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Fraser Cameron

work standards, and meeting the challenges of an ageing population.

There should be closer co-operation on international development issues,
especially on Africa. The EU and China should engage in a structured
dialogue on Africa's sustainable development. There should be transparency on the activity and priorities of both sides, and support for regional
efforts to improve governance in Africa.
As regards matters of economics and trade, the Commissions 2006
China strategy noted that China had become a source of growth for the
EU and the world, but China's current growth model was also the source
of important imbalances in EU China trade. Policies which would lead to
a reduction of its current account surplus would increase Chinas control
of its economy and contain risks of overheating, and at the same time
meet Chinas shared responsibility to ensure a stable and balanced world
economy. The EU was Chinas largest trading partner, representing
more than 19 per cent of Chinas external trade. An economically strong
China was in Europes interest. But there were doubts about Chinas
implementation of its WTO commitments, especially on protection of
intellectual property, and new bureaucratic barriers to market access were
preventing a genuinely reciprocal trading relationship. There were also
restrictions in the service sector and protection of strategic industries.
The 2006 policy document subsequently assessed the numerous
bilateral agreements and sector-specific dialogues, describing them as
successful and positive. But more had to be done, according to this
assessment, in order to focus co-operation and ensure balance and mutual benefit in all areas. The paper called for increased co-operation in
science and technology, migration issues, people-to-people links, and
more effective bilateral structures.
In terms of international relations, the policy document called on the
EU and China to cooperate more closely in regard to areas such as the
Middle East, Africa and East Asia, and with reference to cross-cutting
challenges such as terrorism and non-proliferation. The communication
noted Chinas central role in tackling proliferation on the Korean peninsula and stated that, continued Chinese support will be crucial to progress on the Iranian nuclear issue. On the Taiwan issue8, the communication affirmed that the EU should better explain its One China Policy to

On the Taiwan question, see also the chapter by Paul Lim, in this volume.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS

57

both sides. Regarding the rather sensitive issue of the arms embargo the
paper avowed that further work will be necessary by both sides.9
A review of these Commission communications reveals a major
change in EU concerns. For most of the 1990s, China was tarred with
the Tiananmen-Square brush. The EU was willing to assist China in
joining international bodies such as the WTO but closer cooperation
would depend on Beijing paying more attention to domestic reforms,
especially in human rights. In the first decade of the twentieth century,
the balance of power began to shift in Chinas favour, and EU concerns
now surrounded economic and trade issues, especially protecting EU
jobs from alleged unfair Chinese competition.
The Commission does not produce policy papers in a vacuum. It
consults regularly with Member States about their interests and concerns.
The resulting communications are thus a balancing act between what is
politically feasible, taking into account the views of the Member States,
the Commission services, other EU institutions, and China.
Alternative Agendas: Views of the European Parliament and Council
The European Parliament (EP) has traditionally taken a much more
critical approach to China than the European Commission or, indeed,
most of the Member States. While approving the various Commission
Communications outlined above, Parliament often added Resolutions
critical of Chinas human rights record. One example of this was an EP
Resolution of February 2001 when Parliament called on China to guarantee the constitutional right to freedom of religion and belief, together
with the exercise of the associated rights of freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of assembly.10
Another contentious issue was the arms embargo. In December 2003,
Parliament adopted a Resolution opposing any arms sales to China until
there was a significant improvement in human rights.11
Moreover, in April 2005, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution stating that strategic partnerships with third countries must be based
on the sharing and promotion of common values. It regretted that
relations with China had made progress only in the trade and economic
fields, without any substantial achievement as regards human rights and
9

EU-China: Closer Partners, Growing Responsibilities (24/10/06); COM (2006) 631.

Official Journal of the European Communities (OJ) (01.10.2001); C276/279.
11
P5_TA(2003)0599.
10

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Fraser Cameron

democracy. It supported Taiwan as as a model of democracy for the

whole of China and expressed its deepest concern at the large number
of missiles in southern China aimed across the Taiwan Straits. It condemned the so-called Anti-Secession Law, which, in its view, in an
unjustified way aggravates the situation across the Straits. It called on
Beijing and Taipei to resume political talks on the basis of mutual understanding and recognition in order to promote stability, democracy, human rights and the rule of law in East Asia.12
In October 2005, Parliament debated economic issues and adopted a
further Resolution on trade relations between the EU and China. This
critical resolution covered WTO accession, unfair trade practices, and
social and environmental issues.13 In September 2006, Parliament urged
the Council and the Commission to formulate a consistent and coherent
policy towards China. It deplored that increased trade and economic
relations with China had brought about no substantial progress in the
field of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, which were seen as
basic components of the political dialogue between China and the EU.14
By April 2008, Parliament had adopted a further critical Resolution
following demonstrations in Tibet. In October 2008, it went one step
further, by awarding the Sakharov Prize to the human rights activist, Hu
Jia a move that infuriated the Chinese authorities.
The Council of the European Union has only given occasional attention to China. Most of the Communications cited above were adopted by
the Council without any serious debate, although they were usually subject of extensive consultations with Member States. Overall, the Councils conclusions have tended to reflect the balance that has to be struck
between the 27 Member States. For example, in December 2004, it issued the following statement, in relation to the arms embargo:
The European Council confirmed that EU-China relations have developed
significantly in all aspects in the past years. It is looking forward to further
progress in all areas of this relationship as referred to in the EU-China Joint
Statement, in particular the ratification of the International Covenant on
civil and political rights. In this context the European Council reaffirmed the political
will to continue to work towards lifting the arms embargo. It invited the next Presidency to finalise the well-advanced work in order to allow for a decision. It
underlined that the result of any decision should not be an increase of arms exports from
12

P6_TA(2005)0132.
P6_TA(2005)0381.
14
P6_TA(2006)0346.
13

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS

59

EU Member States to China, neither in quantitative nor qualitative terms [emphasis

added].15

Within months of these Council conclusions, the politics within the EU

changed, partly under pressure from the US, Japan and Taiwan. Thus, by
June 2005, there was no more mention of lifting the arms embargo in the
relevant European Council conclusions:
The European Council welcomes the 30th anniversary of the establishment
of diplomatic relations between the EU and China. It reiterates its determination to develop the strategic partnership with China by intensifying the
dialogue in all areas, whether of an economic or political nature, and by
working towards a rapid solution to its trade dispute. It asks the Council
and the Commission to speed up the proceedings on a new framework
agreement.16

Another pertinent document to be considered in this study was contained in the East Asia Policy Guidelines, agreed by the Council in
December 2007.17 The Guidelines emphasised the importance of integrating China into the global system, with the aim of tackling issues
ranging from climate change and nuclear proliferation, to trade and
regional security, especially in the case of Africa.
An Overview of Chinese Views
The Chinese authorities have been much less prolific about producing
policy papers on the EU. The only Chinese paper so far, specifically
focusing on the EU, appeared in 2003. It was compiled by the Chinese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and reflected a glowing picture of the
EU, which was seen as a major force in the world. In the papers view,
and in spite of their twists and turns, China-EU relations were seen to be
better than any time in history. The paper saw no fundamental conflict
of interest between China and the EU and neither side posed a threat to
the other. However, given their differences in historical background,
cultural heritage, political system and economic development level, it was
seen as natural that the two sides would have different views or even
disagreed over some issues. Nevertheless, according to this paper, the

15

Brussels Council Conclusions, No. 16238/1/04 REV1, 16-17 December 2004.

European Council, Brussels European Council Conclusions, No. 10255/1/05/ REV1,
16-17 June 2005.
17
Council: Press Release of 20.12.07.
16

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Fraser Cameron

common ground between China and the EU outweighed any disagreements by far.
The Chinese EU policy paper did not omit the sensitive issues in the
relationship. It encouraged EU officials and others to visit Tibet and
welcomed the support of the EU and its members to Tibet's economic,
cultural, educational and social development and their cooperation with
the autonomous region subject to full respect of China's laws and regulations. The Chinese side requested the EU side not to have any contact
with the Tibetan government in exile or provide facilities to the separatist activities of the Dalai clique.
On human rights, the strategy noted that there was both consensus
and disagreements between China and the EU. The Chinese side appreciated the non-confrontational approach but reminded the EU that there
were social, economic and cultural rights to be protected. The paper
emphasized that the proper handling of the Taiwan question was essential for a steady growth of China-EU relations. China appreciated the EU
commitment to the one-China principle and hoped that the EU would
continue to respect China's major concerns over the Taiwan question,
guard against Taiwan authorities' attempt to create two Chinas or one
China, one Taiwan and prudently handle Taiwan-related issues. EU
exchanges with Taiwan must be strictly unofficial and non-governmental.
In terms of economics, the Chinese document demanded that the EU
should grant China full market economy status at an early date, reduce
and abolish anti-dumping and other discriminatory policies and practices
against China. The EU should also lift its ban on arms sales to China at
an early date so as to remove barriers to greater bilateral cooperation on
defence industry and technologies.
Chinas 2003 EU policy paper represented the apex, so far, of the
PRCs assessment of the EU. Over subsequent years, China became
more frustrated with the EU over a range of issues, including the failure
to lift the arms embargo, to receive market economy status, a plethora of
anti-dumping cases, the perceived European support for the Dalai
Clique, and European threats to boycott the 2008 Olympics. Chinese
resentment over some of these matters led to the cancellation of the EUChina summit in December 2008. It remains to be seen to what extent
these negative reactions on the Chinese side were tactical and temporary,
rather than genuine and permanent. At the same time, the EUs failure to

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS

61

resolve its institutional crisis (Lisbon Treaty) reduced its standing in

Chinese eyes.18
Conclusion and Assessment
In any assessment of the official approach to EU-China relations, one is
struck by the disparity in policy papers produced by both sides. The
Commission has produced at least six (major) strategy-blueprints, compared to one from the Chinese. This may be due to bureaucratic influences and interests, but it also reflects the EUs growing fascination with
China and its attempts to fathom the right policy-mix. President Barroso
took no less than nine Commissioners to visit China in June 2008. The
astonishing growth rates in China during the past decade, and the successful Beijing Olympics, have also given the Chinese authorities a new
self-confidence in dealing with the EU (Crossick and Reuter 2007;
Shambaugh 2008). This is reflected in the current PCA and related trade
negotiations which are proving very difficult to achieve progress. Some
experts regard the PCA as more of a laundry list of dialogues and agreements rather than a genuine strategic partnership (Wacker 2006). Hopes
of a free trade area have receded into the distance.
However, in spite of a plethora of China-EU meetings, fora and
dialogues, misperceptions of one anothers motives seem to be rising,
rather than diminishing. China, in particular, resents the continuation of
the arms embargo which places it in a category alongside Zimbabwe and
Myanmar (Zhou and Wu 2004). PRC leaders were shocked by some
European reactions to the troubles in Tibet in spring 2008, and by the
demands to boycott the 2008 Olympics. China also complains about the
EUs refusal to grant it market economy status and its obsession with
anti-dumping. There was little understanding in the PRC, of former
Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelsons description of China as an out
of control juggernaut and the biggest challenge for EU trade policy. On
the one hand, China appears critical of the politicisation of trade issues
in the EU, while, on the other hand, practising it too, by rewarding
France and punishing Germany. It considers that EU fears about Chinese competition are unfounded, pointing to the huge profits of European firms operating in China.

18

The paper is available on the website of the Chinese MFA and of DG RELEX.

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Fraser Cameron

The EU, by comparison, has spoken of China as a major partner in a

globalised world; however, it appears to also be suspicious of Chinas
motives in Africa and other parts of the world (Gill 2007; Holslag 2007;
Stumbaum 2007). The Union is, furthermore, critical of the Chinese
authorities failure to implement, rather than just pass, legislation concerning issues such as intellectual property rights. The Union, last, but
not least, maintains that China operates many barriers to investment in
the services sector.
It thus seems clear that there are still major gaps in mutual understanding. The only way to bridge these gaps is by means of a much
greater expansion of contacts at all levels. Some useful steps have already
been taken, including the launch of the new High-Level Economic and
Trade Dialogue, and the visible EU support for various Business
Schools and EU Institutes in China.
Should it prove to be possible to finally agree on the new Partnership
and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), at the State Council level on Chinas
side, the quality of the political and cooperation dialogue across the
board can be expected to be greatly enhanced. The limited contacts
between EU and Chinese think tanks are in dire need of a substantial,
and meaningful, expansion. There also need to be more exchanges, and a
greater commitment on each side, to studying the politics, economics
and culture of the other.
EU China relations will continue to develop and there will be an
ever-expanding agenda. But without a greater degree of mutual understanding the relationship will not be able to flourish and benefit both
parties as it could.
It must also be recognised that there are some fundamental asymmetries in the relationship, in terms of political systems, economic development, history and culture (Grant 2008; Zabarowski 2006). China is a far
cry from the post-modern, sovereignty-sharing EU. Unlike the US,
which views the rise of China in geopolitical terms, the EU has regarded
Chinas growth as an opportunity and a challenge. In recent years the
emphasis has been on the aspect of challenge; some commentators are
even talking of threats. In the early Commission communications consulted for this chapter, there was much emphasis on the promotion of
democracy and human rights with the EU seen as being able to play a
significant role in the internal reform process in China.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS

63

But by the time of the 2006 Communication, the emphasis had

switched away from democracy and human rights to meeting the challenges posed by China, especially in the economic field. Although there
have been differences at the highest political level, there has been an
expansion in sector-specific dialogues (see annex below). Many of these
have achieved progress without having to take into account the overall
political relationship, especially as regards sensitive questions of democracy, political reform and human rights.
Seen from Brussels, EU-China relations have made significant progress over the past decade. China and the EU have moved closer on a
number of global issues, from climate change to the need to strengthen
the multilateral institutions of global governance.
The key question for the future is how the EU can best tailor its
strategy towards China to achieve its political, security and economic
interests. If the past decade is typical, then the European Commission
will not find it easy to navigate through the competing, and sometimes
contradictory, approaches of the Member States, even though the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty may help.
At the same time, it can confidently be predicted that Chinese representatives will continue to seek to exploit these differences to their advantage. China appears as a tough and stubborn negotiating partner, and
the EU has few bargaining chips although they are not altogether negligible. For example, faced with the prospect of global recession, China is
anxious to ensure continued access to the EU Single Market for its exports. As in other policy areas, the EU will best be able to defend and
promote its interests when it speaks with one voice.

References
Crossick, Stanley and Reuter, Etienne. 2007. China-EU: A Common Future.
Singapore: World Scientific Press.
Gill, Bates 2007. Rising Star: Chinas New Security Diplomacy. Washington DC:
Brookings Institution Press.
Grant, Charles. 2008. Can Europe and China Shape a New World Order? London:
Centre for European Reform.
Holslag, Jonathan. 2007. China and Europe: the Myth of Post-Modern World in
Brussels: BICCS Background Paper, Volume 2/2007

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Shambaugh, David et al (eds). 2008. China-Europe Relations: Perceptions, Policies and

Prospects. London: Routledge.
Stumbaum, May-Britt. 2007. Opportunities and Limits of EU-China Security
Cooperation in International Spectator, No. 42
Wacker, Gudrun (ed.). 2006. Chinas Rise: The Return of Geopolitics. SWP Working
Paper, S3.
Zabarowski Martin (ed.).2006. Facing Chinas Rise: Guidelines for an EU Strategy.
(Chaillot Paper, no 94), Paris: EU Institute for Security Studies.
Zhou Hong and Wu Baiyi (eds). 2004. China-EU Partnership: Possibilities and
Limits. Beijing: China Social Science Press.

Annex: Sector-Specific (Sectoral) Dialogues in EU-China Relations

The EU and China are involved in many sector-specific dialogues:
Information society
Agricultural dialogue
Intellectual property rights (IPR)
Civil aviation
Macro-economic policy and the regCompetition policy
ulation of financial markets
Consumer product safety
Maritime transport
Customs cooperation
Regional policy
Education and culture
Regulatory and industrial policy
Employment and social affairs
Science and technology
Energy
Space cooperation
Environment
Trade policy dialogue
Food safety- Sanitary and
Textile trade dialogue
phyto-sanitary issues
Transport (in general)
Global satellite navigation services
These take place at various hierarchical levels, from working level to ministerial
level. A variety of participants may be involved, including officials, politicians,
business organisations, and private companies. Proceedings are organised in a
flexible way and take the form of working groups, conferences, annual formal
meetings or simply informal exchanges. Most of the dialogues have been established over the past two to three years, and they reflect the massive growth in
activity which defines the relationship. Sectoral dialogues & agreements are
expected to play an increasingly important role in building a privileged EUChina relationship with important benefits for both sides.
Further Details:
http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/china/sectoraldialogue_en.htm
European Commission: Rapid Database: IP 09/212

EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 65-82

THE EU AND CHINA

IN THE CONTEXT OF INTER-REGIONALISM
Natee Vichitsoratsatra

Abstract
This chapter focuses on the analysis of cooperation between the
EC/EU1 and China using an eclectic approach which proposes that
the fluctuation between bilateral and multilateral interregional cooperation process is influenced by actors strategic choices in pursuing a
material, institutional or ideational focus in their interaction. The
chapter conducts a broad analysis of the material, institutional and
ideational elements of the EC-China inter-regional partnership. It
contends that, in its relationship with China, the EU appeared to
consistently opt for a bilateral strategy, with a priority on material
interests. Using the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) as the main multilateral forum for engagement between Europe and Asia, there is little
evidence to suggest that the EU pursued a multilateral strategy with
China. The first part analyses the ECs motivations for inter-regionalism. The second part observes the material, institutional and
ideational influences in the EC-China bilateral and multilateral partnerships. The final part argues that active bilateralism has taken precedence in the ECs dealings with China, while passive multilateralism remains an option for future engagement between the two.

1
In this chapter, the terms EC and EEC refer to the European Communities
and the European Economic Communities/Community and the First Pillar of the
EU, where the focus is on economic, social, and environmental aspects of SinoEuropean relations. Where the analysis extends to the CFSP or Police and Judicial
Cooperation, the chapter employs the terms the EU Member States or EU.

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Natee Vichitsoratsatra

Introduction: The EU in Regionalism and Inter-regionalism

Today, regionalism is said to be in its third generation in which the
institutional environment to handle external regional policies is more
apparent and powerful. Regions are also becoming more proactive and
can involve themselves in inter-regional arrangements and agreements
that can have an impact on partnerships at the global level. (Soderbaum
et al. 2005: 257) note that third generation regionalism is clearly different
from second generation regionalism (an example being the EU) in that
third generation regionalism is focused more externally and towards
shaping governments while second generation regionalism2 mainly
concentrated on maximising economic and political processes. The increasing presence of regional actors also created a demand for intermediaries which link global and regional systems (at the top end of the international system) as well as regional and national policy-making levels (at
the bottom end of the international system). It is suggested that the need
for intermediaries at the upper end of the international system resulted in
two forms of inter-regionalism, bilateral inter-regionalism and transregionalism (Rland 2001: 5).
There have been calls for inter-regionalism to be analysed in its own
right and not just within the framework in which regionalism is studied.
This would, Soderbaum et al. (2005: 378) argue, allow for research on
how regionalism and inter-regionalism relate and impact on one another.
They further explain how inter-regionalism has an effect on both bilateralism and multilateralism, with inter-regionalism becoming an alternative
to classical, Westphalian, multilateralism. In the meantime, bilateralism
and inter-regionalism can either compete or exist side by side while actually mutually reinforcing each other (Soderbaum et al. 2005: 379).
The EC has, indeed, been prolific as a global actor, and this has extended to its involvement in proliferating regionalism and inter-regionalism. One of the clearest reflections of relevant EC activity has been its
pursuit of regional and inter-regional partnerships, which include attempts to speak with a single voice in multilateral fora, such as the
WTO, through its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and in its ties
with the developing world, as well as through unified strategies in creating global regimes (Langenhove and Costea 2005: 12). In similar fashion,
2
Second generation regionalism has been labelled new regionalism due to its
multi-faceted nature and the fact that it refers to a much wider number of policies
(Langenhove and Costea 2005: 4)

THE EU AND CHINA IN THE CONTEXT OF INTER-REGIONALISM

67

the EU is able to reach agreements with other states (bilateralism), act

within the UN and WTO framework (multilateralism) and also engage in
constructing inter-regionalism (Soderbaum et al. 2005: 379). The EC
has completed negotiations for Preferential Trade Agreements (PTA)
with South Africa, Mexico, Chile, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia (FYROM) and a selection of Mediterranean partners. The EC
is also currently in negotiations with MERCOSUR, Syria, India, the
Republic of Korea (South Korea, ROK) and the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) member countries (Lamy 2002; Doctor 2007).3
Arguments have been made that inter-regional efforts are influenced
by a complex set of factors, although economic factors continue to play
one of the most important roles and are reflected in the contents of
preferential agreements (Tharakan 2002: 1396). Current literature on
regionalism shows that a variety of theoretical approaches ranging from
realism to liberal institutionalism and social constructivism are useful in
explaining EU inter-regionalism (Soderbaum et al. 2005: 368). The explanations for the EUs inter-regional efforts include the its desire to promote liberal internationalism, to build EU identity as a global actor and
to promote EU power and competitiveness (Soderbaum et al. 2005: 368377).
Alecu de Fleurs and Regelsberger (2005) note that the EUs interregional policy relations can be explained by a combination of its Eurocentric approach, as well as its desire to counterbalance US influence in
Latin America (2005), a strategy which combines institutional as well as
neorealist roots. Making similar use of a number of traditions in international relations and comparative literature, Aggarwal and Fogarty (2003:
6-16) put forward four hypotheses concerning the origins of EU interregional trade strategies. They argue that EU trade strategies are variously determined by the influence of specific interest groups within
Europe, by bureaucratic attempts to maximise influence in the European
policy-making arena, by international systemic constraints and opportunities and by the need to forge a common European identity.
These varied explanations are by no means the only description of the
ECs motivations for inter-regionalism. In an assessment of the EUs
inter-regional policy towards Africa, Farrell (2005: 263) argues that the
underlying EU motivation is in furthering goals of economic liberaliza3

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/bilateral/index_en.htm

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Natee Vichitsoratsatra

tion rather than democratization, and proclaims the possibility of a

triumph of realism over idealism. With Mercosur, for example, the EU
has been found to provide support for institution-building and regionbuilding in its attempt to increase EU legitimacy and its role as a global
actor through political dialogue, cooperation, and trade (Santander 2005).
The idea that the EU is actively pursuing inter-regionalism has also
been proposed by other scholars who explain that EU foreign policy
strategy in promoting inter-regionalism could act as an alternative model
of world order to the unipolar pax americana (Hettne 2001). Institutionbuilding and region-building to enhance the EUs influence as a global
actor have both been evident in the creation of ASEM (Forster 2000:
796). Gilson (2005: 326) adopts a social constructivist stance and sees
ASEM as embedded with Western norms, contending that the EU has
utilized inter-regionalism as a means to manage economic and political
relations with a region that it is increasingly distant from and unfamiliar
with.
These popular explanations of the ECs inter-regionalism efforts
reflect a mix of motivations implicit in mainstream international political
economy (IPE) theories. The material desire to maximise the ECs economic power and influence, for example, could be explained by neorealism and neo-mercantilism, while the desire to promote liberal internationalism reflects the ideas of neo-liberal institutionalism. Social constructivism would explain the ECs desire to create a common European
identity, particularly through the promotion of European ideas, norms
and codes of conduct. The issues of material interest, institutions and
ideas are used to explain the ECs interaction with China in the following
sections.
The EC-China Bilateral Partnership: Materialism in Focus
One of the main features which distinguished the EC-China partnership
from, for instance, the EC-Japan and the EC-ROK partnerships, was the
way in which the EC and China were able to establish an early dialogue
without direct involvement by the Americans. The 1954 Geneva Conference may have proven to be one of the major landmarks which had a
positive impact on the relationship between China and Europe. During a
period when China urgently needed a number of goods which the Soviet
Union was unable to provide, the West Europeans, on the whole, were

THE EU AND CHINA IN THE CONTEXT OF INTER-REGIONALISM

69

seen to hold a friendlier attitude towards the Chinese than the Americans.
This positive attitude the Europeans appeared to offer might have
been critical in improving subsequent commercial and political relationships. The French and the British sincerely believed that China could
have a role in maintaining peace and stability in Indochina. Following the
Geneva conference, trade quickly increased between China and the West
European countries with (West) Germany, Britain and France being the
largest traders with China (Shambaugh 1996: 5). At this stage, the USA
had already terminated all commercial ties with China after Maos accession to power. The USA also tried to influence its Western allies to restrict the export of strategically sensitive products to communist countries through the Paris Co-ordinating Committee (COCOM) (Dent 1999:
129).
The 1960s Sino-Soviet split provided the next crucial period in the
Europeans early relationship with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).
When China and the Soviet Union parted ways, China found itself increasingly dependent on West European commerce. In 1964, French
President Charles de Gaulle gave diplomatic recognition to the PRC.
Kapur describes a three-pronged policy whereby in the early 1960s the
Chinese under the leadership of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping used
public relations, economic initiatives and diplomacy to improve the countrys relationship with the West Europeans, particularly the members of
the then EEC (1986: 8-15).
The years between 1971 and 1985 proved a critical time, both for
Chinese domestic reform and in terms of Chinas interaction with the
international community. To begin with, this was a period when China
finally became fully accepted by the international community and the
Western blockade against China ended. This was also a period when
Deng Xiaopings market reforms started to take place, thus enabling
China to enter the international trading arena with renewed vigour. Finally, this was the period when the international trading community
realized the possible impact the Chinese trading capacity could have on
their own economies, and this was marked by increased signs of protectionism against Chinese products.
By the time the Cultural Revolution ended in 1969, the opportunity
arose for moderates in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to have a
larger role in the domestic policy making process. It is assumed that Mao

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Natee Vichitsoratsatra

Zedongs assent to separate foreign affairs from internal issues might

have been the key to Chinas friendlier attitude towards the world community (Kapur 1986: 23), and this opened up the opportunity for the
West to engage China in a friendlier manner. The PRC government was
officially admitted to the United Nations in October 1971 and this was
followed by the normalization of Sino-US relations, highlighted by President Nixons visit to China in February 1972. The resumption of normal
ties between the Americans and the Chinese meant that Chinas foreign
relations with other countries would also be altered accordingly.
China welcomed EC enlargement in 1973 because it allowed a challenge to the bipolar status quo, even though Beijing recognized that the
grouping would wield more economic power than political power in the
global arena (Dent 1999: 132). It appears that due to the EECs leveraging of the bipolar status quo, the groups autonomy from the US, the
possibility of military autonomy, and the general lack of any controversial conflicts with China, the EEC had become one of the most attractive
partners for China as it looked outwards (Kapur 1986: 24-25). This put
the EEC in perfect position to extend recognition to China in 1975,
while China also became the first communist country to recognize the
EEC (Shambaugh 1996: 12). Kapur (1986: 26-30) describes a transition
from communicatory diplomacy between China and the EC to exploratory diplomacy and operational diplomacy. These were a series of
developments which started from favourable communications between
the two partners, which later developed into high-level meetings, and
further down the track led to full-fledged cooperation starting with the
European Commission Vice-President Sir Christopher Soames visit to
Beijing in 1973 (Kapur 1986: 26-30).
The fruits of this quick transition in the relationship between China
and the EC were soon visible. As bilateral trade agreements between
individual member states and China were due to end in 1974, the European Commission was given the responsibility of conducting future trade
negotiations with China in accordance with the ECs Common Commercial Policy (CCP). This assignment of competence to the EC yielded a
quick progression in the formalized relationship and resulted in the ECs
first bilateral trade agreement with an Asian country. The 1978 ECChina Trade Agreement subsequently became the first agreement that
the EC had agreed with a non-market economy (NME) and the most
institutionalized component of the ECs interaction with China (Wong

THE EU AND CHINA IN THE CONTEXT OF INTER-REGIONALISM

71

2005: 5). It is noteworthy that constant political problems between China

and individual EC states convinced the EC states to give their support to
the Trade Commissioner in order to improve their economic leverage as
a powerful trading force in the Chinese market (Wong 2005: 6).
The 1978 framework was later extended to the hotly-debated 1979
Textile Agreement. After the talks between the Americans and the Chinese on textiles had broken down, the Chinese, who were very eager to
reach some sort of agreement, backed down and accepted a quota for
40,000 tons of textile. This was down from the 60,000 tons the Chinese
had insisted on from the EC in the beginning stages of negotiation
(Kapur 1986: 62-63). The fact that the EC and China managed to reach
an agreement where the Americans had failed is an indication of a high
degree of willingness to cooperate between the Chinese and the Europeans.
By the 1980s, the EC was beginning to feel the pressure from Chinas
rising economic power and a number of protectionist measures were
being put into place. According to Dent (1999: 134), China attracted an
average of two Anti-Dumping duties per year from the EC, considered
to be a rather high number in relation to its other trading partners. Safeguard measures were also being used against low-cost Chinese exports
considered to have injurious competition effects against industries in
the EC. Chinas export to the EC had increased from Ecu 628 million in
1975 to Ecu 1786 million in 1980, and Ecu 3936 million in 1975 (Dent
1999: 134).
The 1978 Trade Agreement showed early signs of protectionism
against Chinese imports by the EC (CEC 1978). It included a safeguarding clause, allowing the EC to take unilateral action against sudden influxes of Chinese imports, a restrictive Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN)
treatment clause, whereby the Chinese were not given the same treatment
as the GATT countries, and a clause which protected against Chinese
sales at low prices (CEC 1978; Kapur 1986: 47-48). The content of the
1985 revision to this agreement remained essentially the same (CEC
1985), which is not surprising considering the extent of Chinas economic growth during the period spanning the two agreements.
While these were critical times for the relationship between the EC
and China, it was clear that the institutionalization of the relationship as
well as established dialogue between the partners were already at a mature level. At this stage, regular contacts were in place to resolve any

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trade issues in the China-EC Joint Committee, in accordance with the

1985 framework agreement. When the EC issued its 1995 Communication (see the chapter by Cameron in this volume for details), China was
already making positive moves to liberalize its economy. According to
Kokko (2002: 25), China had made several unilateral import tariff cuts
since the early 1990s, and other reforms were resulting in an increased
degree of current account convertibility of the renminbi.
The ECs vociferous support for Chinas early entry in the WTO may
have been another milestone in the EC-China relationship. The EC
supported Chinas entry as a developing nation, and these offered far
more preferential entry terms than the Americans were willing to concede. This was reaffirmed in the Commissions 1995 Communication
which acknowledged that China was yet to become a developed economy (CEC 1995). In March 1994, the European Commission and China
initiated bilateral discussions under the GATT Working Party on China
to encourage reduction of non-tariff barriers (NTB) and changes to what
was considered to be a monopolistic foreign trade regime in China
(Shambaugh 1996: 23). The EC clearly saw itself as having a major part
in facilitating Chinas entry to the WTO, indicating that the EC consistently sought to accelerate progress towards a decision on Chinese membership since Chinas application to return to the GATT in July 1986,
and that the EC had a leading role in the negotiations (CEC 1995). This
has also been reflected in bilateral trade discussions since 1992 which,
according to the Commission, have promoted Chinas economic and
trade reforms, helped Chinas entry into the multilateral trading system
and achieved better market access for European goods and services
(1995).
In 1996, the EC made the critical proposal that China be given transition periods to implement certain WTO obligations after its accession.
This was eventually accepted by the WTO members. In 1997, China
agreed to phase out its trading monopolies and give full trading rights to
all Chinese and foreign individuals within three years of accession. China
also agreed to fully implement the WTO TRIPs agreement upon accession. This was followed by Chinas announcement that it would carry out
an overall restructuring of the state enterprise sector, as well as implement some measures of privatization.
Given the clear intentions of the European Commission, it was to be
expected that some sort of breakthrough would be achieved soon. In

THE EU AND CHINA IN THE CONTEXT OF INTER-REGIONALISM

73

October 1997, the European Commission referred to a conceptual breakthrough in its bilateral accession negotiations with China, and a provisional deadline of December 1998 was set for Chinas WTO accession
(Dent 1999: 147). During this critical period, the first two EC-China
Summits were held in 1998 and 1999, bringing along an expansion of the
political as well as the economic dialogue. The actual signing took place
in May 2000, allowing China to accede to the WTO. It should be noted,
however, that the US had already concluded its own bilateral agreement
with China in 1999.
While the maturing of relations and dialogue between China and the
EC continued between 1995 and 2000, the EC trade deficit continued to
grow. EC imports increased from Ecu 26.4 billion in 1995 to Ecu 69.6
billion in 2000, while EC exports to China only added up to Ecu 14.6
billion in 1995 and Ecu 25.4 billion in 2000. This meant that the EC
Member States trade deficit with China had quadrupled from Ecu 11.6
billion in 1995 to a staggering Ecu 44.6 billion in just five years (Allen
2002).
In 2003, China had become the ECs second largest trading partner
after the US, but by this stage the EC had already amassed its biggest
bilateral trade deficit of Ecu 64 billion against the Chinese. This was,
according to the Commission, continuing to widen (CEC 2005).
The Commissions 2003 Communication praised China for making
considerable efforts to keep up its WTO accession commitments, but it
also highlighted substantial concerns including the lack of transparency
of economic governance, restrictive regimes in certain sectors and introduction of new NTBs. The EC clearly stated that a year and a half after
Chinas WTO accession, it continues to encounter problems with market
access, services, the enforcement of intellectual property rights and compliance with international standards (CEC 2003: 15-16).
If a single feature were to mark the difference between the EC-China
partnership against others such as the EC-Japan and EC- Republic of
Korea partnerships, it would be the manner in which the EC-China
partnership has witnessed continuous cooperation right from the beginning of the ECs history. Issues of exogenous against endogenous effects
and patterns of interaction and communication continue to play extremely important roles in the EC-China cooperation process, but in this
particular case, progress appears to have resulted from familiarity and

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continuous dialogue rather than from conflict as was the case with the
ECs partnerships with Japan and the ROK.
The first principal feature of the EC-China partnership is based on
exogenous effects, and focused mainly on the lack of US involvement in
the partnership. The USs refusal to engage with China after World War
II provided the Europeans with a unique opportunity to engage with the
Chinese. This was not the case with Japan and the ROK where the US
had considerable sway over its East Asian allies. West Europeans were
quick to engage with the Chinese during this period of US hostility
against the Chinese, which provided them with the opportunity to engage
in a healthy trade relationship with China. Eventually, it appears that the
EC-China trade partnership has become based on this long and steady
cooperative relationship which began in the 1950s. When the US finally
re-established direct trade with China, it had an important impact in
reducing the ECs trade share with China, but the cooperation remained
and the examples in this chapter have shown how EC-China differences
were resolved quickly, perhaps due to the familiarity and long-standing
engagement between the two sides.
The second key feature of the interaction is the manner in which
endogenous effects appear to have been handled in a far more cautious
manner by the Europeans. Endogenous effects, particularly Chinas
opening of its economy since 1978, has resulted in a widening trade gap
between the EC and China. The ECs trade deficit with China has continued to grow. On the European side, the Commissions collective
action in dealing with the Chinese on trade matters has proven to be
effective, with most of the European countries preferring to hand over
competency to the Commission. This positive trend has broadly continued, apart from perhaps a minor incident involving textiles exports to the
EC in 2005 (commonly referred to as the bra wars) which was later
resolved amicably.
The third main feature of the EC-China relationship relates directly to
the first and second features and demonstrates how a long history of
interaction and communication has resulted in an optimistic and cooperative attitude between the partners. Numerous Communications by the
Commission also mark an exceptionally cooperative and patient undertone.

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75

Multilateral Inter-regionalism: Trends and Trajectories

A close look at the inter-regional ASEM process and the global economic environment surrounding it reveals three distinct stages in multilateral cooperation between China and the EU. They provide some important insights into the nature of cooperation and answer some interesting questions posed by inter-regionalism. The trends and trajectories
witnessed in the ASEM process also provide some useful insights into
the reasons partners may choose to shift between bilateral and multilateral strategies.
The first stage covers the period leading up to the 1990s, when both
sides appeared uninterested in developing a multilateral relationship in
any sense and all interactions were predominantly bilateral. This is, once
again, clear evidence of the priority of states as the main actors in the
EC-East Asian partnerships. Key European member states were at best
indifferent towards East Asia, including Japan, the Republic of Korea
and China. At worst, they were distrustful of what were then perceived
to be Japans neo-mercantilist policies. The East Asian states, some victims of trade barriers, began to perceive the EC as a fortress. This created a feeling of mutual distrust which may have resulted in a low level
of cooperation between the Europeans and the East Asians.
Before long, the mutual distrust began to take its toll, particularly on
Europe. The lack of a formal, multilateral, dialogue with the East Asian
nations meant there was no collective mechanism for dealing with East
Asia as a whole. During this period, the East Asian economies grew
speedily and the European trade deficit against the East Asian economies
mirrored this growth. There also appeared to be a cooling of enthusiasm
in the bilateral cooperation process between the EC and East Asian
states. This was made more obvious by the enhanced American presence
within the region in the form of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC), which the EC was not part of. Asia similarly lacked the access
to EC markets that other groupings, such as the ACP, were enjoying. By
this time, a formal multilateral relationship between the EC and East
Asia appeared to be long overdue.
The second stage began with the EU 1994 New Asia Strategy, which
was the beginning of signs that the EC was interested in engaging Asia
as a whole, and possibly through multilateral channels (CEC 1994). The
Asian economies were booming and the official declaration issued at the
end of the inaugural Asia-Europe Meeting in Bangkok in 1996 held the

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promise of further cooperation between the two regions. Had the dynamics of the international political economy not changed the following
year, it is perhaps possible that cooperation between the European and
Asian members of ASEM would have continued fruitfully according to
the guidelines set by the Bangkok Declaration. The period leading up to
the Bangkok Declaration can undeniably be described as the most promising period in the evolution of EU-Asia cooperation.
This stage provides some important insights into inter-regionalism
but it also raises some additional questions. It appears that the ECs
strategy was to begin institutionalizing the process and to sidetrack the
role of states as much as possible through the process. The strategy of
mirroring of the ECs own institutions and the use of institutions to
create stability was used actively to draw in the East Asians (Smith and
Vichitsorasatra 2008).
The onset of the Asian Financial Crisis from July 1997 saw a shift in
the cooperation scenario and the beginning of the third phase of collaboration. The balance of trade between the EC and Asia, already in Asias
favour, tripled as Asian currencies devalued. Since the establishment of
ASEM, trade between the EC and Asia had already increased substantially, although the EC did not view this as particularly helpful due to the
increased trade deficit.
The third phase of the evolution of cooperation in the ASEM process
highlights several important facts about the entire relationship. It shows
that ASEM clearly has the potential to succeed as an alternative method
to bilateralism and global multilateralism in conducting a multilateral
relationship between the two regions. Despite the informality of the
process and its non-binding nature, there is clear evidence that trade
between the two regions has significantly increased since the establishment of ASEM.
Moreover, the third stage of cooperation in the ASEM process indicates that if both sides of the ASEM equation do not feel that they are
equally benefiting from the cooperation process, either the EC or individual East Asian member states could refuse to extend their full cooperation. This clearly amounts to the accentuation of hierarchy, or at least an
attempt to accentuate hierarchy, whereby the EC tries to take control of
the process particularly when smaller states are involved. Once again, the
informality of the ASEM process acts as a double-edged sword and
offers the defecting side an easy excuse to leave the cooperation process.

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77

Instead of attempting to renegotiate the terms of engagement, as an

institutionalized process would encourage, the Europeans appear to be
phasing out cooperation in ASEM in favour of bilateral talks. The inability to advance conditionality in the ASEM process may appear to the
Europeans as another deadlock in the relationship. The 2003 New Partnership with Southeast Asia communication from the Commission
appears to be an alternative means of dealing with the ASEAN members
of ASEM (CEC 2003). It also offers a way out for the EC, which would
be more reluctant in placing conditionality on its relationship with China
than it would with ASEAN member states.
Thirdly, suggestions that ASEM could play an important role as a
catalyst for action in other international forums and be a valuable instrument for formalizing structures of regional economic integration in Asia
(Krenzler 2002: 10) might be rather unfounded. The 2003 Cancun trade
talks indicate that ASEM members are extremely fragmented in their
stand on trade liberalisation, and that the ASEM process has done little
to improve communication or cooperation between Europe and Asia in
matters concerning multilateral trade in the WTO (Gilson 2004; Kwa
2002; Maull and Okfen 2003: 245). The implication for multilateral interregionalism is that ASEM may not be an adequate supporting process of
international trade liberalization efforts, particularly if the partners have
not yet reconciled and agreed on their common interests.
Conclusion: Active Bilateralism and Passive Multilateralism
EC/EU-China relations have certainly evolved over the past five decades. The form they have taken is a reflection of the various balances in
conscious and subconscious policy choices made between shifting modes
of cooperation and material or ideational interests. The establishment of
accepted principles of conduct has also been derived from the history of
interaction between the EC and the East Asian nations, often resulting in
a mixture of material interest and ideas being used in the cooperation
process. The result of the evolution of EC-East Asian cooperation has
been the current process of active bilateralism juxtaposed with passive
multilateralism.
Right from the start, EU-China relations were thus rooted in strong,
common and material interests. A high degree of institutionalization, in
both the bilateral and multilateral relationships, can explain how the
desire for unrestrained material achievement was controlled. Neo-realism

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Natee Vichitsoratsatra

and neo-liberal institutionalism can explicate the EC-China relationship

to a certain extent but they fail to explain how and why the ASEM multilateral forum has still managed to survive. Rational choice theory also
fails to conclusively explain how the EC-Japan relationship, seriously
troubled at its initiation, managed to mature and its cooperation sustained despite serious periods of high tension conflict and trade imbalances. Similarly, the EC ambition to enter into an early friendly partnership with China, despite its fledgling economy and status as a non-market economy, cannot be entirely justified through neo-realism and neoliberal institutionalism.
The ECs desired identity as both an economic and a political powerhouse in the context of inter-regionalism has been a factor in its attempts
to make certain that its conduct of external relations is not only based on
material factors, but ideational ones as well. In the case of the EC and
China, a friendship has been established based on the long term acceptance of each other. Meanwhile, the resilience of the multilateral ASEM
process has been grounded in ideas, in addition to having a strong institutional basis.
The EC and China appear to have opted to place priority on their
common material interests, an exercise which has seen them head towards a period of active bilateralism. The EC-China relationship has
proven, over the years, to be based almost entirely on the common ambition for increased trade between the regions. While some politicization
of the process has taken place, this has mainly been from the influences
of trade. Likewise, the purpose of any established dialogue or institutions
is to promote the common material interests and to ensure that both
sides are guaranteed reciprocal treatment.
Given the preliminary empirical evidence surveyed for this chapter, a
period of active bilateralism has ensued during which trade issues receive
priority in the evolution of cooperation and where reciprocity is a requirement. The issues of institutions, values and ideas are factors which
might enter this active bilateralism as a secondary influence in order to
sustain cooperation. More importantly, whether cooperation thrives in
the evolution of active bilateralism depends strongly on accepted principles of conduct which include the partners reputations, the consistency
of dialogue, and the question of whether or not negotiations are usually
concluded in a reciprocal manner. These have been some of the key
factors which have sustained the EC-China relationship in the past.

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79

While an active and ongoing bilateral cooperation process dominates

the EC-China relationship, the ASEM process can be best described as
passive multilateralism. During the course of the relationship and the
creation of great expectations for ASEM during the Asian economic
boom, the partners may not have acknowledged that the true purpose of
ASEM may have simply been to encourage bilateralism. As such, one
might suggest that ASEM as a passive multilateral forum may not be
considered a failure, since its role has always been to stimulate and sustain growth in bilateral interaction.
ASEMs failure is subject to ongoing speculation and interpretation.
It seems fair to say that it failed more severely in some areas than in
others. While trade interaction between the EC and the Asian ASEM
members only increased marginally, leading to its poor reputation as a
multilateral forum, a steady process of increased institutionalization and
dialogue has been kept active. European and East Asian partners are
continually engaged in a series of meetings between top level bureaucrats
and political leaders, convening as often as twice a year. At ASEM summits, sensitive political dialogue is undertaken, alongside economic issues; this is rarely seen at a bilateral level. ASEM is, hence, the only
forum where the EC could actively engage the East Asian nations in a
dialogue on issues which would be almost impossible to address bilaterally.
The notion that passive ASEM multilateralism may have led to a
relatively successful set of EC-East Asian bilateral relationships is, however, misleading for several reasons. First, trade data indicate that Japan
(and ASEAN) has actually declined in importance as a trade partner for
the EC. Secondly, the ASEM forum has not had any role in ameliorating
or mediating any major bilateral trade conflicts, with the EC-ROK shipbuilding conflict being one of the most striking cases. Thirdly, the successful and maturing EU relationships with Japan and China are attributable more to bilateral institutionalization, developed long before the
initiation of ASEM, than to any initiatives started by the multilateral
forum.
For these reasons, ASEM appears to be a passive multilateral mode
of cooperation which has had limited benefit, particularly in the material
sense, for both sides of the partnership. The passivity, however, has
meant that the European and Asian ASEM members have been able to
enter into at least a rhetorical dialogue on political issues. It has also

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Natee Vichitsoratsatra

ensured that accepted principles of conduct are agreed on and that both
sides become familiarized with each others ideas and values. These ideas
and values have been introduced by both the European and Asian
ASEM members into ASEM, and the ASEM process has been conducted around these ideas and values. Last but not least, an extremely
intense nature of dialogue and institutionalization, possibly leading to the
dreaded forum fatigue, might actually be one of ASEMs most useful
features. The lack of understanding of ASEMs purpose and value may
be the primary factor keeping this multilateral forum from advancing
further.
A concise evaluation of the significance of this multilateral mode of
cooperation results in the preliminary finding that, while being only
marginally important, the evolution of cooperation between the EC and
China would have been different without ASEM. The relationship would
have been one with a smaller degree of trust, less dialogue and a lower
level of caring for, and familiarity with, one other. Although passive,
the presence of the multilateral mode of cooperation in the EC-China
engagement is justified if only because of the manner in which ASEM
has gradually introduced ideational values into the relationship. These
have been important in shaping the behaviour of the partners as well as
in ensuring that dialogue continues, even in the face of recurring instances of conflict.

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EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 83-102

DUALITY - DIALOGUE - DISCOURSE:

SOME PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS
IN EU-CHINA RELATIONS
Georg Wiessala
Abstract
This chapter offers seven perspectives, and a conclusion, on what is,
arguably, the thorniest issue in contemporary EU-China relations:
the human rights question. The study examines a number of fundamental ambiguities in Sino-European relations, and points to the
legacies of past civilisational encounters, in as far as they continue to
have an impact on current EU-China interaction (dualities, encounters). The chapter then briefly discusses how the EU-China dialogue
can be conceptualised from the point of view of international relations theory and discourse in China and Europe (embeddings, discourses). The essay proceeds to an analysis of the role of ideas,
identity-politics and perceptions in EU-China human rights discussions and examines how EU China foreign policy can be understood
to be constructed around some key elements and frameworks (identities, pathways). The chapter closes by emphasising the roles of
intellectual exchange and knowledge-based co-operation and by offering a brief closing assessment of the likely future course of EU-China
debates over human rights (connectivities, appraisals).
Dualities
When a citizenry that lacks rights consciousness is confronted with foreign
pressures, it is like a withered tree in a storm. Or if there are no foreign
pressures such a citizenry is like the tree in a drought. I see that all of the
millions of inhabitants of the earth, except for the black savages of India,

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Georg Wiessala
Africa, and Southeast Asia, no one has a weaker sense of rights than do we
Chinese.1

The relations between the European Union (EU) and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) are a game of two halves, in more ways than one.
In one sense, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to EUChina interaction an important phenomenon this chapter will explore.
But beyond that, perhaps more importantly, duality seems to be the
watch-word of China-EU contacts. Some would go further and say that
ambiguity is the leitmotiv of the relationship, as well as the handmaiden of
consensus, in the China-Europe inter-continental conversation. When it
comes to what one may call the intellectual geography, and the position
of human rights, in the EU-China exchange, a number of paradoxes and
dualities become apparent.
On the most general level, there is the duality of history. The key
paradoxes here concern, for instance, the fact that it was often Chinese
inventions of many centuries ago, which, when borrowed by Europe,
allowed the latter to steam ahead of China from the late 19th Century
onwards. On the flipside of this paradox, Yahuda (2008: 20/1) rightly
points to the thought that it was the very assimilation of the European,
Westphalian, system by China which did much to determine Chinese
concerns for issues such as territorial integrity, national security and
claims to succession, for instance in regard to Taiwan and Tibet. A second intriguing paradox is the way in which European attitudes towards
China have always vacillated between admiration and disgust, Sinophilia
and Sinophobia, since before Montaigne, Leibnitz or Voltaire.2 The arguments advanced by Sen (2006) about European curatorial, magisterial
and exoticist approaches towards India transpose quite easily to the
Europe-China context.
This chapter suggests that these perceptions continue to count today,
for instance, in debates over Chinese agency in world history, Asian
Values, globalization, contributions to civilisation and the right path
towards democracy and fair and equitable development. In this context,
it is fair to say that what has been termed human rights diplomacy
(renquan waijiao) mirrors another, wider, duality in EU-Asia relations:
1
Liang Qichao (1873-1929). Xinmin shuo, Chung-hua shu-ch (ed. Taiwan: Zhonghua
shuju, 1959). Ch. 8, 31-32; 38-39 - PZ; quoted from: WM T. De Bary and R. Lufrano.
2000: 295.
2
BBC Radio 3: English Takeaway, 2009.

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85

debates about rights contain the potential to become, firstly, an enabling, accelerating, aspect of relations. Secondly, they can also turn into
an inhibitory mechanism, slowing down progress. Human rights issues,
in the shape of EU policy-conditionalities are, thirdly, often drivers of
international foreign-policy decisions pertaining to the EU and China
as the activities of the PRC in Africa3 show (Holslag 2006: 11/12; Zhang
Tiejun 2007: 153/4; Leonard 2008: 96/7). This chapter seeks to demonstrate that this enabling-inhibitory-dynamic is alive in contemporary EUChina dialogue.
In China-EU exchanges, a dynamic tension exists between, on the
one hand, the lure and myth of the (Chinese) market (Yahuda 2008: 21)
and Chinas impact on Europes economic recovery, and, on the other
hand, human rights and the rule of law; this tension forms a key dualist
theme in this chapter. It is not just since US Foreign Secretary Hillary
Clintons explicit de-coupling of trade from human rights in US-China
relations4 that some point to liberties being sacrificed on the altar of
Sino-European trade.
But the most pertinent duality of all, framing human rights in EUChina relations, lies in the starkly contrasting views of China in circulation at present (Peerenboom 2008: 2-22; World Affairs 2007): on the one
hand, the PRC is seen, in a phrase coined by Kishore Mahbubani, as
manifestation of the New Asian Hemisphere (Mahbubani 2008), a selfconfident, peacefully-rising superpower, replacing the prevailing Washington Consensus on world affairs with ideas like Beijing Consensus, Harmonious
Society, Walled World and Lawfare; a successful rational-authoritarian oneparty state, with an emerging, largely conservative, middle-class; a government putting economic and cultural rights before civil and political
ones; a state jockeying for position in a new Asian Great Game; above
all, a potential example for other developing nations in Asia and Africa
to follow suit (Youngs 2001; Leonard 2008: 96-107). Its many critics, on
the other hand, perceive the PRC as a brutal human rights pariah, censoring the press and the internet, closing human rights law firms,5 destroying Tibetan culture, propping up rogue-states such as Sudan,
North Korea, Uzbekistan and Burma, and abusing the prestige afforded

The novel French term Chinafrique aptly encapsulates this phenomenon.

See for example: China Reluctant to Lead, Policy Innovations, 18 March 2009.
5
Recent example: Guardian, 20 March 2009: 29.
4

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Georg Wiessala

by the Olympic Games to hide intolerance, corruption and manipulation6.

The dualities hinted at, above, seem to be woven deeply into the very
fabric of EU-China interaction this chapter cannot, therefore, resolve
them in one stroke. It may, however, be useful to explore some of the
ways in which duality contributes to a frame of reference for the human
rights question in EU-China contacts, and to offer for further scrutiny
some of the borders of this frame.
Encounters
The theory of peoples rights will bring us not a particle of good but a
hundred evils. Are we going to establish a parliament? 7

It is well nigh impossible to refer to human rights in EU-China relations

without recourse to the basic historical legacies of the relationship. The
European mood-swings which accompanied Sino-European contacts
have already been hinted at. They were a wider manifestation of the way
in which Europe and China have always defined themselves, for better
or for worse, in contra-distinction of one another, as each others at
times distorted mirror-image. In See China, learn what Europe must become,
Umberto Eco raised the ongoing implications of this for the EU8.
However, any understanding of why human rights are causing friction
in China-EU dialogue also has to embrace some appreciation of what
one may call the iceberg-issues: obstacles to understanding beneath the
surface of discussion-formats, such as the Informal ASEM Seminars on
Human Rights (e.g. ASEF, 2001), the ASEF University, the ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism and the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue. Icebergissues, nevertheless, possess the potential to cause serious harm, if they
are, wilfully or inadvertently, ignored. The history of China-Europe
civilisational exchange looms large here: suffice it to mention Chinese
humiliation and European colonial guilt stemming from the time of the
Treaty Ports,9 and the debates between European Jesuits and Chinese

See the chapters by David Askew and Peter Anderson in this volume.
Zhang Zhidong (1837-1009) Rectifying Political Rights; source as fn 1: 247.
8
See: The Sunday Times, 8 April 2004: 4.
9
China still commemorates the protests, on May 4 1919, against the Versailles
Treaty, bequeathing German concessions in China to Japan.
7

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87

intellectuals over the right way, to measure time, decode the heavens
and grasp the place of human beings in society.
These episodes have left important legacies, as has the development
of diverse traditions in East and West. The Enlightenment left Europe
with a taste for individualism and a curiosity of enquiry (de Prado 2007;
Ringmar 2007). Confucian scholars, by contrast, emphasised societal
harmony, duties and subordination of the individual to group requirements. Both intellectual traditions continue to be instrumentalised in
human rights and Asian Values debates of our era, in spite of their
wider potential (Bell 2008; Garton Ash 2009). However, in our time,
Confucius has gone to market.10 The Masters teachings experience
experiencing a renaissance as a tool in contemporary Chinese international diplomacy.11
These legacies of China-Europe relations have important contemporary repercussions: they live on in the enquiries of the 21st Century, as to
what kind of contributions East and West will have made to global civilisation. They also inform debates over just how instrumental economic
and cultural, civil and political, rights were in these contributions. In
terms of China-EU, the lessons of the past if they have indeed been
learned influence the present and the future. They constitute a knowledge resource base and a store of memories, determining how conceptions of rights are shaped, how research agendas develop and how
political labels such as knowledge-based-dialogue or value-guided policies emerge. In EU-China relations, issues such as global leadership,
involvement in international organisations, rights rgimes and security
challenges have deep roots in the connections of former centuries. Contemporary arguments about de-Westernisation, the Asian Hemisphere,
Clashes of Civilisations and Peaceful Rise owe a recognisable debt to
the vagaries and stereotypes of China-Europe civilisational encounters of
past ages; and a consciousness regarding human rights and their relative
ranking in society is an integral part of this picture.

10
11

Phrase borrowed from the Observer newspaper, 21 September 2003: 30.

The University of Central Lancashire opened its Confucius Institute in 2008.

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Georg Wiessala

Embeddings
The most immediate consequence of Chinas rise is that the much predicted
universalization of Western liberal democracy has stalled (Leonard 2008: 117)

A large number of intellectual threads have emerged as possible tools for

a critique of human rights matters in EU-China relations. Some sought
to position the issue in the context of globalisation, clashes of civilisations, paths to modernity, development studies and normative theory.
At least one, realist-inspired, global political economy perspective has
been very influential (Close and Askew 2004). However, the most deepseated EU-China human rights dichotomy is, arguably, the universalistversus-relativist paradigm: its tenor hardly needs elaborating. In the Western tradition, an understanding of civil and political rights was influenced by a Judaeo-Christian background. Those categories of rights
particularly, but by no means exclusively, are seen as all-embracing,
embedded in the very nature of what it means to be human, and globally
applicable, quite irrespective of local traditions. They cannot be abrogated with impunity, by reference to concepts like culture or values. By
contrast, relativists and Asian Values proponents point to the division
of rights into economic-cultural ones on the one hand, and civil-political
ones on the other; they stress that the latter do not make sense without
first creating the right conditions for the former, such as wealth. Many
supporters of this view emphasise collectivist over individual entitlements, often stressing regional traditions.
In addition to these views, it is possible to delineate the EU-China
normative territory with reference to the term identity. Here, human
rights, especially civil liberties and integrity-rights, are perceived to form
an intrinsic part of the political DNA of regions. In the case of the EU,
largely derived from Development Policy, human rights consciousness is
constructed as a part of the very cloth of European-ness, from which
follows that human rights cannot be subservient to economic and other
conditions. This results in a particular promotional agenda of exporting
the Western model of rule of law, democracy, good governance and
human rights to the international stage (Youngs 2001). In the case of
China, this notion of a mission democratique of the EU is countered by an
emphasis on Asian legal traditions, Asian Values and an insistence on
non-interference in domestic affairs an approach polemicised as

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89

Beijingoism.12 Many of these notions are rooted in concepts of specific

national identities and regional destinies.
A further, major, part of the EU-China research agenda is driven by a
focus on regionalism, institutionalism and regime-types (Katzenstein
2005), inter-regional co-operation and the question of the model-character of regional entities for one another (Fort and Webber 2006; Welfens
et at 2006). Here, the issue, for example, of what China, ASEAN and the
EU can possibly learn from one another about human rights, can assume
a central position. A notable portion of this programme of enquiry is
predisposed towards social-constructivist, theories, the key to which is an
understanding of the dialectic of agency and structure, and the role of
ideas, role-concepts and identities, as drivers of politics and constitutions (Tonra and Christiansen 2004; Wiessala 2006). Political actors like
the EU or China are moulded by the very way they interact, the conditions they create for instance for a fruitful human rights dialogue,
and by the patterns of opportunity and constraint within which political
agency and advocacy occur (Bretherton and Vogler 1999: 29). The enabling versus inhibitory dynamic of divergent ideas on human rights in
EU-China interaction can, therefore, be seen to be playing itself out in
overlapping, normative and identity-related, arenas of the EU-China
dialogue. The rejection of realist and liberal approaches and the juxtaposition of hard versus soft power appears common to most constructivist views. For EU-China relations, an emphasis is placed, rather, on
negotiation, persuasion, knowledge-partnerships and intellectual exchange, all of which are seen as powerful agents of change and conduits
for people-to-people-relations.
Discourses
Since there is no East and there is no West, how could either be the best?13

These theoretical conceptualisations of EU-China interaction are underpinned by a range of powerful discursive traditions influencing human
rights discussions in EU-China relations. The Asian Values debates of
the 1990s (e.g. Bauer and Bell, 1999; Youngs 2001) might seem dated
now (World Affairs, 1998), but it is by no means dead, and China has its
12
13

The Economist, 2 August 2008: 11.

Phrase inspired by: E. Friedman in Jacobsen and Bruun 2000: 21.

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Georg Wiessala

unique place in it. For many, the Asian Financial Crisis (1997/98) rendered thinking about Asian Values obsolete. After all, the Asian Sonderweg, or special path to development, did not prevent the collapse; it did
not then, nor does it now, in the global downturn of our times. For those
of a universalist normative persuasion, the Asian Values label was always little more than an ideological tool, justifying authoritarianism in
Asia, on the spurious grounds that states are rather like families, and
duties count for more than rights. It is not necessary to dwell on this for
too long here, as China, in any case, escaped much of that particular
crisis owing to its governments fiscal policies. However, this did not
prevent the PRCs leaders from promoting many of the paternalistic
ideas attributed to this particular discursive channel, especially when
faced with criticism from the EU or US over the Chinese human rights
record. Even now, the spirit of the Asian Values debate is never far
away instead, it has metamorphosed into wider arguments over who
has been the real engine of world history,14 and who contributes most to
international organisations and inter-civilisational dialogue.
Next to cultural politics and Asian Values, the normative spaces
occupied by the human rights issue in EU-China dialogue are inspired by
discursive traditions analysing democratic institutional practice, security
and regionalism (Katzenstein 2005), ASEAN-EU relations, and Asian
human rights mechanisms (e.g. Muntarbhorn 2001; Close and Askew
2004). Alternative enquiries focus on Asian constitutionalism (e.g. ANU
2003), limitations of rights, civil society (e.g. Ratnam 2003; Singh 2007)
and Chinese legal thought.
In the latter area, a cluster of writers espoused a religious-philosophical dimension, seeking to recruit Buddhism or Confucianism15, in order
to buttress human rights, humanism, communitarian ideas and noninterference (World Affairs, 1998: 25/6; Bauer and Bell 1999; Wiessala
2006: 44-47). Thus, personalities from times past and present, from the
Indian Emperor Aoka, to the Dalai Lama, have become something akin
to human rights heroes (World Affairs, 1998: 26-28; Sen 2001: 236). In
addition, some have suggested that a special path for China is justified
by her size, age and other conditions (Christie and Roy 2001; Barr 2002).
But contemporary, discourse inside the Chinese power-house of
ideas is as wide-spread, as it is generally underrated by many Western
14
15

For example: BBC History Magazine 9(8) August 2008: 21.

For example: Asian Affairs, 02/08: 28.

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91

observers. This holds true for debates between the New Left and the
New Right in China, on economic reform, political power, equality,
markets, neo-liberalism and the role of the state. Leonard (2008: 29, 9499) demonstrates cogently how Chinese intellectuals of a liberal-internationalist, nationalist-neo-comm or pragmatist ilk are appropriating
western globalization discourses, adapting them to a Chinese context.
This is apparent in current Chinese discourse on soft power (ruan
quanli), through an enhanced dissemination of Chinese culture and ideas
world-wide, through agents such as Confucius Institutes, CCTV 9 and
China Radio International.16 But it applies equally to human rights debates
(Jacobsen and Bruun 2000). Indeed, rights and values have always
been key leitmotivs of post-enlightenment China-Europe exchange; in this
context, Chinese intellectuals thematised freedom and personal liberty
(Angle 2002; Yun 2002), examined the fragmented character of Chinese
society and explored notions of human nature, good and evil, duties
and rights (He 1996: 110).
The subordination of rights under prerequisites, such as economic
circumstances, development and national conditions (guoqing) is a recurring theme (Yun, 2002: 7; Angle 2002: 256). Scholars like Chih-Yu Shih
(1999: 97-99), related human rights with current Chinese rule-of-lawthought. Others investigated the potential of a hybrid-constitutional,
party-rule (dangzhu lixian) in China (Zou 2007). Observers like Wang
(2003: 16-73) scrutinised the relationship between rights, reciprocity
and power within Confucianism and Chinese history. And other contemporaries (Chan 2000: 218/9; Christie and Roy 2001: 220) argued that
Confucian morale transcends a relationship-based ethic and does not
need to be seen to reject human rights ideas (see also: de Bary 1998).
The last decade resulted in many unique discursive contributions,
some of them of a more constructivist, cultural-linguistic, bend. David
Kellys Asian Lexical Matrix, demonstrating the associations between
freedom, human rights and such concepts, and the accessibility of
appropriate words/ signs for them in Asian languages has lost none of
its power more than ten years after its first publication (Kelly 1998).
More recently, scholarship on discursive constructions and communicative strategies in EU-China relations was contributed by San Golden
16
English-language Shortwave Frequencies in May 2009 included: 5960, 7205,
7285 and 9440 kHz. See: http://english.cri.cn/. Radio Taiwan International is on 6155
kHz.

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(2006), perhaps as a reminder of just how powerful, yet under-represented, the analytical tools of integration-discourse-analysis can be in the
study of EU-Asia interaction (Diez 2001).
In the present, scholars like Peerenboom (2008) are attempting to
separate ideological ballast from pertinent critique in EU-China relations.
Peerenbooms work helps to isolate the key questions: what is the relationship between development and the rule of law, between the latter
and democratisation, between wealth, civil society and human rights? Is
an amount of discretion compatible with rule of law, and can trade be
married to human rights? Many China-watchers have queried whether
civil society is a political, economic or alternate concept (Singh 2007:
115), and whether democracy and growth have to be in direct competition to one another. Is China, as Christie and Roy have claimed (2001:
232), really too vast, too poor and too populous to sustain political and
economic rights? Is it disingenuous to state, as some do (Cameron and
Yongnian 2007: 13), that human rights are too sensitive a subject to be
brought to the (Chinese) leadership level? Is economic advancement ipso
iure changing political assertiveness among the Chinese public, and fostering convergence on human rights and democratic reform (Haina Lu
2003; Andreosso 2004)? Will political pluralism as if on auto-pilot
contribute to a resolution of Chinas problems? There are no simple
answers to these questions, but it seems that the PRC is currently something akin to a global laboratory of political transition. There is evidence
that economics, democratisation and human rights are, indeed, strongly
inter-linked (Wei-Wei Zhang 2003: 11; Andreosso OCallaghan 2004).
On human rights, many comment on the EUs policy-preference for the
civil-political side of the spectrum. Is this justifiable or, as some have
suggested (Angle 2002: 256/7; Peerenboom 2008), merely a tactical
dialogue-debate, deliberately conflating liberal democracy with the rule of
law, and seeking to skirt awkward questions about global inequalities?
Identities
Many of these questions are indeed behind the ups and downs of EU
dialogue with China over human rights. In addition to this, what makes
this particular aspect of EU-Asia relations so special is a peculiar, threefold, phenomenon:
Firstly, EU-China human rights interaction can be said to be characterised by a large number of, what may be termed, signature-issues. This

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93

term is meant to imply that (a) these topics have become emblematic for
a focus on the civil and political category of human rights; (b) that they
stand out through their recurrence and recognisability in the official
EU-China dialogue; and (c) that they are, by their very, contentious,
nature, able to raise the diplomatic temperature in China-EU relations
(Ching 2008; Jing Men 2009: 3).
Amongst these issues are: human rights in commercial agreements
(Bartels 2005: 33),17 freedoms of speech and media control in the PRC
and in Hong Kong, the suppression of opposition and political dissent
since the Tiananmen Square massacres;18 conditions of detention, the death
penalty, the Sinification of Tibet; the position of the Dalai Lama and
religious choice for Christians, Muslims and Falun Gong practitioners in
China; the Chinese strike-hard-at-crime campaigns, the Chinese judicial
system and the pace of (legal) reform (Ching 2008; Peerenboom 2008).
Last, but not least, this, incomplete, list must also include Chinese ratification of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), the situation in Myanmar (Burma)19 and issues of associationpolitics and national identity across the Taiwan Straits (Fuh-Sheng Hsieh
2004).20
Secondly, a number of questions, such as the arms embargo, and EU
Member States sponsorship (until 1998) of a Resolution censuring the
PRC over human rights at the UN Human Rights Commission, have
become wedge-issues in EU-China dialogue, dividing Member States
and Council alike (Close and Askew 2004: 106; Balducci 2009: 9-11).
Some see in those developments the fruits of a deliberate Chinese strategy of divide et impera.21 To counterbalance this, there are also hinge-issues, bringing the EU and the PRC closer together over common interests. Terrorism, climate-change and policy towards Burma (Myanmar)
constitute pertinent examples. These issues have become corner-stones
17
Trade with China falls under the 1985 EEC-China Co-operation Agreement,
which does not include a human-rights-clause (see: [1985] OJ L250/2).
18
The 20th Anniversary of the killings in 2009 coincided with the publication of
ex-premier Zhao Ziyangs secret memoirs Prisoner of the State. In May 2009, the BBC
World Service broadcast a series of commemorative programmes, entitled The Lost Voices
of Tiananmen Square (http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/docarchive).
19
Events in Burma in May 2009 influenced the 11th EU-China Summit in May
2009 (http://www.euobserver.com of 18 May 2009).
20
See also the chapter on Taiwan by Paul Lim in this volume.
21
For example, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT): http://www.
savetibet.org/

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Georg Wiessala

in the EUs diplomatic toolkit for China, the rhetorical construction of

which has, at times, been more declaratory, at times more activist in
nature. This can be seen in at least eight Commission papers on China,
which increasingly employs a discourse of commonality, responsibility
and maturity, in line with general perceptions about contemporary, rising Asia.22
In spite of this, the EU has but trifling successes to point to. In the
face of an institutionalised EU-China Human Rights Dialogue (HRD) from
1995 onwards,23 and after the 60th Anniversary of the UNDHR in 2008,
many Chinese activists continue to be in detention, while pre-Olympics
promises of liberty are not being honoured. Success eludes the EU in
human rights engagement with China, and China demonstrates to Europe that, the king is naked (Baker 2002: 60/1; Balducci 2009: 8). Notwithstanding this, the EU has, thirdly, been uniquely successful in rendering human rights and liberal democracy integral parts of its own
political identity, acquis communautaire and self-image. This incremental
constitutionalisation of human rights into a value-based EU foreign
policy owes much to the eventful European history of the last two decades, as well as to EU co-operation with international organisations,
although, in the case of China, there has been little European unity at the
UN of late.
The principal EU human rights stance can be said to have arisen
from (a) a progressive, incremental, politicisation of the Development
Policy and the CFSP (Bartels 2005; KAS 2006); (b) the growth of supranational competencies; (c) many integration-friendly decisions of the
European Parliament and the European Court of Justice; and (d) the
wider EU treaty-architecture and legal institutionalism, which gradually
became more inclusive of human rights (K. Smith, 2003; Wiessala,
2006). This specific EU ethic of a principled political actor-ness is
powerfully articulated through a paradigm-shift towards a soft, civilian,
normative power-base, from which stems democratic pressure to promote human rights, globally and in China (Wiessala 2006; Haltern 2004:
184-191; Youngs 2001: 2). This inter-locking of identity, unity, integration, and law in the EU polity yielded a culture of rights and culminated
22
For example: COM (1995) 279; (1998) 181; (2001) 265; (2003) 533; the PRC
countered with its first EU-Policy paper, in 2003.
23
The 27th round of the EU-China HRD, as well as, the 11th EU-China Summit
both took place in Prague in May 2009 (Council: Press Release 9995/09 Presse 134).

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95

in the EU Human Rights Charter. The spirit of the 1973 Declaration on

European Identity,24 referring to human rights as part of a shared European heritage, has clearly been acted on. Few in the EU-Asia epistemic
community have since asked against whom or what this identity may be
defined.
Apart from the legacy of stereotyping, there is another, potentially
more serious, issue here. This concerns divergent levels of stringency and
legal scrutiny in EU human rights standards towards the PRC, on the
one hand, and elsewhere, on the other. The EUs human rights policy
if one can indeed be said to exist is not cut from one cloth and, consequentially, the Union has to face accusations of political double standards in foreign policy, demanding higher standards, in an unequal manner, to no-democracies (e.g. Bartels 2005: 39).
Pathways
Chinas inertia towards European proselytism is not going to change soon.
On the contrary, China is determined to write its own story. It does not
need a ghost writer (Holslag 2006: 12)

EU foreign policy towards the PRC on human rights exists next to similar initiatives of at least five EU Member States in China (Holslag 2006:
2). Moreover, since 2003, the EUs approach has been billed as part of a
wider, strategic, dialogue (zonghe zhanlue huoban guanxi) (KAS 2006;
Shambaugh 2008: 135). Looking at its detail, Algieri (2008: 79) mentions
the EUs policy-making and institutionalization patterns as the two main
wellsprings of its China policy. The strategic partnership entails a network of sector-specific, regional and multi-lateral co-operation, although
the use of the term is still subject to critical scrutiny (Holslag 2006; Jing
Men 2009: 4).25
While the multitude of EU-China sector-specific dialogues cannot be
elaborated here26, it is worth noting that relations stand out noticeably,
even in the limited context of EU-Asia relations, in two ways: firstly,
through their complexity and ability to shape wider EU-Asia relations;
secondly, by the way they suffer from incoherence, imbalance and
24

Copenhagen Summit, 14 December 1973: EC Bulletin, 12-1973.

An EU-China Conference in Brussels in May 2009, co-organised by Friends of Europe
had, as its central subject, the EU-China Strategic Partnership.
26
cf. http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/china/sectoraldialogue_en.htm; IP 09/212
25

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Georg Wiessala

credibility-deficit. There is no co-ordinated EU-China policy on human

rights, and the EU does not have sufficient political instruments and
dialogue-capacities for its efficient construction (Youngs 2001: 188/9;
Algieri 2008). For some (Holslag 2006), this is part of the Great Disillusion of EU-China.
What strategy there is, remains clearly skewed towards economic
objectives. The European Voice summarised this dilemma with characteristic aplomb: Galileo grabs the Headlines, but Human Rights Problems in China
still a Major Bugbear.27 China-EU analysts are right in deploring a deficiency in mutual understanding at the root of relations; perhaps another
duality of the dialogue is apparent here (Cameron and Zheng 2007: 12;
Yahuda 2008: 30; Jing Men 2009: 5). This gap is in strange contradiction
to the branched-out nature of EU-China initiatives.28 Some have claimed
that this mushrooming of initiatives, much like the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), hides real progress on the ground in exactly such matters as
human rights, democracy and the pace of reforms. Others would level
similar allegations against two other pillars of EU China policy: the oneChina-principle and the EUs method of constructive, or conditional
engagement, an approach the EU appears to have borrowed from the
ASEAN vocabulary, and which is distinct from the containment-competition approach at times preferred by the US.29
In the past, the EU routinely framed its China approach in terms of a
dialogue backed by action. This meant a carrots-and-sticks-approach
which made co-operation contingent on progress on the ground. Thus,
human rights observance appeared more of a conditio-sine-qua-non for
collaboration. Europe, in Holslags words, did not try to floor the
dragon, neither to cage it, but to discipline it. (Holslag 2006: 5). More
recently, the EUs linguistic-constructive diplomatic arsenal produced a
new, subtler, flavour, emphasising commonality, shared responsibilities
and respect for difference.30 A May 2009 statement of James Moran,
Asia-Director in DG RELEX, summarised this new way: human rights
divergencies must not be allowed to undermine the overall direction of
EU-China relations (Moran 2009: 4/5). Thus, trade is the real back27

European Voice, 23-29 October 2003: 29.

IP/08/648, of 25/04/08. A recent addition was the High Level Economic and Trade
Dialogue (ETD). The 2nd ETD took place on 7/8 May 2009 in Brussels.
29
cf. the chapter by Michael Smith and Huaixian Xie, in this volume.
30
COM (2006) 631.
28

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97

bone of EU-China relations, and relations are vital to the European

economic recovery.31 Not quite the Clinton-take, but, perhaps, not far
off. Other practically-minded policy-makers point out that the old EU
concept may have proved too rigid, and that human rights issues now
require dis-association from broader co-operation. If China has indeed
changed beyond recognition over the last decade, so it is argued, is it not
somewhat anachronistic that EU human rights policies vis--vis China
remained so comparatively immutable?
Connectivities
One more point deserves to be mentioned just because there are now
signs that this immutability is slowly being overcome: geo-politics, human rights and knowledge do, of course, go hand in hand. Indeed, recent
EU policy papers on China are now strongly foregrounding education,
people-to-people exchanges, inter-civilisational dialogue, common curriculum development (Wiessala 2008; Shambaugh et al 2008), intellectual
exchange and an EU-Asia partnership of knowledge. This new strand in
EU-Asia relations calls for more knowledge-based co-operation and
appears driven by conclusions drawn about the global village and the
importance of knowledge-economies for future multi-level governance
(de Prado 2007).
This is, of course, not a new idea at all: knowledge-transference, as
well as stereotyping have a venerable tradition in the centuries-old EUAsia-China civilisational encounter, since long before the time of the Silk
Road.32 From Europes point of view, for instance, the learning dimension of a relationship with China (and Asia) has embraced aspects as
diverse as the discovery of Buddhism by European Orientalists, the
structured learning environment (ratio studiorum) introduced by the Jesuit
enterprise in China, the amnsie philosophique of European intellectuals
towards India (Droit 2004) and the defensive modernisation of parts of
Asia vis--vis European colonisation, to name but a few examples.
In fact, EU-China and EU-Asia relations can be said to be the very
embodiment of a connectivity of ideas and knowledge stipulated by
some observers (World Affairs 11:4 (2007) 17, 107). The most recent EU
31

See: euobserver of 19 May 2009 (http://euobserver.com/9/28156?print=1).

In 2008/09, the exhibition The Lure of the East at the Tate Britain and a series of
programmes entitled English Takeaway on BBC Radio Three were useful reminders of
this history.
32

98

Georg Wiessala

policy papers on Asia now routinely foreground issues such as

knowledge-based-cooperation and the warp and weft of growing
people-to-people-contacts (Crossick and Reuter 2007: xx). It seems that
now is a good time to put flesh to the bones, and to extend this learning dimension into the area of human rights.
A holistic extension of EU-China relations, into the field of education, would appear to be vindicated by current analyses of the links between the thirst for knowledge and human rights, in China and elsewhere. Thus, Will Hutton identified the dare to know and the capacity
to aspire (Hutton 2007: 53, 201) as keys to future pluralism and human
rights consciousness. Similarly, de Prado (2007: 26-29, 97), identifies
soft intellectual power and knowledge-mediators as facilitators of AsiaEurope dialogue. Ringmar (2007: 221-241) stresses the importance of
reflective institutions and the potentialities of institutionalised learning
in China-Europe relations. In terms of human rights in EU-China relations, these debates may, over time, become important tools of the new
knowledge-economies; tools, which benefit the East-West dialogue,
because, in Li Jinshans phrase (2007: 223), they amplify the mental
power of mankind. Perhaps initiatives such as the European Studies in
Asia (ESiA) programme of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) and the
Europe through the Eyes of Asia project (Holland et al 2007),33 can be a first
step on this particular Long March to understanding.
Appraisals
In 2006 the Economist could still claim that:
Whereas economically, China has surged ahead in the past few years, politically, it remains almost as secretive, just as risk-averse nearly as dictatorial
and every bit as determined to crush any organised dissent as it was at the
turn of the decade.34

And, near the end of the present decade, Rana Mitter (2008: 91) elaborated on the same topic:
The wider Chinese world opens up intriguing divisions between what is
free and democratic. China itself is neither fully free nor democratic.
Taiwan, since the 1990s, has been both free and democratic. Singapore, a
largely Chinese society, is democratic, in that it has regular elections which
33
34

http://esia.asef.org
A Survey of China, 25/03/06: 13.

SOME PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN EU-CHINA RELATIONS

99

are nominally open to opposition candidates (but at high cost to themselves), but is not free (the media and political activism are both heavily
regulated). Most intriguing though, is Hong Kong, which is little more
democratic than it was under the British.

Notwithstanding these comments, China has made significant strides on

her path to social re-structuring, poverty-alleviation, freedom for its
citizens, wealth-creation and, to some degree, political transparency
(Cameron and Yongnian 2007: 11). Keyuan Zous assessment encapsulates the transitoriness of the current state of affairs best (Zou 2006: 27):
rule of man and rule of law, rule by law and rule of law co-exist in
contemporary China, governed by a version of rule of the Party by law.
In this situation the suggestions put forward by some (e.g.: Crossick
and Reuter 2007: 192), that human rights ought now to begin to be
articulated towards China as a matter of national interest, rather than
one of external pressure, can point to a constructive way forward for
one of the most significant foreign policy human rights relationships of
the European Union. Perhaps the EU and China may wish to be guided
in their future relations by both the inspiration and the challenge expressed in the Chinese axiom of overcoming difficult times together
(gong ke shi jian):

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EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 103-120

SPORT AND POLITICS:

THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES
David Askew
Abstract
During the Cold War, and in post-Mao China today, international
sporting events have been, and continue to be, seen as an arena in
which to display national superiority. Despite the emphasis of the
Olympic movement on the ability of sport to promote international
understanding and peace, the sporting field all too frequently remains
a political arena that is divided by rivalry instead of united by friendship. In China, sport has long been mobilized to construct narratives
of national identity. In the twentieth century, initial anxieties about
Chinas place in the world were projected onto the bodies of Chinese
athletes, and produced a discourse that fixated on what were perceived to be inherent national weaknesses. Sporting success has
helped China to overcome, at least in part, this sense of inferiority.
Today, the Olympic Games provide a newly confident China with a
highly visible arena in which the new Chinese body can be displayed,
and in which athletic ability and national competitiveness can be
celebrated. In particular, the Beijing Olympic Games functioned as a
site of intense nationalistic emotion and pride. Following the collapse
of communism as a legitimate ideal, an attempt has been made in
China to graft aspects of the market economy on to a Marxist political dictatorship. Since the CCP suffers questions of legitimacy, the
nationalistic pride generated by sporting success has become increasingly important to the Party-State. However, the narrative on Beijing
and national identity also faces many challenges, with Chinas human
rights record in particular threatening to cast a dark shadow over the
Olympic success story.

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David Askew

Introduction
Hong et al (2005) note that Beijing views international and, in particular,
Olympic sporting successes as a significant, symbolic, demonstration of
its determination to forge a place in the international community for
China as a superpower. Beijing hoped and believed that the Beijing
Olympic Games would function to announce the arrival of an emerging
global power, and sought to recreate the global narrative of China as the
story of a forward-looking, modern nation that can boast a long and
glorious past. When China bid for the Games, the confident and revealing slogan it used was New Beijing, Great Olympics (in English) and
New Beijing, New Olympics (Xin Beijing Xin Aoyun) in Chinese. According to the official Party version of Chinese history, Chinas modern
history consists of a century of shame and humiliation that lasted from
the Opium Wars through to 1949. This century was followed by a long
period of international isolation and what can only be called the genocidal madness of the PRC the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957, the
Great Leap Forward of 1958-1960 and subsequent mass starvation, the
Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1969, and the Tiananmen Square (June
the Fourth) Massacre of 1989, together with the invasion and occupation
of Tibet in 1950 and continuing human rights abuses throughout China.
China has moved away from this history, and so the term New Beijing
is a highly pregnant one.
At the same time, however, the ghosts of the past are not easily laid
to rest. In a fascinating and insightful paper, Lovell (2008: 765) argues
that, an unstable consciousness of ancient glory and modern humiliation
still haunts the contemporary Chinas self-image, and provides the context against which we must read the mixed messages of the Beijing
Olympics a metonym for the curious phenomenon of modern Chinese
nationalism. To understand the Beijing Olympic Games, we have to
discuss this unstable consciousness, and also introduce modern Chinese
perceptions of Self and Other which were created through the encounter with an imperialistic West and then Japan. We will start, however,
with an examination of the three decades that led up to the Games.
The China that Deng Built
December 2008 was the thirtieth anniversary of the CCP meeting at
which Deng Xiaoping announced a reversal of communist dogma and
the introduction of a pragmatic and outward-looking policy of gaige

THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES

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kaifang (reform and opening). As Chang (2008: Part 1) notes, the great
legacy of Deng was that he undid that of Mao Zedong. The reform and
opening policies introduced in December 1978, and pursued now for
three decades, sought to promote economic growth by learning from the
experience of the East Asian economic miracle. Thus, 1978 ushered in
a new era in which a Western and, in particular, an American way of life
was embraced, and the commercialization of life and consumerism were
pursued. Rejecting communist dogma in favour of pragmatism, Beijing
in effect decided to westernize the Chinese economy. The result has been
a Chinese economic miracle that has attracted as much, if not more,
attention than the original models provided first by Japan and then by
South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. One unforeseen
consequence has been the commercialization not only of the economy
but also of culture. Indeed, Chinese culture has become increasingly
westernized as the country has been exposed to the values of hedonistic
materialism, capitalism, and consumerism. The forces of globalization
threaten to bury both Chinese traditions and Chinese communism, and
so inevitably challenge Chinese cultural identity.
Three decades after Deng decided on a pragmatic acceptance of
markets, China has emerged as a powerful global actor. China or
Zhongguo, the Central Kingdom, once was central in fact as well as name.
Following a long hiatus of half a millennium, China is today quickly
recovering lost ground. The economy has averaged growth of 9.8 percent
per year for the past three decades (Chang 2008). In 1978, Chinas share
of the global economy was only 1.8 percent; today it is 6 percent (The
Economist 2008b). Millions of impoverished Chinese individuals 200
million, according to The Economist have been lifted out of poverty.
Since Deng launched his market-oriented policies, China has also come
of age as a political power. A major Chinese goal has long been national
reunification and Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997,
while Macau was returned in 1999. Another major goal has been to fully
rejoin the international community after decades of self-imposed isolation under Mao. China did in fact join the World Trade Organization in
2001, and, after failure in 1993, made a successful bid for the Olympic
Games in 2001.
The year 2008 marked another anniversary: 1978 saw the spontaneous outbreak of the first major democracy movement in China since
1949 the Democracy Wall Movement. Wei Jingsheng, perhaps Chinas

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David Askew

most famous dissident, called for the Fifth Modernization democracy

in addition to Dengs Four Modernizations (see Seymour (ed.) 1980).
Weis goals were the realization both of human rights and of democracy;
political reforms to complement Dengs economic reforms. For his troubles, Wei was imprisoned for 15 years.1 The second major democracy
movement in China was that of 1989, and 2009 marks the twentieth
anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre which ended it. China
today is, therefore, a country that has embraced economic reform and
subsequently experienced remarkable economic growth over the past
three decades, but which remains an authoritarian state ruled by the
CCP-Party State. It is emerging as a significant regional power. However,
the Party-State suffers from an Achilles Heel. As Ha Jin (2008), among
many others, notes, No party members believe in the ideal of communism any more. Together with the threat posed to Chinese cultural identity by the forces of globalization, the structural contradictions between a
market economy and authoritarian politics have produced a crisis of
legitimacy. The Party-State can no longer rely on communism to provide
the legitimacy it needs, and instead has turned increasingly to nationalism. In other words, China has become a commercialized society run by
a communist party that no longer is ideologically committed to communism.
From the 1990s on, following the collapse of communism as a legitimate ideology a collapse symbolized by the implosion of the Soviet
Union, the spontaneous destruction of the Berlin Wall, and, in China, the
Tiananmen Square massacre the Party-State has sought to legitimize its
rule by mobilizing and promoting nationalism, especially in Chinas
schools, and by promising continued economic growth in return for a
general acquiescence to political dictatorship. Those who challenge or are
seen to challenge the right of the CCP to rule are suppressed; those who
do not are allowed to chase the dream of material wealth. This dovetails
with what Nathan (2008) has identified in a review article as one of the
major themes of a recent publication on the Beijing Olympics, Owning the
Olympics (Price and Dayan eds 2008): the Olympics redefine citizenship

1
Wei was released in September 1993, as part of the Chinese governments efforts
to woo the IOC and global opinion in advance of the vote on the venue for the 2000
Olympic Games. Once Sydney was awarded the Games, Wei found himself back in
prison. In 1997, he was released and deported to the USA.

THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES

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() as consumership, abetting the depoliticization of public life that lies

at the heart of Chinas post-Mao propaganda strategy.
China then appears as a country which has experienced an economic
miracle, is still labouring under a political dictatorship, and is increasingly
turning to nationalism, in order to provide the legitimacy to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of communism. However, China is also the
country which staged the global extravaganza of 2008: the Beijing Olympic Games. Many areas of the Chinese economy, of politics and legitimacy, can be explored through an examination of the role of sports in
China today.
Sports in China: From the Sick Man of East Asia to Olympic Superpower
China has certainly come a long way since the Opium Wars and since
1978. The Epilogue of Hongs (1997) insightful book Footbinding, Feminism, and Freedom is entitled From Cripples to Champions. Like China itself,
Chinese women have indeed been slowly liberated, albeit sporadically
and incompletely, since the mid-1800s (in fact, Chinese women today
massively outperform their male counterparts at events like the Olympics).
Staging the Olympic Games in China has long been a Chinese national aspiration. In 1907, the YMCA journal Tiantsin Young Men discussed a speech about China and the Olympics in which the future participation of China was anticipated (it was not until 1932 before Chinas
first athlete participated in an Olympic event). The next year, in 1908, the
following three questions were asked:
When would China be able to send a winning athlete to Olympic
contests?
When would China be able to send a winning team to the Olympics?
When would China be able to invite the world to come to Beijing for
an Olympic Games?2
The aspiration to stage the Olympics was finally realized, of course, in
2008.

2
See: Tiantsin Young Men, 26 October 1907 and 23 May 1908, frequently cited in
the literature.

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David Askew

Among others, Xu (2008: 4) uses sports as a means to examine the

formation of Chinas modern national identity and its sometimes ambivalent embrace of internationalization. The history of sports in modern
China is also a history of the introduction of Western sports at the expense of indigenous physical activities, and so is a history of Chinas
embrace of the West.3 It is also a history of a distinct Chinese discourse
in which the state or condition of the physical body, of what was perceived as the typical Chinese physique, was projected onto the body
politic, and in which training the body was seen as an essential part of
the nation building process. For much of the twentieth century, a phrase
that summarized Chinas national identity was the sick man of East
Asia (dongya bingfu).
Although probably coined by a Chinese intellectual, in the nationalist
discourse, dongya bingfu became a label imposed on China and the Chinese body politic by Japan and the West. Curing the sick man, a savagely self-critical image, has thus long been a central goal of China in
order to gain international respect and status. The major means chosen
to affect this cure was the area of Western sports, since traditional sports
were perceived to have failed to do so. For instance, the Boxer Rebellion
(1898-1900) was led by Boxers, a Western term describing practitioners
of traditional martial arts. Their failure undermined the Qing Empire,
which finally collapsed in 1912. Turning its back on its past, modern,
post-Qing, China adopted Western sports.
The dongya bingfu discourse can be seen throughout modern Chinas
history. For instance, in his first published article, Tiyu zhi yanjiu (The
research of physical education) (1917), a young Mao Zedong called on all
Chinese to strengthen their bodies in order to save the country.4 Maos
ideas were repeated by his arch-rival, Chiang Kai-Shek, who said we
have to work hard to make our country strong, if we dont want to be
despised by other nations, and our foremost task is to emphasize physical education and work on it (cited in Xu 2008: 66). This discourse is
still seen today. For instance, after the Athens Games, the Peoples Daily
3
Sport in China has slowly emerged as a burgeoning area of increasingly sophisticated research in the West. A history of sport in Republican China is provided in
Morris (2004). But it is Susan Brownell, in particular, who revolutionized the state of
academic research (Brownell 1995: 2008).
4
Mao Zedong, Tiyu zhi yanjiu (The research of physical education), Xin qingnian
(New Youth), April 1917. A translation of (much of) the text is provided in Hong
(1997: 313-317).

THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES

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trumpeted Chinas sporting successes, claiming When a country is powerful, its sports will flourish () Chinese athletes will make contributions to realize our nations great revival (cited in Lovell 2008: 773).
Even famous dissidents such as Wei Jingsheng draw on the discourse.
Wei wrote his first articles on democracy precisely to show that the
Chinese were not a bunch of spineless weaklings, and that when individual citizens learned to straighten their spines China would stand tall in
the world (Fitzgerald 1999: 47).
As reflected in the popular slogan from the 1930s, jiuguo qiangzhong
(save the nation and strengthen the [Chinese] race), it was believed that a
strong and healthy state required a strong and healthy people (Xu 2008:
62). Sports and physical exercise were thus crucial in re-forging the national image. The various attempts to cure the sick man focused on
Western ideas of physical education and Western sports. Moreover,
China believed that it needed to demonstrate to the world that it had
been cured, and therefore ached for opportunities to excel in international competitions. Because it was believed that the physical vitality of
the new China could be demonstrated through victory on international
playing fields, the Olympics and other international competitions promised to provide a means to achieve the recognition China so desperately
sought. It is no coincidence that the visit to Beijing by President Nixon
was prepared through Ping-Pong Diplomacy. And it is because of this
happy coincidence of physical activities, national health and vitality,
legitimacy, and subsequent international status, that the Chinese have
shown [such] unbridled enthusiasm for using sports for political purposes, most especially for strengthening the ruling partys legitimacy and
as a means of garnering international prestige (Xu 2008: 49).
Victory in international sporting events served as a symbolic representation of a revitalized national strength and national status and fed a
meta-narrative of national vigour. The hated sick man label was banished for good by sporting victories from the 1980s and most emphatically by the Beijing Olympic Games. Without understanding Chinas
modern history, and especially the crisis following the end of communism, it is difficult to understand the way in which, for instance, the
Chinas womens volleyball team triggered such nationalistic pride in the
1980s when the Chinese womens volleyball team defeated Japan, in
1981, in the final of the World Cup, and went on to dominate the sport
for much of the decade. This team and its sporting prowess demon-

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David Askew

strated the power of sports to promote the creation in China of political

identity, national confidence and international status for China (Hong
1997: 11). Xu (2008: 268) notes that:
A nation that obsesses over gold medals is not a self-assured nation. A
government that needs gold medals to bolster nationalistic sentiment and its
domestic legitimacy is not a confident government. And a population that
cannot gracefully accept losses in sports is not a composed and secure
population.

However, China is not yet able to readily accept losses. Training the
body was thus seen as a means of national salvation (the personal was
the political). Maos famous swim across the Yangtze River in 1966 was
a reflection not only of his belief that a strong body meant a strong nation, but also of the notion that legitimate leadership rested on physical
prowess the swim proved he was fit to rule (Browell 1995: 57 uses the
pun too). In terms of the Olympic Games, the sleek, healthy, and athletic
body of Olympic sportsmen and sportswomen can be viewed as an
official attempt to project to the world an image of a healthy, modern,
and Western China.
However, Chinas Westernization is a selective Westernization in
which technology, for instance, is vigorously adopted, but democracy is
kept firmly at arms length. In terms of sports, Olympic sports in China
are without exception foreign imports, and are defined in China as modern
sports and contrasted to indigenous traditional or pre-modern sports that
are not privileged by the Party-State (one indigenous practice is qigong, a
quiet, meditational breathing exercise that is increasing popular in China
today, and, as seen in practitioners of Falun Gong, is used to articulate a
quiet resistance to communist rule).
Thus Western sports were adopted and vigorously promoted in China
as a tool for promoting the image of a healthy body politic and as a
means of both stimulating and satisfying nationalistic emotions. It is,
however, important to stress both the political and the ambiguous nature
of Western sports in China: traditional (pre-modern) Chinese culture
placed an enormous weight on literacy. This was encapsulated in the
popular phrase of zhongwen qingwu (esteem literacy, despise martiality).
Sports are, of course, frequently seen to be military in nature, and so, in
China, the acceptance of modern sports required a rejection of traditional
beliefs. With women in particular, sport also symbolizes a political rejection of traditional ideas of femininity (footbinding) and therefore sym-

THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES

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bolizes a radical emancipatory revolution of ideas and practice. Moreover, as Brownell (2008: 62) notes, Chinese people embraced modern
sports, as they did the form of the nation, because of their desire to take
their place on the global stage of modernity. Sporting prowess is thus a
means of reinforcing notions of national identity, of highlighting communist legitimacy, and of recreating the image of a powerful China.
However, at the same time, the Chinese government wishes to reject
what it sees as Western cultural pollution.
The Beijing Olympic Games
An examination of the literature on the Beijing Olympics reveals that a
major theme is that of narrative, and in particular Beijings official narrative of the Games and various contesting counter-narratives.5 The official narrative is a product of state and society; of the CCPs propaganda
machinery and of a strong nationalistic desire on the part of majority
Han Chinese for China to gain due recognition in the eyes of the world.
It is embodied in a number of core themes. For instance, in bidding for
the games, the PRC claimed that Beijing would provide a Green Olympics, a Peoples Olympics, and a High-Tech Olympics. The official slogan of the 2008 Games was One-World-One-Dream.
The CCP hoped to use the Games to promote a story that focuses on
three decades of economic growth and the subsequent success in overcoming poverty, on present prosperity, and on future aspirations to fully
rejoin the global community. Beijing has attempted to persuade the
world that China is a powerful but peaceful, a prosperous and normal
state, and in doing so hopes to enhance the stature of both China and the
CCP at home and overseas. The Beijing Games would allow Beijing to
symbolically declare an end to the century of national humiliation that
began with the Opium War, the subsequent collapse of the Sino-centric
world, and the brutal exploitation of China by imperialist powers. Beijing
will wish to emphasize political stability in addition to economic growth,
and will want to claim the status of a major global power, specifically in
terms of sporting prowess, but also generally in terms of both soft and
hard power.

5
For the Beijing Olympic Games, see in particular Brownell (2008), Close, Askew
and Xu (2007), Jarvie, Hwang, and Brennan (2008), Price and Dayan eds (2008),
Worden ed. (2008), and especially Xu (2008).

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A number of counter-narratives can be identified. Some play on

official themes, slogans, and symbols. Reporters without Borders, for
instance, has used five interlinked handcuffs to create a disturbing and
powerful image of the 2008 Games. In a play on the official Chinese
slogan, activists have used slogans such as One-World-One-Dream,
Free Tibet or One-World-One-Dream, and Universal Human Rights.
Human Rights NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch note that some NGOs like Olympic Watch were created
specifically to deal with the Beijing Games have also developed a
counter-narrative that critically exposes Chinas human rights record,
shedding light on the ongoing persecution of the Falun Gong religious
movement, of peasants, of various ethnic minorities, and of the poorer
residents of Beijing whose homes and communities have been destroyed
to make room for the Olympic Games. Chinas record overseas has also
been highlighted, with its close ties to unsavoury regimes in Myanmar
(Burma), Zimbabwe, and especially Sudan denounced. Indeed, the 2008
Games were, at times, labelled the Genocide Games, because of Chinas
involvement with Sudan.
The first attempt to host the Games failed at least in part because of
Western concerns about Beijings human rights record. Jarvie et al (2008:
118) argue that, as far as the critical Western gaze was concerned, the
decision to award the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing was, a compromise between the political imperative to give the Olympic-host role to
China and the ethical imperative to refuse to do so. Having turned
Beijing down once, it was decided that the West could not afford to do
so again.
In the period leading up to the Beijing Olympic Games, concerns
about human rights abuses in China continued to be widely raised in the
Western media. Following the campaign to label the Beijing Games the
Genocide Olympics, the Washington Post published an editorial calling
for a boycott, and Steven Spielberg resigned from his position as artistic
advisor in protest of Chinas refusal to do more to end the widespread
crimes against humanity in Darfur (Washington Post, 2006). Throughout
2008, unrest and then violence in Tibet served only to underline these
questions about Chinas status as a responsible international citizen. As
Sheridan (2008) emphasized at the time, with the Olympic Games due
to start in just a few months, and with the global media poised to descend en masse on its national capital, Beijing found itself caught in a

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dilemma when protesters in Tibet took to the streets. Sheridan continues:

The eyes of the world are on Beijing, as perhaps never before. Nevertheless,
despite the promise (or threat) of a looming concentration of media, Beijing
decided to crack down savagely on its own citizens, sending in massive
numbers of soldiers not police, mind you, but soldiers and clearly giving
the order to shoot its own citizens down in the streets. Slaughter in Tibet
poses a dilemma for the international community especially given that the
Chinese economy is now so large that many nations might decide that they
need China more than China needs them (Sheridan 2008: 6).

Together with close ties to unsavoury, rogue regimes, domestic oppression poses a major stumbling block in Beijings attempts to construct
an image of a benign and peaceful power and threatens its Olympic
narrative.
During the Games, the official narrative in which Beijing attempted
to use the Games to construct a new national identity and to articulate its
aspirations for a new world order in which China will play an increasingly central role, and the counter-narrative which criticized Chinas
human rights record, were both unveiled on the global stage. The Opening Ceremony, for instance, was widely seen as a huge success. It has
been claimed that the Ceremony reflected Needhams China. Brook
(2008) notes, indeed, were it not for Needham, I doubt that the Olympic
organisers would have chosen the history of Chinese science as their
theme for the opening extravaganza in Beijing this summer.6
The Opening Ceremony did, on the one hand, reflect the official
narrative, in which a secure, confident and westernizing China demonstrated that it was both willing and able to (re)join the community of
nations and seemed to confirm one understanding of China that of a
modern, sophisticated, and powerful nation with a glorious past. On the
other hand, however, the violence and bloodshed immediately preceding
the Games lent support to the counter-narrative, and seemed to confirm
a very different understanding of the Chinese Party-State as a savage and
brutal power, indifferent to human rights and contemptuous of its colonized peoples.
Lovell (2008: 759) argues that Beijing hoped the 2008 Olympics
would prove to be a harmonious fusion of nationalism and internation6
For Joseph Needham, see Winchesters (2008) recent biography, Bomb, Book and
Compass. Brooks paper is a review of Winchester.

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alism, of Chinese tradition and high-tech modernity: a utopian symbol of

Chinas triumphant but decidedly non-hegemonic recovery of central
position in the international political, economic and cultural realm, some
150 years after the countrys humiliating nineteenth-century clash with
Western imperialism.
These hopes were threatened, if not thwarted, by the torch relay that
heralded the opening of the Games. The torch relay was disrupted, particularly in Europe. In China, there was a massive nationalistic backlash,
with the French retailer Carrefour boycotted. As Economy and Segal
(2008) note, it is clear that the Games have come to highlight not only
the awesome achievements of the country but also the grave shortcomings of the current regime. Beijing was unprepared for the global protests on issues such as Sudan, Tibet, and democracy.
Economy and Segal (2008) comment as follows: as the Olympic
torch circled the globe with legions of protesters in tow, Beijings Olympic dream quickly turned into a public-relations nightmare. Beijing had
been anxious to use the Games not only as a coming out party to announce the arrival of a new global power, but also to enhance Chinas
reputation overseas and boost the CCPs legitimacy domestically. This
was threatened by the torch relay. Instead of being the party Beijing
desired, preparations for the games have degenerated into some of the
ugliest verbal confrontations for years between China and its critics (The
Economist 2008a). As Mangan (2008: 753) notes, the torch relay degenerated into symbol not of friendship but of friction, not of harmony but
of disharmony, not of peace but of protest.
The violence in Tibet significantly diminished Chinas global status,
but the Games undoubtedly enhanced it. The international respect, status
and recognition converted readily to legitimacy for the regime. The question is what will Beijing do with this enhanced legitimacy? Jarvie et al
(2008: 144) end their Sport, Revolution and the Beijing Olympics with a call to
acknowledge the transformative capacity of sport while at the same time
evaluating whether sport, China or indeed the world is a more just place, a
more trusting place, a more humane place, a more safe and secure place to
be as a result of sport, revolution and the legacy of the Beijing Olympics.

This question ultimately can only be answered by Beijing.

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Human Rights Legacies

The Chinese state can be brutally repressive. Kristof (in Worden ed.
2008) begins his introduction to Chinas Great Leap with a terrible story,
first recounted in China Wakes (1998). When the IOC inspected Beijing
in 1993 to evaluate Chinas bid for the 2000 Games, neighbourhood
committees were ordered to tidy up their respective districts. As part of
this tidying up, the police arrested a mentally retarded man, 40 year-old
Wang Chaoru. Wang had been beaten () to a pulp the year before he
died as part of an official effort to beautify Beijing before the beginning
of the annual National Peoples Congress (Kristof and WuDunn
1994/1995: 99).
A year later, the order to beautify Beijing was issued again. Kristof
(2008: 19) continues: just hours before the Olympic visitors actually
touched down, the police beat Wang Chaoru to death. His parents were
allowed to view the body, which was covered with blood and bruises,
and then the police officials invited them to a hearty lunch to make
things up. The murder of a mentally retarded man because he didnt fit
in with the Olympic image, WuDunn claims, was the kind of thing that
the Nazis might have done before their 1936 Berlin Olympiad (Kristof
and WuDunn 1994/1995: 99). As Thomas Hobbes also noted, man is,
without question, a wolf to man.7
Despite or perhaps just because of such brutality, China is also
home to some incredibly courageous individuals. For instance, on 10
December 2008, to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a group of 303 dissidents and human rights activities unveiled Charter 08 (Lingba Xianzhang), a document calling for
democracy, freedom, and political reform. This is, of course, a call for
political liberalization the Fifth Modernization. As is the case with
much public debate, and especially dissident debate, in contemporary
China, Charter 08 was published on the internet, which now functions as
the modern equivalent of Chinas Democracy Wall. Charter 08 begins
as follows.8
A hundred years have passed since the writing of Chinas first constitution.
2008 also marks the sixtieth anniversary of the promulgation of the Univer7
Hobbes used the Latin tag homo homini lupus man is a wolf to man in his De
Cive (The Citizen) (1651). See Hobbes (1998: 3).
8
Charter 08: http://www.canyu.org/n4460c6.aspx (original Chinese document).
Link (2009) has published an English translation, which has been used here.

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David Askew

sal Declaration of Human Rights, the thirtieth anniversary of the appearance of the Democracy Wall in Beijing, and the tenth of Chinas signing of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We are approaching the twentieth anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre of pro-democracy student protesters. The Chinese people, who have endured human
rights disasters and uncountable struggles across these same years, now
include many who see clearly that freedom, equality, and human rights are
universal values of humankind and that democracy and constitutional government are the fundamental framework for protecting these values.

By departing from these values, the Chinese governments approach to

modernization has proven disastrous. It has stripped people of their
rights, destroyed their dignity, and corrupted normal human intercourse.
So we ask: Where is China headed in the twenty-first century? Will it
continue with modernization under authoritarian rule, or will it embrace
universal human values, join the mainstream of civilized nations, and
build a democratic system? There can be no avoiding these questions.
The strong integrity and moral courage of such dissidents lends hope
to the dream of a better tomorrow. However, it has to be noted that the
universal values advocated here, are Western in origin. Indeed, both the
modern Olympic movement and the concept of human rights are European products that have been increasingly adopted by the modernizing
world. A discussion of the Beijing Games (or of China and human
rights) is therefore inevitably also a discussion of the impact of Westernization, modernization, and globalization on the Chinese body politic.
In hosting the Olympics, Beijing hoped to be able to demonstrate that
Chinese culture, society and the economy have caught up to the West,
that China can now take its rightful place as a member of the modern,
Western world. One of the hurdles China will have to overcome, however, is the test posed by human rights (understood here to include both
civil liberties and individual freedoms). To the extent that human rights
are universal, China needs to be able to show that this aspect of global
legal culture has also been successfully adopted and internalized.
The interaction of Games and rights presents a rich and multi-textured cultural terrain. There are a number of different understandings of
human rights. Within the EU itself, the British Enlightenment has produced a perception of human rights that differs to that of the French
Enlightenment.9 Moreover, the EU position on human rights is best
9
This difference can be understood in terms of dissimilarities between the normative assumptions of each national Enlightenment period, and also between the Com-

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117

understood as an evolving rather than a static position. For instance,

until the mid-1970s, the European Commission saw economic development as a precondition for the realization of human rights, rather than
the current position, which is to see the guarantee of human rights as a
precondition for development. Needless to say, Beijings official position
today shares much in common with the pre-mid-1970s European Commission (Bartels 2005: 7, cited in Wiessala 2006: 68).10
The EU has proclaimed itself to be in favour of a global promotion
of core values including tolerance, democracy, and human rights (in
addition to being an exercise in soft power, this promotion can either be
viewed as embodying good global citizenship or criticized as yet another
round of Eurocentric cultural imperialism). The attempt by the EU to reinvent itself as a normative power means that its relationship with
China which is certainly not a democracy and has a human rights record that is not infrequently denounced as abysmal has been a troubled
one. This is mainly due to Beijings human rights record, but is also
partly because comparisons between and contra-distinction to an idealized notion of the Western rule of law and the orientalized concept of
Oriental Despotism have such deep roots in Western culture.
Conclusion
Viewed as a text, the spectacle that is the modern Olympic Games serves
as a cultural space in which perceptions of Self and Other can be and
have been debated, articulated, and challenged. This is especially true of
the Beijing Games, where these perceptions were tied to discursive narratives on the West and the East, on Capitalism and Communism, and on
the politics of emerging power. Indeed, a symbolic landscape functions
as a backdrop to the Chinese Olympic discourse. When reduced to its
bare structure, the symbolic landscape maps a progressive movement of
China vis--vis the global world. Beijing marks both the end of Chinas
struggle to rejoin, and the beginning of Chinas full participation in, the
global community.
The symbolic significance of Beijing can perhaps be boiled down to
the term recognition. This symbolic landscape reflects a similar discourse
on the history of sports in China. As seen in Hongs history, Footbinding,
mon Law and Civil Law traditions.
10
See also the chapter by Georg Wiessala, in this volume.

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David Askew

Feminism and Freedom, an evolutionary history can be projected onto the

Chinese body, in which a past culture that restricted bodily movement
through such traditions as footbinding was overcome and replaced by
new emancipation. In combating the legacy of the century of shame and
humiliation, Beijing has turned to international sporting success as a
means of regaining national dignity and prestige and of overcoming the
humiliating label the sick man of East Asia. Many Chinese share this
goal and, as a consequence, in China today Sports patriotism unites the
whole nation (Hong 2004: 345).
In his Olympic Dreams, Xu (2008: 225) raises a frequently-asked question about the Beijing Games: will Chinas Olympics be seen as the
equivalent of the 1936 Berlin Games, which strengthened a terrible
regime, or of the 1998 Seoul Games, which initiated democratic reform
in South Korea and helped transform it into a dynamic democracy? The
answer will almost certainly come to be seen as lying somewhere between the dystopian and utopian alternatives. The Games were a success,
and certainly perceived so in China, and as a result have strengthened
both the prestige and legitimacy of the Party-State. This increased security could be used to promote further reform, and in particular a political
transition towards democracy. However, it could also be used to crack
down on those demanding change. For the international community, a
significant question is, will the emerging nationalistic China participate in
or confront the existing world order?

References
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Peoples Republic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Brownell, Susan. 2008. Beijings Games: What the Olympics Mean to China. Lanham,
Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
Chang, Gordon G. 2008. China After 30 Years of Reform, I in Forbes, 16
December 2008. Online at: www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/12/16/chinaeconomic-reform-oped-cx_gc_1216chang.html.
Close, Paul, David Askew, and Xu Xin. 2007. The Beijing Olympiad: The Political
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The Economist 2008a. Chinese Nationalism: Flame On in The Economist, 26
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The Economist. 2008b. Chinas Reforms: The Second Long March in The
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www.theamericanscholar.org/au/08/censor-jin.html.
Hobbes, Thomas. 1998. Hobbes: On the Citizen, Cambridge University Press.
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Bodies in Modern China. London and Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass.
Hong, Fan. 2004. Innocence Lost: Child Athletes in China in Sport in Society.
7(3): 338-354.
Hong, Fan, Ping Wu, and Huna Xiong. 2005. Beijing Ambitions: An Analysis
of the Chinese Elite Sports System and its Olympic Strategy for the 2008
Olympic Games in The International Journal of the History of Sport 22 (4): 510529.
Jarvie, Grant, Dong-Jhy Hwang and Mel Brennan. 2008. Sport, Revolution and the
Beijing Olympics. Oxford: Berg.
Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn. 1994/1995. China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power. New York: Vintage Books.
Link, Perry. (trans.). 2009. Chinas Charter 08 in The New York Review of Books
56 (1), 15 January 2009.
Lovell, Julia. 2008. Prologue: Beijing 2008 The Mixed Messages of Contemporary Chinese Nationalism in The International Journal of the History of Sport
25 (7): 758-778.
Mangan, J.A. 2008. Preface: Geopolitical Games Beijing 2008 in The International Journal of the History of Sport 25 (7): 751-757.
Morris, Andrew D. 2004. Marrow of the Nation: A History of Sport and Physical
Culture in Republican China. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Nathan, Andrew J. 2008. Medals and Rights: What the Olympics Reveal, and
Conceal, about China in The New Republic, 9 July 2008: 41-47.
Price, Monroe E., and Daniel Dayan (eds). 2008. Owning the Olympics: Narratives
of the New China, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Seymour, James D. (ed.). 1980. The Fifth Modernization: Chinas Human Rights
Movement, 1978-1979. New York: Human Rights Publishing Group.
Sheridan, Greg. 2008. Chinese Engagement is a Two-way Street in The Australian (27 March 2008).
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Wiessala, Georg. 2006. Re-orienting the Fundamentals: Human Rights and New Connections in EU-Asia Relations. Aldershot: Ashgate.
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Worden, Minky (ed.). 2008. Chinas Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian
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Xu, Guoqi. 2008. Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and London: Harvard University Press.

ASPECTS OF THE GEO-POLITICAL SETTING

OF EU-CHINA INTERACTION

EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 123-137

CHINA VIEWS EUROPE:

A MULTI-POLAR PERSPECTIVE
Jenny Clegg
Abstract
The formation and development of the European Union, and the rise
of China, are transforming the global order, promoting a more multicentred world. Sino-EU relations will play a key role in shaping the
character of the newly-emerging multi-polarity. In examining how
China views Europe, this chapter is concerned to set out Chinas
strategic perspective on Europes role in world multi-polarisation,
explaining its significance from the Chinese perspective. By improving its relations with Europe step by step, China has been able to
strengthen its own status in a world order dominated by the US. The
discussion opens with a consideration of Chinas multi-polar conception, illuminating this further by tracing the origins of the analysis to
the 1970s, to Mao Zedongs Theory of the Three Worlds. The chapter then outlines developments in Sino-European relations in the
wider context of the changing international situation, to reveal how
these have helped shape Chinas strategic choices. Finally, the discussion reviews recent Chinese views on relations with the EU and considers the prospects for a strengthening of Sino-EU strategic cooperation.
Introduction
The idea of a multi-polar world came to the forefront in Western debate
as the transatlantic rift opened over the issue of the US-led Iraq war.
With France and Germany joining Russia, China and India to oppose the
action, this was seen by some not merely as a new alignment against US
unilateralism and aggression, but as having the potential to provide the

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Jenny Clegg

foundation for an entirely new kind of peaceful developmental world

order (Amin 2004). The year 2003 saw a new momentum in advancing
the Sino-EU strategic partnership. However, difficulties soon arose and
as transatlantic ties began to reassert themselves when the second Bush
Administration reverted to a more multilateralist approach, the question
was: had the multi-polar trend been over-exaggerated? China has long
viewed Europe as a force capable of restraining US hegemonism, lending
particular weight to emerging differences in the Western alliance in developing its own strategy against superpower dominance. This chapter
sets out to explore Chinas distinctive view of Europe, taking a long-term
multi-polar perspective to highlight the strategic dimension of Sino-European relations. The step-by-step improvements in Sino-European
relations, despite certain temporary setbacks, have been significant in
influencing China, as it shifted towards a more cooperative stance in
world affairs towards pursuing a strategy of multi-polar developmentalism.
This chapter, firstly, sets out Chinas multi-polar conception, its strategic partnership approach and New Security Concept which together
underpin its peaceful development path. It moves on to a historical
overview, starting by tracing the origins of Chinas particular perspective
on Europe to the 1970s to Mao Zedongs Three World Theory, then
considering the developments in Sino-European relations in the wider
context of the changing world situation shaping Chinas strategic choices.
Finally, after setting out more recent Chinese views on the basis of the
Sino-EU relations, the discussion concludes with a consideration of the
latest developments in their partnership and, noting Chinas diplomatic
advances worldwide, the prospects for a strengthening of Sino-EU strategic cooperation.
Chinas Multi-polar Perspective
In China, the concept of multi-polarisation has been under serious consideration since the mid-1980s (Segal 1982: 37). Seen through Chinese
eyes, multi-polarisation involves, on the one hand, readjustments in the
relations between the major powers, with the growing role in international affairs of Europe and Japan, and on the other, the rise of developing countries, as well as their regional associations such as ASEAN, the
African Union, Mercosur, OPEC, together with the Shanghai Coopera-

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125

tion Organisation, and their international organisations such as the G77

and the non-aligned movement (Jin Yinan 2002).
Whilst a multi-polar world order is seen to have the potential to constrain the ability of any superpower to dominate world affairs, Chinas
strategy is not one which seeks simply to counterbalance the other major
powers against US dominance. Unlike the Western concept of balance of
power, the Chinese view of multi-polarisation entails a world development dimension, furthering North-South dialogue and South-South
cooperation, with developing countries playing a key role. According to
Chinese strategists, the US has, since the end of the Cold War, endeavoured to pursue a unipolar world, strengthening its Cold War military alliances, primarily with NATO and Japan, to form a python strategy, with the aim of controlling and incorporating Europe and Japan,
and suppressing and containing Russia and China (Yao Youzhi 2003).
By contrast, the significance of multi-polarisation as China sees it, lies
in the possibility of a more democratic and peaceful determination of
world affairs. In seeking to hasten the trend, Chinas aim is not only to
find room, in a world situation in which unipolarity is the dominant
aspect, to pursue its own development path and rise as a major power in
it is own right, but also to create a new international political and economic order. With a strengthening of the worlds various powers and
regional organisations providing the basis for a genuine multilateralism
coordinated through the UN, this would enhance the possibilities of
peaceful solutions to conflictual situations through dialogue and of new
approaches to world development.
Partnership Arrangements
Chinas vision for a multi-polar world is one coordinated through partnership arrangements between powers based on equality and respect for
sovereignty and on common interests rather than shared values and
ideologies. The EU-China strategic partnership arrangement announced
in 1998 should be seen as one of a series initiated by China as it has
sought to strengthen its relations with other major powers. The first to
be agreed was with Russia (1996). Following this, discussions were
opened with the US (1997), with Germany, France and the UK on an
individual basis (1998), Japan (1998), ASEAN (2004) and India (2005).
From a critical point of view, Chinas partnership arrangements are seen
to promise much, but lack substance. Indeed, nearly all have encountered

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Jenny Clegg

difficulties; nevertheless, persistent endeavours have made a certain if

variable progress. Partnerships should be viewed as much as a process as
a goal; not so much an accomplished result, but a possibility that may be
realised (Saunders 2000: 62). Chinas leaders recognise that their countrys emergence as a new international power is bound to give rise to
tensions and strains in its relations with other powers, and so seek to
build workable frameworks, with potential adversaries as well as nonadversaries, within which to handle differences, manage difficulties and
resolve disputes and potential conflicts through dialogue over the long
term (Goldstein 2001: 847; 850/1). Chinas strategic partnerships are not
targeted at the US: a conflictual strategy would be liable to achieve precisely what China seeks to avoid, creating an opening for the US to extend its alliances of encirclement around China (Goldstein 2001: 855).
Unlike alliances which commit partners to come to each others defence,
Chinas arrangements are designed to be flexible. By adopting the approach of setting aside differences and seeking common ground, the
aim is to avoid conflict in order to focus on shared interests, building
good relations with other powers despite their military alliances and ties
with the US, thereby deflecting the US encirclement strategy. Rather than
being anti-American, its partnership arrangements are geared to maximise mutual benefit. The strengthening of both partners, and thereby the
promotion of multi-polarity, will ultimately reduce US dominance.
The New Security Strategy
The articulation of a New Security Concept (NSC), based on mutual
trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination in 2001 set out more
clearly the kind of international order China is seeking to create through
its partnership approach. The NSC guidelines call for adherence to principles of mutual respect for sovereignty, and the peaceful settlement of
disputes through dialogue and negotiation; the strengthening of the UN,
giving full play to its leading role in world affairs; and the reform of the
existing international economic and financial organisations to provide for
the financial and economic security of all countries and promote common prosperity and common development.1 At one level, the NSC provides a broad statement about the kind of international political environment in which China would feel secure to concentrate on its own devel1

Position Paper: New Security Concept, 31 July 2002: China Report 39 (1): 128-131.

CHINA VIEWS EUROPE: A MULTI-POLAR PERSPECTIVE

127

opment goals, but as Van Ness argues, it represented much more than
this, forming a response, as it were, to US interventionism and to the
then US President George W. Bushs unilateralist, preventive war doctrine (Van Ness 2005: 264).Whilst the US stands for a largely
ideologically-driven international security environment which is shaped
by military power and military alliance, the NSC opposes this revival of
Cold War mentality, instead positing a cooperative view of security, one
which is not just something for countries with similar views but in which
all countries to work together to foster a shared sense of security, to
achieve common security for the world as a whole. Differences between
countries, it is argued, should not become the reason for estrangement,
hostility and conflict, posing barriers to the development of normal
State-to-State relations, but should serve as driving forces behind closer
exchanges and cooperation of countries and greater common development and progress.2 The NSC offers an alternative system for managing
relations between diverse countries, a qualitatively new type of international relations of non-alliance and non-confrontation, inclusive of the
US, and based not on power politics but on equality and trust. It reflects
Chinas interests in peaceful development, in creating a stable international environment which allows it to focus on its own development, not
least by opening opportunities for others. What provides the strategic
substance of Chinas partnerships is not simply the shifting from a world
pattern based on US dominance, but a world multi-polar developmentalism with its goals of conflict resolution through dialogue, winwin economic cooperation and institutionalised multilateralism.
Historical Overview
The origins of Chinas distinctive view of Europes multi-polar role can
be traced to Mao Zedongs Theory of the Three Worlds, which was initially
delivered as a speech by Deng Xiaoping to the UN in 1974, aimed at
supporting Third World demands for a New International Economic
Order (NIEO).3 At this time, US leadership of the Western capitalist
2

Pei Yuanying The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and the Theory and
Practice of Chinas Diplomacy in the New Era China Institute of International Studies.
On-line at: http://www.ciis.org.cn; Jiang Zemins speech at the Russian Duma in
Beijing Review (12-18 May 1997).
3
See: Chairman Maos Theory of the Differentiation of the Three Worlds is a Major Contribution to Marxism-Leninism. 1977. Peking: Foreign Languages Press.

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Jenny Clegg

bloc was coming under increasing challenge. The Vietnam War was
being fought at huge expense and the collapse of the dollar saw the
breakdown of the Bretton Woods system of economic coordination.
From the perspective of the Theory of the Three Worlds, the world
situation was not one of straightforward imperialist-socialist confrontation, but instead was being shaped by power relations between the three
worlds of the superpowers of the US and USSR, the second order powers, namely Europe and Japan, and the Third World.
These together
created a complex web involving both cooperation and conflicts of interests. The theory focused in particular on superpower rivalry and dominance which was seen primarily as dividing and subordinating the Third
World, and called for an international united front against hegemonism
and superpower aggression. In this it sought to unite Third World states,
regardless of their revolutionary or progressive stance, as the main force
against imperialism, whilst also winning over second order powers.
Whilst recognising the extensive cooperation amongst the advanced
capitalist countries to shape the rules of the global economy to reflect
their interests, the analysis nevertheless lent particular weight to the
differences emerging within the Western alliance. This was considered to
reveal a certain potential for Western Europe as well as Japan to develop
as a counter hegemonic force.
With the end of colonialism, both Europe and Japan were no longer
the main forces of imperialist domination and oppression. They were
now seen to emerge as intermediate global players. Although they looked
to the US to maintain and promote the capitalist world system, drawing
benefits from their relationship with the superpower, they in turn had to
adapt their own development to the priority needs of the leading power.
With the US seeking to extend its global domination, this tended to
reduce their own independent influence in world affairs, limiting their
sovereignty. However, in the eyes of Chinese strategists, these secondary powers were becoming less willing to accept US leadership unconditionally, seeking instead a more equal partnership as they themselves
started to outpace US growth after their successful post war reconstruction. The establishment of the Common Market in Western Europe,
Frances partial withdrawal from NATO and De Gaulles independent
stance, the reluctance of European powers to support US aggression in
Indochina, the collapse of the dollar-based monetary system, and sharpening trade and currency conflicts between Europe and Japan on the one

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hand and the US on the other, the refusal by European allies to allow US
planes to use US air bases on their soil in the Middle East war, were all
seen by the mid-1970s as marking a serious weakening in the Western
alliance, a harbinger, together with the Sino-Soviet split, of the break up
of Cold War bipolarity (Ding Yuanhong 1983: 85-102).
With the Third World pressing for a new more equal international
economic order, the propoents of the Three Worlds Theory argued for
the recognition of a degree of common ground, between the secondary
powers and developing countries, as regards their discontent with US
dominance. Although tied to US power, these states might, in their
search for equal partnership with the US, remain neutral or even be
prepared to make concessions to Third World countries. Indeed, both
Japan and Western Europe were to respond after a fashion to the calls
for an NIEO with their own development agendas, the Fukuda doctrine
(1977) and the Brandt Report (1980). Taking a strategic perspective on
the international trends of cooperation and conflict, the Three Worlds
theory was of fundamental significance, in that it opened up opportunities for the emergence of counter-hegemonic alternatives to superpowerdominance. It paved the way for a qualitative shift in Chinas diplomacy
in the early 1980s from a revolutionary to a non-ideological approach, as
the country strove for equal status as a world power and a level playing
field in the global economy through North-South dialogue based on
South-South cooperation.
In 1982, Chinas strategic direction underwent a qualitative shift, with
the adoption of an independent foreign policy of peace and development. Following significant improvements in its relations with both
superpowers, China no longer considered itself under pressure of imminent attack and could afford to take a more non-aligned stance.4 Its view
that world revolution was the only alternative to imperialist wars and
interventions had dictated a foreign policy based on friends and foes.
Now China was to give priority to securing a peaceful international
environment, whilst refocusing its objectives towards domestic construction. Chinese observers saw the improvements in their countrys situation as indicative of a qualitative, world-wide, shift, accompanied by
declining capabilities, in both the US and USSR, to sustain Cold War
divisions and dominate the world. Western Europes stance, in particular,
4
1982 saw the Joint Sino-American Communique, pledging to scale back arms sales to
Taiwan; consultations also started on the normalisation of Sino-Soviet relations.

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which favoured East-West dtente during the nuclear arms race between
the US and USSR in the 1980s assumed great significance in Chinas
eyes. Weak in military power, Western Europe still tied its defence
against the USSR to the US, agreeing to the rearmament of NATO in
1979, with both Britain and Germany accepting the siting of US cruise
missiles in their countries from 1983.
Nevertheless, Western Europes strategic situation was very different.
Whereas the US regarded Soviet rivalry to its hegemony as the strategic
priority and determined to maintain rough balance in nuclear arms, such
that the two superpowers in effect held each other in check through
mutually assured destruction, this placed the Western Europeans facing
the prospect of a limited nuclear war on European soil. So despite their
dependence on the US alliance, Western Europe sought to expand its
political and economic exchange with the USSR in order to shift relations from Cold War freeze towards dialogue (Guo Fengmin 1982: 98123). For China, the Reagan-Gorbachev agreement on nuclear arms
control marked a monumental shift in the world situation: war was no
longer inevitable (Chan 1999: 121); the door had thus been opened for a
multi-polar world. By the end of the 1980s, although the US and USSR
were still overwhelmingly strong militarily, their political influence was
dwindling. The EEC and Japan, both surpassing the US in economic
terms, were starting to pursue at least a quasi-independent approach in
world affairs across a range of issues. With this, the trends towards the
greater independence of smaller and medium-sized nations were making
hegemonism and power politics run up against a wall (Quian Quichen
1989). In these new circumstances of emerging multi-polarity, shaped
not least by Europes greater assertiveness, China, whilst still intending
to keep a low profile, gradually stepped up its commitment to multilateralism and a negotiated world order, starting to seek membership of
international organisations and participate in multilateral treaties.
Although, with the end of the Cold War, the US clearly emerged as
the sole superpower, Chinese analysts saw the world order configured
not simply by unipolarity but characterised as a five-pointed star pattern:
one superpower (the US) and four major powers (Europe, Japan, Russia
and China) (Chan 1999: 110-112). This was seen to allow China to take
a more proactive role. The US, indeed, had put on a dramatic display of
overwhelming military superiority in the 1st Gulf War, but its economy
was plagued by deficits, whilst Europe and Japan were continuing to

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131

develop as powerful economic entities. The deadlocked situation of the

Uruguay round of GATT in the early 1990s was seen to prove that US
relations with its chief allies were becoming more difficult to manage
(Chen Xiaogong 1992: 3), with neither one keen to remain junior partners of the US, and wanting greater equality (Xin Hu 1993). Following
the formation of the EU, its move towards closer relations with China in
1995 was remarkable from Chinas perspective, coming as it did at a time
of near breakdown in Sino-US relations over the Taiwan Strait crisis. At
the same time, Sino-Russian relations were fast moving ahead.
Towards the end of the 1990s, the multi-polar trend appeared to have
taken a downturn. The US had been able to re-establish its superiority,
reviving both NATO and its military alliance with Japan to rein in their
growing assertiveness, whilst the developing world, which ultimately,
according to Chinas strategic vision, was the decisive factor in multipolarisation, remained weak and disunited. Nevertheless, as China saw it,
the trend took a zigzag path of development as the major powers adjusted and readjusted their positions in the five pole pattern. This created
the possibility of facilitating the trend through a mutual checking and
balancing among the major powers (Cheng 1999: 2).
It was in this context of the unipolar-multi-polar dynamic, with prospects of stronger relations with Europe and Russia, that China embarked
on a more active international engagement to cultivate partnerships with
all the major powers to minimise US dominance. What made these partnerships workable was that, although dominant, the US superpower
could not entirely dictate how other powers conducted their relations
with each other, leaving a certain room for manoeuvre. At the same time,
as evidenced in its war on Yugoslavia, the US was not strong enough to
act on its own but had to work in conjunction with other major powers
to maintain its dominance. As was to become increasingly clear, this
meant that in order to achieve its strategic objective of unipolar hegemony, the US had at the same time to network and collaborate with
other powers, thereby promoting a cooperation which conversely was
conducive to improving the overall strength and international influence
of its potential rivals.5 When France and Germany joined Russia and
India to oppose the Iraq war, despite the fact that they all attached great
importance to their relations with the US, this was seen to represent in
5

See: Factors hindering US hegemonic movesin Peoples Daily (8 April 2003).

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Chinese eyes a substantive development in multi-polarisation. Although

all of these major powers together had not been able to stop the US
launching the war, nevertheless they could provide a certain restraint on
its unilateralism.6
Debating Sino-EU Relations
From Chinas perspective, Europes search for its own equal partnership
with the US after the end of the colonial era provided China with more
options, and more room to bring into play its dynamic strategy rooted in
the Three World Theory, with the aim of manoeuvering towards multipolarity (Yu Xintuan 2004). Chinas view is that Europe offers a bridge
for China to enter a world system, dominated by the US, on its own
terms. In particular, Europeans are seen as far less concerned than the
US with the threat of Chinas hard power. Europe has no military
forces stationed in East Asia. Lacking the hegemonic reach and ambition
of the US, the EU is regarded as more prepared to treat China as an
equal.
Following the return of Hong Kong (1997) and Macao (1999), the
absence of any fundamental conflicts of interest in terms of geopolitics
and strategic intention meant that whatever differences there may be
between the two sides can be resolved through dialogue (Mai Zhaorong
2004). Many Europeans were critical of excessive US pressure on China
in the negotiations over its entry into the WTO and advocated greater
flexibility in terms. In this Europe is seen as more prepared to view
China as a large developing country, rather than a threat, and to assist in
its process of transition (Arias 2005). What provides the basis for a longterm stable relationship between China and the EU, are their common
foundations as major trading partners, their shared interests in multilateralism, and in supporting the core role of the UN in handling regional
and international crises (Feng Zhongping 2004). Nevertheless, many
Chinese analysts recognise that considerable differences exist between
China and Europe, given their different understandings of human rights
and of free trade. The EU shares with the US a basic aim in socialising
China into the established Western-dominated international order. But
whilst the EU pursues issues of labour standards and favours more rapid
liberalisation, which could have a negative impact on development in
6

See: US global strategy foiled in Peoples Daily (28 May 2004).

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133

China (Yu Xintuan 2004), its concerns with labour rights, gender equality
and prison conditions are regarded as more in accord with Chinas own
aims to improve its governance (Yan Wei 2006).
When, following the attack on Iraq, the tone of the EU towards
China became more muted, indicating a greater willingness to accommodate Chinas gradualist approach towards political reform, China took the
opportunity to expand its engagement (Lanxin Xiang 2004: 113). Analysts were nevertheless cautious not to overstate the discord across the
Atlantic, given the shared values and ideologies at the base of the USEuropean alliance (Wu Baiyu 2004). Once transatlantic commonalities
began to reassert themselves, however, it was also noted that considerable potential still existed for new rifts to emerge. Differences over the
US missile defence system, the Kyoto Protocol to curb global warming,
as well as the war on Iraq, meant that the rifts, rooted in their rivalry to
re-divide the worlds strategic resources, would not be easily repaired
(Wu Liming 2004).
Recent Developments: Towards Strategic Co-operation?
After 2003, EU-China relations appeared to reach a new watershed, with
agreements on Chinas participation in the Galileo satellite tracking system, and on ITER - the International Thermonuclear Experimental
Reactor - signifying new heights in technological cooperation. However,
as the second Bush Administration returned to the multilateral fold, not
least to ease the transatlantic rift, it at the same time exerted intense
pressure on the EU not to comply with the Chinese governments explicit request to lift the arms embargo, imposed after the 1989
Tiananmen Incident.
As Europes trade deficit with China widened, the EU has also expressed economic concerns, deciding against granting China market
economy status. This is despite the fact that Chinas economy is already
far more open than for example India or Russia, whose bids for this
status the EU supports. The EU has also taken to joining US calls for
renminbi revaluation. On the other hand, as Chinese commentators have
pointed out, much of the deficit in trade is accounted for by Sino-European joint ventures in China.7
7
Over 60 per cent of the trade deficit was created through Sino-EU joint ventures
(Ding Ying. 2008)

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To explain these limitations on the Sino-EU partnership, and especially the European reluctance to strain relations with the US, some
Western commentators argue that the EUs multilateralism and Chinas
multi-polarisation are at odds with the former emphasising a rules-based
order and the latter seeking to adjust the world power balance (e.g.:
Geeraerts 2008, 34). Indeed, Chinas main aim has to be to deflect the
US python strategy, preventing any link-up between NATO and the US
allies in Asia. Direct relations with the EU are seen to offer a buffer
between China and the US (Ni Yanshu 2005). But what China seeks in
relation to the US is a peaceful sharing of space so that it can make its
own distinct contribution in shaping the future world.8 In advocating a
multi-polar world, then, China is pursuing no more than the EU - an
equal partnership with the US. The challenge, as China sees it, is to figure out a way to make the US an ordinary member of the [world
order], rather than a lawmaker (Zhang Yansheng 2007).
In fact, although the US effect continues to exert an influence on the
Sino-European relationship, the EU has not entirely lined itself up with
the US. Europe continues high-level cooperation with China, including
in sensitive technologies, indicating a certain preparedness to assist directly in Chinas economic development (You Ji 2008). At the same time,
although it has become more strident on the issue of RMB revaluation,
the EU tends to emphasise that the Chinese government should decide
when and how to change its policy (Ming Wan 2008). In 2007, the SinoEU relations took the further step of agreeing to cooperate on preventing big exchange rate fluctuations (Barber 2007). But how far will the
EU be willing cooperate in Chinas calls for the democratisation of the
international order and the creation of a more stable international financial and economic system favourable to world development? Both China
and the EU, lacking the military means to pursue their interests globally,
share the need for a rules-based negotiated world order. They do, however, differ with respect to the type of rules needed for this - those shaping a liberal or a developmental international political economy. Chinas
multi-polar vision seeks an international order in which developing countries have their say to ensure that the system operates in their interests. A
particular problem here for Europe is that the multi-polarising world
trend brings into question its own over-representation in international
8
See Bush, the new international order and Chinas choice in Peoples Daily (22
November 22).

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135

organisations such as the IMF and the UN Security Council permanent

membership. Will the EU then choose a strategic cooperation with China
to build a stable multi-polar order or will it instead seek a closer geopolitical coordination with the US, joining its containment strategy to
restrain the rise of China and its multi-polarising impact?
The Sino-European relationship is not the only one driving the multipolar process. Chinas diplomatic relations have expanded extremely fast
over the last few years, while the growing significance of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation and the China-Africa forum in particular open
up a new area for EU consideration. Indeed, there are huge opportunities
for the EU in participating in Chinas development. With the Chinese
government planning to invest almost $200bn in renewable energy by
2020, there is significant potential here for collaboration in R&D. Successful cooperation through this and other joint projects in China has
potential for a much wider application worldwide, teaming up with local
actors, for example in Africa, to assist in development and poverty eradication, as well as in advancing the Eurasian link. Now that a new energy
Silk Road of oil and gas pipelines linking Europe and North East Asia
with Central Asia and the Middle East, with China at the centre, has
become a viable proposition, this calls for the EU and China to work
together to invest in transcontinental infrastructure projects including an
intercontinental road and railway link.
As a partnership between the worlds largest developing and the
second largest developed economic power, China attaches a global significance to Sino-EU cooperation in its potential to promote the multipolar trend and shape a more peaceful international order conducive to
development. Chinas aim as it develops, as we have argued here, is to
build a stable relationship with the US. A strengthening relationship with
the EU is a means of achieving this, helping to limit the possibility of
breakdown in Sino-US relations by making it hard for the US to treat
China as an enemy. At the same time, by helping to demonstrate that
Chinas emergence as a world power is peaceful, it also provides a way to
gain US recognition of its needs to access state of the art technologies in
order to develop. It is equally important for the EU to create a favourable atmosphere for international cooperation. A new polarising Cold
War would inhibit its own role.
On the other hand, there are development dividends to be gained
through strategic cooperation with China to promote multi-polar

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developmentalism. Such cooperation does not preclude human rights

dialogue with China. By and large, China recognises its problems, though
considering that improvements in human rights must follow social and
economic development. As it seeks its place in the international order as
an equal and responsible world power, China looks to the EU to play a
special role in assisting US adjustment to the status of a normal power.
For the EU, strategic cooperation demands recognition of its own role in
helping to smooth Sino-US relations. It has to think strategically about
how European participation in Chinas development - and in the Eurasian and African dimensions of the Sino-EU partnership - can be pursued, without antagonising the US, as the latters global power status is
thereby adjusted.

References
Amin, Samir (cited in Bond, P. 2004). Facing the Global Apartheid in Freeman, Alan and Kagarlitsky, Boris (eds.) The Politics of Empire. London: Pluto
Press: 211.
Arias, J. 2005. China and Europe look ahead in Beijing Review (6 October 2005).
Barber, Tony. 2007. EU joins China in currency moves pact in Financial Times
(28 November 2007).
Chan, Gerald. 1999. Chinese Perspectives on International Relations. Basingstoke and
London: Macmillan Press
Chen Xiaogong, cited in Zhao Suisheng. 1992. Beijings perception of the
international system and foreign policy adjustment in the post-Cold War
world in East Asia: An International Quarterly 11(3).
Cheng, Joseph Y.S. 1999. Chinas ASEAN Policy in the 1990s in Contemporary
Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategy Affairs 21(2).
Ding Ying. 2008. Symbiotic Relationship in Beijing Review (15 May 2008).
Ding Yuanhong, 1983. Vicissitudes in West European-US Relations in China
and the World (4) Beijing: Beijing Review: 85-102.
Feng Zhongping. 2004. Forming a Closer Bond in Beijing Review (27 May
2004).
Geeraerts, Gustaf. 2008. Chinese Perceptions of the EU as a Global Actor in
CEMC (ed.) China, Europe, facts and perceptions. Antwerp: China-Europe
Management Centre: 34.
Goldstein, Avery. 2001. The Diplomatic Face of Chinas Grand Strategy in
The China Quarterly 168
Guo Fengmin. 1982. Western European Countries The Canons of their
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Jin Yinan. 2002. Multi-polarization irrevocable trend, China Daily (15 July
2002).
Lanxin Xiang. 2004. Chinas Eurasian Experiment in Survival 46(2):113
Mai Zhaorong. 2004. Expanding and strengthening ties with the EU in China
Daily (12 April 2004).
Ming Wan Engaging China: the Political Economy and Geopolitical
Approaches of the United States, Japan and the European Union. On line
at: www.japanfocus.org/products/topdf/2576 (consulted 9.12.2008).
Ni Yanshu. 2005. Diplomacy Gathers Steam in Beijing Review (27 January
2005).
Qian Qichen. 1989. Year marks improved world situation in Beijing Review (26
December - 1 January 1989).
Saunders, Phillip. 2000. Chinas America Watchers: Changing Attitudes Towards the United States in The China Quarterly 161
Segal, Gerald. 1982. The China Factor. London: Croom Helm
Van Ness, Peter. 2005. Conclusion in Gurtov, Mel and Van Ness, Peter (eds.),
Confronting the Bush Doctrine. London and New York: Routledge Curzon
Xin Hu. 1993. Characteristics of the World Situation in Beijing Review (11-17
January 1993).
Yan Wei. 2006. Great Expectations in Beijing Review (9 November 2006).
Yao Youzhi, cited in Roy, Denny. 2003. Chinas Reaction to American Predominance, in Survival 45(3): 58.
You Ji The Rise of China and its Implications on the ASEAN-EU-America
Triangle Relations Panorama: Insights into Southeast Asian and European Affairs
(http://www.kas.de/db_files/dokumente/7_dokument_dok_pdf_5857_1.
pdf#page=71) (consulted 9.12.2008)
Yu Xintuan. 2004. EU enlargement: An East Asian Perspective; on-line at:
http://www.rus.org.cn/newsp/shownews.asp?NewsID=266.html.
Wu Baiyu. 2004. Divergence Remains in Beijing Review (15 July 2004).
Wu Liming. 2004. Golden days for EU-US ties gone. On line at:
http://www.chinaview.cn (consulted on (13.04.2008); EU moves toward
independent military role in Peoples Daily (19 December 2004).
Zhang Yansheng cited in McGregor, R., and Callan, E. 2007. Bejings uncomfortable deal with America in Financial Times (11 April 2007).

EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 139-150

THE EUROPEAN UNION AND CHINA:

INDIAN PERCEPTIONS AND PERSPECTIVES
Rajendra K. Jain
Abstract
Both China and India are important partners for the European Union
(EU) because of their demography, large domestic markets of a billion plus each, significant energy-consumption patterns, and because
they are vital for resolving regional problems as well as global issues.
However, Beijing has been - and continues to be - more central to
European interests than New Delhi because of its political clout, its
economic potential, the substantially higher economic stakes, and
trade. As a result, there is a variable engagement of the Union towards the two rising Asian powers and a qualitative difference in the
attention and focus given by the European Union to China than
India. This chapter is divided into four sections. The first section
begins with a discussion of how the EU perceives India and China.
The second section discusses Indian perceptions of EU-China relations. The third one highlights some similarities in the Chinese and
Indian approaches towards the EU. The concluding section outlines
several lessons that India can learn from Chinas engagement of the
EU.
EU Perceptions of China and India
There are differences in the ways in which the European Union perceives India and China. EU policy-makers and think-tankers have for
many years argued that China takes the European Union far more seriously. Most people in Brussels have generally tended to feel that Indian
policy-makers appeared to need convincing that the EU is a player that
matters (Patten 2002). Former European Commission President

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Rajendra K. Jain

Romano Prodi complained that India was too focused on the United
States in its foreign and economic policy, which came at the expense of
the EU (cited in Shedde 2001). Europeans often have urged India to
shed its so-called narrow prism of Pakistan once and for all and develop a wider world-view like that of China in order to create a more
meaningful partnership.
Europeans argue that China has made greater efforts at understanding EU institutions than India. Some of them conclude that the Chinese
perhaps understand Europe better than even the Europeans themselves.
The EU, many Indians feel, does not make things easy, given the complexity of its institutions, proliferating regulations and rotating presidency. A major reason for this is that the Indian elites perceptions of the
EU continue to be essentially conditioned by the Anglo-Saxon media,
which impedes a more nuanced understanding of the processes and
dynamics of European integration, as well as the intricacies and roles of
EU institutions. China, Europeans argue, has been a much greater supporter of European integration, whereas India has tended to stay away
from the debate. Even though India was one of the first countries to
establish diplomatic relations with the European Economic Community,
India has tended to take a comparatively more measured approach towards European integration. To many Indians, Europe is like the doudy
old lady, known for over four centuries. There is no excitement, no
passion between India and Europe (Raja Mohan 2002: 62). India, the
Europeans often complain, like Europe, but love the United States,
even though it is tough love.
China, many Europeans feel, has over the years developed a far more
sophisticated approach towards Europe. Even though EU officials concede that the core of the relationship with both China and India is economic, but China, they insist, functions more like a demandeur, continuously seeking to widen constantly interaction and dialogue. People in
Brussels often argue that India was neither proactive nor entrepreneurial
enough like China to avail of existing opportunities. This may partly
stem from the fact that on most things which are of vital concern to
India, the EU as a collective is neither able nor willing to make a difference, with the result that most deliverables are perceived to essentially lie
in bilateral relationships.
EU officials are fond of saying that India does not devote adequate
human resources commensurate with the need to meaningfully engage

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141

the Union. In this context, they are fond of stating that China has a
separate embassy accredited to Belgium and a separate 60-member one
to the EU. India, on the other hand, has a combined one of about onethird its size for Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union.
Whereas Beijing has about half a dozen officials for closely following the
work of the European Parliament, India has none. There are about two
dozen Chinese officials dealing with political affairs, whereas India has
just a few. At summits and other dialogues, the Chinese are said to follow a structured approach with usually several rows of participants followed by note-takers, whereas EU officials say they confront a random
democracy on the other side. Despite about 45-odd issues, on which
there is dialogue and consultations with India under the Strategic Partnership, Brussels feels that it does encounter the problem of capacity and
resources in the Ministry of External Affairs.
Whereas the Union respects China as a great power, some in India
feel that Brussels tends to regard India as a regional South Asian power
and does not adequately appreciate its rise in the Asia-Pacific. Europeans
tend to consider India as still an emerging country whose status is being
slowly enhanced, but the process of its global empowerment is just beginning, whereas China is clearly ahead in terms of GDP, defence capabilities and diplomatic clout (Racine 2007: 53-54). To most Indians, a
Sino-centric Europe has been more willing to accommodate China rather
than India; there is a tendency to draw a comparison with China, that
India should emulate China in its dealings with EU and try to introduce
a competitive spirit (you have only yourselves to blame for the lower
level of interaction and engagement).
Beijing views the European Union as a pole in an emerging multipolar world and as a potential counterbalance to the United States. To that
end, it has been keen that Europeans develop a more united voice. Indians, however, feel that it is going to be a long, long way before Europe
is going to act as a pole, largely because of the inherent constraints of the
Common Foreign and Security Policy in a heterogeneous EU of 27
member states. Indian analysts as well as upper and decision-making
classes do not see the EU as a counterweight to the United States, but as
a building process and a construct that could be able to deliver longterm gains for the Indian subcontinent, while maintaining intact the
diverse range of Indian bilateral relations with specific European countries (Ruel, Chowhdury and Vasudevan 2004: 105-106). The EU displays

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a lack of geopolitical coherence and has not yet shown signs of acting as
a credible power (Lisbonne-de Vergeron 2006: 5).
While Europeans aspire for a multipolar world, they seem to endorse
Chinese views of a unipolar Asia, and not a multipolar Asia which also
takes into account the growing profile of India and Japan in the region.
In fact, both Japan and India will not satisfy themselves with a mere
balancing of China, but they will also vigorously contest Beijings attempts at establishing its dominance in various parts of Asia. (Raja
Mohan 2009: 51). The romantic notion that Asia is a naturally Sinocentric continent, Indian observers argue, should be discarded (Sahni
2008: 37).
Perhaps in no other strategic partnership has Brussels invested so
much political, diplomatic and financial resources as the one with China.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has all the
advantages of great power exceptionalism (Ikenberry 2008: 32) which
India does not. Because of its membership of the UN Security Council,
it was natural that EU-China interaction was much more significant in
the resolution of key problems, because in 2007 China had become the
largest trading partner of Iran, North Korea, and Sudan, and the secondlargest of Burma and Zimbabwe.
China is perceived by most Europeans as a direct and immediate
threat to European jobs, since it is with China that the Union has the
largest bilateral trade deficit. The EUs trade deficit with China was
rising by 15 million an hour and reached 170 billion in 2007. The Pew
Global Attitudes Survey of June 2007 noted that Chinas expanding
economic and military power was triggering considerable anxiety in
Western Europe, where the number of those with a favourable image of
China declined in several West European countries between 2005 and
2007 (Pew Global Attitude Survey June 2007: 35). In a survey of June
2008, majorities in Western Europe believed that either China has already replaced the United States as the worlds leading superpower or
that it will at some point replace the US (Pew Global Attitudes Project
2008: 5). On the other hand, the Unions trade with India was nearly six
times less than with China 55 billion in 2007, compared to 300
billion with China. India is perceived by Europeans as a latent and potential threat taking away service-sector jobs, though pressures will increase as both China and India move up the value chain.

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In recent years, many Europeans fear a threat to their economic interests by the rise of China and India. Indian officials, however, stress that
the tendency to equate India with China in the sense that they constitute
a threat to European employment structures is unfair because the EUs
trade with China is 12 per cent of its total, as compared to two per cent
with India (Saran 2005: 4). Some Europeans concede that there is no
empirical basis for this, but there is an unsubstantiated fear of a rapidly
growing Indian economy having the potential of posing a danger at some
time in the future. There is also an attitudinal difference on how China
and India deal with the European Union. Europeans do not exactly
relish the more vocal approach of a rising India and its confident and
articulate elite keen on gaining a position at the high table. China tends
to be generally much more subtle, making rather indirect and allusive
statements, rather than brazenly direct pronouncements that India tends
to make in the manner of Western foreign offices. In diplomatic discourse and conduct, India has tended to carry many chips on its shoulder, almost always moralistic, needlessly arrogant, argumentative, mistaking such attitude as being an assertion of national pride (Singh 2006:
276-277).
Europe is not yet central to Indian priorities which appear to be UScentric. India accords greater importance to the United States than the
EU because as the principal foreign policy interlocutor, it is perceived as
having the biggest impact on our national security environment. There is
a societal bias towards the United States in terms of the importance
given to Washington, cultural and intellectual ties with the US, and the
million-strong Indian Diaspora. The US has the capacity to act in ways
which are more benefiting to India than long European declaratory statements. As an aspiring power, India is more sympathetic to the American
effort to rework the rules of the global game, whereas Europe is a
staunch defender of the present order. Europe appears increasingly as a
conservative force: protectionist, in relation to markets but also much
else, hoping to keep what it has (Khilnani 2006: 490-491).
A key difference between the EU and American documents on Indias strategic partnership with them is that while gradual incrementalism
through dialogue and discussion is the hallmark of the Union, there is a
more practical, direct American approach, which focuses on vital issues
to India such as geopolitical balance, energy and technology (Racine
2007). India also finds it comparatively easier to deal with the United

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States on a one-to-one basis which is characterized by an effective leadership, whereas decision-making in the EU is inherently time-consuming
in an increasingly heterogeneous EU-27 driven forward by committees
and compromises. The US is making greater efforts to understand Indias foreign policy priorities and strategic preferences, whereas the Europeans come with their own foreign policy preferences, expecting us to
conform to them or explain why we are not.
Indian Perceptions of EU-China Relations
Elites and decision-makers in India maintain that EU policy-makers have
a fixation on China. For long, remarked a veteran Brussels-based Indian
observer, the EU had single-mindedly focused on China since India was
overshadowed by China, both politically and economically (Subhan 2002:
51; Pant 2008). As Asia started to come together and to see how Chinas
peaceful rise could be kept peaceful for Asia, the EU seemed to have
abandoned its traditional focus on India to have concentrated on Southeast and Northeast Asia (Shashank 2007: 23). There has also been resentment in many quarters that until the turn of the millennium the EU
maintained its Cold War policies of equidistance between India and
Pakistan. Most stakeholders in India feel that a Sino-centric Europe has
been more willing to accommodate China rather than India, which, as
Commissioner Mandelson said, is getting there, but not quite arrived
(cited in Rao 2007). India is perceived to be in the Commonwealth
Games league, whereas China is in the Olympic Games league.
Many stakeholders in India feel that there is a degree of discrimination in the European Unions interest in and treatment of democratic
India and in favour of undemocratic China, with which the Union has
few common political values. Thus, many in India feel that the EU has
been less sympathetic to and supportive of a democratic secular India,
one of the few countries to practice democracy in the developing countries against overwhelming odds (Ram 2002: 5). Indias democratic
polity and shared values do not necessarily earn it any brownie points in
Europe. Many Indian stakeholders wondered how EU espousal of human rights and promotion of democracy reconciled with political expediency to embrace military rulers responsible for ousting democraticallyelected rulers in Pakistan.
The rise of India and China offers two developmental models to the
world, especially to developing countries: in China, development has

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145

been spearheaded by a non-democracy or one-party state relying on

policies associated with managed economies; whereas economic growth
in India has been effected in an open and democratic regime with a free
market economy. Despite the imperfections of Indian democracy, it has
worked, even through more than a decade of coalition governance. Many
countries, particularly in Africa, welcome Chinese support as an alternative to the Western pattern of interfering in their development. Chinas
spectacular growth is proof to many developing countries that reform
and economic opening need not necessarily lead to democracy.
Indian policy-makers feel that Europe does not seem to be unduly
perturbed by the potential security implications of a rising China, about
its military modernization and rising defence expenditure. Most Europeans tend to feel that they should convince Washington that China should
not be regarded as a strategic threat, but a crucial partner (Patten 2005:
278). This is partly because Asian issues and nations are too distant for
them to directly impinge on its own security, partly because the EU is
not militarily present in East Asia, and unlike the United States, does not
play the role of an external balancer in Asia. It is difficult to say if most
Europeans tend to see China as an economic threat, while Indias rise is
seen as a benign and stabilizing development around the world. On the
one hand, Europe tends to either regard the growing Chinese market as
an economic opportunity. On the other hand, it is concerned about the
mounting trade deficits, which may fuel protectionist sentiments. China
continues to pose difficulties in Indias immediate neighbourhood
economically, politically, and strategically. The competition is intense in
Myanmar, even though Sino-Indian relations will continually see elements of both competition and cooperation. It is also equally certain that
India will not accept a secondary role to that of China in Asia and never
wavers from its determination to emerge as an indispensable element in
the Asian balance of power (Raja Mohan 2007).
There are more numerous and deeper institutional links between the
EU and China than between India and the Union. Indias interaction and
institutional engagement with the EU is less intense, and dense in terms
of visits, dialogues and consultations, than that of the Union with China.
For instance, officials from the European Commission responsible for
initiating and implementing the EUs China policy made 206 trips to
China in 2004, on average four visits per week (cited in Subhan 2005).
Between 2002 and 2004, there were twelve visits to India by EU Com-

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Rajendra K. Jain

missioners and the High Representative for CFSP Javier Solana, whereas
there were nine Commissioner visits to China alone in the first half of
2004. However, in recent years with India and EU talking across the
board, the number of visits of Commissioners and officials has increased, but it still does not equal those to China.
Similarities in Chinese and Indian Approaches towards the EU
There are basic differences in both perceptions and interests of China
and India with the EU in many fields, including trade, development,
globalization, and WTO negotiations, the International Criminal Court,
climate change, etc. where the EU has taken a stand contradictory to
them. China and India argue that the structures of global governance
(including the G8) must be more democratic, representative and legitimate. The two new big kids on the block are wary of the creeping regulatory imperialism of the North. What they want is a different set of
rules to safeguard the interests of their populations which constitute
more than one-third of humanity.
Both China and India have similar attitudes towards the role of the
United Nations and multilateralism. During the UN debate on the eve of
the Iraq war (2002-2003), the Europeans were at the forefront of questioning the American attempt to oust Saddam Hussein based on a perceived threat of weapons of mass destruction. China and India were
vehemently opposed to European aspirations to transform the United
Nations into a supranational organization which can gain and implement
a mandate to interfere in domestic affairs. Both Asian giants resent European efforts to talk down to them from the high pedestal of post-modernism. They remain acutely sensitive about their sovereignty and internal autonomy against intrusive human rights issues and remain wary
about humanitarian intervention and the circumstances in which force
may be used. Both feel that hard power is as necessary as post-modernist
Europes fascination for and advocacy of the merits of soft power.
Above all, both China and India are unanimous that the Commission
often tends to assume a patronizing attitude Engage and we shall
teach you.
As the two most populous economies, China and India continue to
have consultations and policy coordination in multilateral trade negotiations. Since the Cancun Ministerial meeting (2003), the advanced industrialized countries are being challenged in multilateral trade negotiations

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because of effective coalition-building by emerging powers. Senior EU

officials have generally expressed a preference for and likeableness of
Chinas low profile and its general caution about assuming a leadership
role inside the WTO in sharp contrast to the higher profile that India
tends to occupy in multilateral trade negotiations. The greatest challenge,
Trade Commissioner Mandelson recently remarked, is to have a Chinese
negotiator to start talking and an Indian negotiator to stop talking (cited
in Dutt 2007). Some European thinkers wonder why China has, bizarrely, allowed Brazil and India to speak for the developing world in
the on-going Doha Round (Grant and Valasek 2007: 30). At the Geneva
ministerial summit, however, the Chinese were just as vocal as India in
criticising the rigid Western approach that jeopardized the future of
millions of poor and subsistence farmers.
India and China have sought to coordinate their policies regarding
climate change, especially as the North seeks to transfer incrementally
the ecological burden of the entire planet at the door of developing
countries, despite its historic responsibility for cumulative emission
levels. China and India are willing to take voluntary measures to curb
carbon emissions. They are, however, unwilling to accept any mandatory
carbon emission limits because only continuous growth offers a real
possibility of lifting millions out of poverty. India argues that it is imperative to maintain a distinction between lifestyle emissions of the West
and survival emissions of developing countries. Capping or reducing
emission levels in India may mean that 600 million Indians, who do not
have access to electricity today, must be permanently denied this very
basic energy service (Saran 2008). Both Asian countries argue that it is
necessary for low emission technologies to be made available to poorer
countries at a price they can afford; that technology needs to be shared
generously and easily without stringent constraints on intellectual property rights. Climate change is increasingly becoming the next WTO-type
of North-South divide. Neither is willing to allow the West to constrain
their autonomy in determining their developmental priorities and ensuring continued economic growth which is contingent on ensuring energy
security.
Conclusion
The relentless rise of China has presented the Indian business and political communities with both an example and an opportunity to be an

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alternative, to become more collaborative and to foster their own development. There are, perhaps, three lessons which India can learn from the
ways in which China engages with the European Union.
Firstly, India should more intensively engage the Council and the
European Parliament. In the past, India concentrated almost entirely on
the European Commission in its dealings with Brussels, primarily because it was the main interlocutor in dealing with trade irritants and
seemed reluctant to engage more intensely with other EU institutions.
For decades, New Delhi regarded the European Parliament as a mere
talking shop and confined itself to fire-fighting or damage control
(mostly on Kashmir). With growing appreciation of the greater profile
and role of the European Parliament in the Unions institutional architecture, the Indian attitude towards it seems to have changed significantly.
This has been reflected in a number of recent high-profile visits, and the
establishment of a separate India Delegation (as in the case of China).
Secondly, India should emulate China in developing a more robust
framework of educational exchanges and encourage Indian elites to
study in Europe. There is a need to strengthen media relationships, academic and intellectual linkages, as well as foster greater intellectual and
elite interaction. The number of Indian students studying in Europe has
been rather limited, partly because of the limited number of courses in
English and because Europe does not provide a structure of post-doctoral fellowships and employment prospects that is available in the
United States. There is a continuing need to re-profile and reorient our
mindsets about the growing prominence of the EU as a collective entity.
While India will not be able to match China in the setting up of Confucius Institutes across the world, the Indian Council of Cultural Relations
has established twenty India Cultural Centres around the world, of which
only two are in Western Europe (Germany and the United Kingdom;
with a third one coming up in Paris shortly). India also maintains nineteen Chairs of Indian Studies and five Chairs of Indian studies on a
semester basis, mostly for teaching of Indian languages. Of these, there
are six for Hindi in Europe (Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Belgium and Spain), one for Sanskrit (France), and one for Tamil (Poland).
India has set up a Chair of Indian Economics at Sciences Po, Paris.
Obviously, more needs to be done in this context.
Thirdly, and finally, a catalytic role can be played by the think-tank
community in Europe, which for too long have been obsessed with

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149

China. The number of think-tanks in Europe that are continuously engaged and committed to research and dissemination of information and
debate on India are far and few. There is an urgent need to develop a
sustained specialist and policy level dialogue between Indian and European think-tanks.

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EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 151-166

RUSSIAS CLOSER TIES WITH CHINA:

THE GEO-POLITICS OF ENERGY
AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION
Christopher Williams1
Abstract
Against the background of a changing Sino-Soviet relationship, from
1949 until the collapse of communism in the USSR in 1991, this
chapter analyses Russo-Chinese relations in the post-Soviet period,
focusing on the Yeltsin and Putin eras. It assesses the reasons for
closer ties and also examines the constraints posed by Russias geopolitics and energy security policies on Russo-Chinese relations in the
early 21st century and the implications for the European Union and
beyond.
Introduction
According to Vladimir Shlapentokh, in the post-war era the United States
occupied a central position in the minds of the Soviet elite (Shlapentokh
2007: 2), whilst the same could be said of China after Nixons visit in
1972 (Ferdinand 2007: 842). Whilst the US is still crucial to both Russia
and China, over the last two decades the Sino-Russian relationship has
moved from a constructive partnership in 1994 to a strategic partnership by 1996, leading to a joint Good Neighbour, Friendship and Cooperation Treaty in 2001 (Wilson 2004: 6). Russias view of China has
changed over time (Lukin 2003). After the success of the 1949 revolution, China was viewed as the Soviet Unions best friend. However,
1
The author would like to thank the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) for
a period of research leave during which this piece was written and the staff of the
European reading room Library of Congress, Washington DC for their help in locating some of the sources used during a November 2008 visit.

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Christopher Williams

following Stalins death in 1953, and Khrushchevs rise to power after

1955, Russian perceptions changed and China was seen as Russias enemy (Westad 1998). The Sino-Soviet disputes in the 1960s, culminating
in border clashes in 1968-69, added to this negative view, and in the
1970s as both Russia and China got closer to the US, they continued to
see each other as enemies (Jones and Kevill 1985). As a consequence,
Shlapentokh writes: In the 50 years after the victory of the Chinese
revolution in 1949, Russians saw China as an ally for seven years (194956) and for thirty years they looked at China as a dangerous enemy
(1957-87) (Shlapentokh 2007: 5). Russian attitudes towards China did
not soften until the 1980s, when Mikhail Gorbachev made his historic
visit to Beijing in June 1989 (Young Deng 2007: 866; see also Lowell
1992 and Wishnick 2001). Changes within China itself, as a result of
Deng Xiaopings shift towards reform and liberalization in the same
period, also paved the way for a more open Chinese foreign policy facilitating a gradual improvement in Sino-Soviet relations (Lee Nam ju 2001:
49-50). So why have China and Russia moved away from an emphasis
on the US and shifted towards a closer relationship and potential partnership with each other?
There are numerous reasons why this rapprochement occurred: firstly, Russias weakened state in the 1990s; secondly, the fact that Russia
shares a substantial border with China; thirdly, awareness that the Russian Far East is facing a demographic crisis and economic problems;
fourthly, global acknowledgment that China is growing in strength both
economically and militarily; fifthly, the fact that Russia wants to be a
significant player in the Asia-Pacific region (so it is more logical to cooperate with China, rather than oppose it); sixthly, both Russia and China
have common security interests in Central Asia (the threat of Islamic
extremism and separatism and an uneasiness about a US military presence since 2001); seventh, China urgently needs military technology as
part of its modernisation strategy (which makes it a logical partner for
the Russian military industrial complex (MIC), which is itself seeking
markets since the USSR collapse); eighth, Chinese energy needs are high
and can be partly met by the purchase of Russian gas and oil, which is in
turn largely responsible for Russian economic growth this century; and
finally, although Russian overt criticism of US unipolarity has diminished
since the tragic events of 9/11, Moscow is still uncomfortable with many

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153

aspects of US foreign policy, a concern shared by China. We shall now

briefly discuss each factor in turn.
The Soviet Collapse and Sino-Russian Relations since 1991
In December 1991, the USSR finally collapsed, leaving the USSR in
ruins and its MIC virtually redundant. This took the world, including the
Chinese, by surprise and left the USA as the only remaining superpower
and Russia severely weakened (Williams 2000: 248-266). From Chinas
perspective, although its attitude to Moscow did not change, Beijing still
feared a possible switch of Russian allegiance to Taiwan (Kuhrt 2007:
11; Vradiy 2007: 219-234) and a move to a more pro-Western stance.
Russian collaboration was necessary in Chinas parallel quest to maintain
stability in Central Asia and also served a geopolitical function in Chinas
ongoing efforts to offset the hegemonic position of the US (Wilson
2004: 10). Under Yeltsin, Russian foreign policy went in a largely Westward direction, partly as a result of the weaknesses outlined above, which
left Russia with little initial room for manoeuvre. A key role was played
by the integrationist Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, who
identified closely with the West and was in favour of promoting Russias
integration into the world economy, arguing that the European security
system in a post Cold War world would benefit if it included Russia and
if Russia was now accepted as an equal partner to West. Nevertheless,
Yeltsin kept his options open because during Kozyrevs March 1992 visit
to China, Russia did not condemn Chinas human rights policy but instead stressed the importance of economics and trade and promised to
work on border demarcation issues (Kuhrt 2007: 12-13).
In overall terms, it was Western actions, the US tendency to act unilaterally (like a rogue-state) and the fact that Moscow was not treated as
a full partner by the West, which initially persuaded Moscow to shift its
foreign policy stance towards China. Clear evidence of this is the Wests
intervention in Kosovo in 1999, with the US and UK totally bypassing
the UN (Williams 2001: 248-266 and Williams with Golenkova 2001:
204-225). To this may be added the question of NATOs eastward expansion, incorporating some former Russian allies in its previous buffer
zone. This contradicted James Baker, the Secretary of State in the Bush
(Senior) Administration, who had promised to Gorbachev back in February 1990 that apart from the incorporation of East Germany into the
Federal Republic of Germany, NATO would not extend any further east.

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Christopher Williams

Similarly, the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia in May 1999, US criticism of Chinas human rights record and its
policy on Taiwan, and the signing of an American-Japanese security
treaty, inflamed China. By the time of the Russian 1998 economic crash,
there was a general feeling in Moscow that Russias flirtation with the
Washington model (liberal democracy and the market) had produced
nothing but pain and heartache. This led to a new direction in Russian
foreign policy and resulted in Kozyrev being replaced by Yevgeny
Primakov in 1997-98. This was important because Primakov wanted to
forge links or build bridges between Russia and Asia (e.g. Central Asia
and China) and his appointment marked a more positive Russian stance
toward Asia (Iwashita 2007: 165-194). Primakov and other actors, such
as the communists (KPRF) and neo-fascists (LDPR) were admirers of
Chinas reforms and experience. These groups, as well as the industrial
lobby (MIC, heavy industry) wanted China as Russias ally (Lukin 2001:
2-4), partly to help reverse Russias economic decline but also to counter
US unliteralism. At an early 1992 summit meeting between President
Yeltsin and Jiang Zemin it was agreed that neither country would intervene in the domestic affairs of the other, that both would stand up
against hegemonism, that neither country would strike the other first
with nuclear weapons, and that it was in Russia and Chinas best interests to expand economic, scientific, cultural and military exchanges (Lee
Nam-ju 2001: 56-57; Su 2007: 93-112).
Since then, both Moscow and Beijing have stressed the primacy of
the UN in global decision-making and the precedence of national sovereignty over western conceptions of humanitarian intervention and limited sovereignty. Both countries aspire to a multipolar world, in which
a few great powers (the US, Russia, the EU, China, India and Japan)
make the big decisions. Both Russia and China are opposed to the
unipolar order associated with a hegemonic America. As a result, in UN
General General Assembly voting, Russia and China have converged
from 1974-2005 but diverged from the US (Ferdinand 2007: 860-862).
An example is the way Russia and China blocked US attempts to reform
the UNHRC in 2005 (Yong Deng 2007: 881). To reverse US domination
Moscow and Beijing have adopted similar positions on the war against
terror, the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD),
and international conflict management, most recently in the context of
the Iraq war. They have also made repeated calls for multipolarity.

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Thus, according to the Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, it is especially important that Russia and China cooperate in key areas such as
raising the authority and the role of the UN, defending the primacy of
international law in world affairs, maintaining strategic stability, first and
foremost, preserving the ABM treaty, creating a new, just, world economic order where everyone enjoys equal rights. (cited in Lukin 2001: 17).
This stance coincides with what Swaine and Tellis refer to as Chinas
calculative security policy which contains three elements: a practical and
non-ideological approach and the maintenance of friendly international
relations; restraining the use of armed force while modernizing the military, and active participation in the international community (Swaine, and
Tellis 2000: 113-114.) But for things to proceed more smoothly, RussoChinese border disputes needed to be resolved first.
Border Disputes and Demarcation
The backdrop to Russias concerns over its border was the collapse of
the USSR, Chechnya and its overall feeling of vulnerability as Russia
shares a 4,300km common border with China (Bobo Lo 2004: 296-297).
Over time the border was gradually militarized, costing the Soviets 60
billion roubles in the 1960s and 70s alone (Wilson 2004: 49). Between
the years 1969-78, there were fifteen rounds of negotiations, all to no
avail. The deadlock was finally broken by Gorbachev in 1987 and by
October that year an agreement had already been reached on the Eastern
boundaries. This was followed in November 1989 by further discussions
regarding Soviet and Chinese border troop reductions (Wilson 2004: 43).
By 1991, only the status of three islands around the Ussuri and Argun
rivers remained unresolved (Wilson 2004: 44). In the period 1992-94,
negotiations over the Western sector of the former Soviet border continued and agreement was finally reached by June 1994, with border demarcation completed by November 1997 (Kireev 2006; Maxwell 2007: 47-72
and Wilson 2004: 44-45). Thus, there are no longer any border issues to
settle, a major step forward. As a result, in the period 2005-7 two million
Russians visited China and 700-750 million Chinese visited Russia, twothirds in the 1,000km border zone (Larin 2008: 2).
The Russian Far East Question
Closely linked to the border question is the vulnerability of the Russian
Far East (hereafter RFE), which has suffered serious population-decline

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Christopher Williams

(the young, better educated and more industrious have migrated, leaving
the elderly and infirm behind), massive Chinese immigration (of between
300,000 and 2 million), a major influx of Chinese goods and a serious
economic depression, as result of the decline of the Soviet merchant and
naval fleet.
The RFEs plight caused clashes between the Russian Federal government and the governors of various regions (krais)2 - most notably
Khabarovsk and Primore - from 1991 to 1997. These regions and their
rulers felt that the 1991 border demarcation agreement left them and
Russian national security vulnerable (Rangsimaporn 2006: 132-135).
Furthermore, the Russian state was also perceived to be neglecting the
pressing needs of the RFE.
As a consequence, a 2005 Russian public opinion poll revealed that
66% of Russians were against Chinese companies in the RFE/Siberia;
71% feared an increase in the number of Chinese in Russia and 61%
were in favour of restrictions on Chinese imports (cited in Shlapentokh
2007: 6). In general terms, Russians think that the Chinese show open
contempt for the Russians and their customs and that a Chinese influx
will downgrade Russian to an insignificant nation in the world
(Shlapentokh 2007: 13). There is also a widespread Russian conception
that the RFE is a Chinese target and the population fear that the RFE
will soon fall under Chinese control, so defeatism is already present
(Shlapentokh 2007: 12-14).
Although a 2004 survey showed that 35% of Russians in Khabarovsk
and 42% in Vladivostok were against the Chinese (cited in Shlapentokh
2007: 14), attitudes are gradually changing as Russians realize the opportunities available in terms of jobs and Chinese trade with Russias Eastern regions and the Trans-Baikal, which rose from US$515m in 2000 to
US$3.2 billion by 2005 (Larin 2008: 5). Furthermore, some pensioners
from Blagoveshchensk, Russia, have been moving to Heihe, in China, to
take advantage of lower apartment costs, utility fees and inflation (Larin
2008: 3)
But there is still a long way to go on the Russian side of the border
the authorities are unable to cope with the Chinese flow, so smuggling,
tax evasion and migration law violations occur. The Amur-Chinese
bridge project has also made little progress since 1995 and both sides
2

A krai is the equivalent of a county in the Russian administrative structure.

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157

have different ideas and approaches towards regional development in

border areas, with the Russians vacillating and the Chinese forging ahead
(Larin 2008: 7-12).
Chinas Rise
Russian concerns about Chinese expansionism mostly stem from fears
arising from Chinas rapid rise in the late 20th-early 21st centuries. China
has become an economic superpower, and is now the second largest
economy and exporter after the US (Bergsten et al 2008: 9). China has
expanded on average by 10% per annum over the last three decades
(Bergsten et al 2008: 106). For this reason, there are some groups within
the Russian elite, government and foreign policy circles who see China as
a threat. This group includes nationalists (LDPR), Westerners (Koyzrev,
Gaidar), and even Putin himself at times. Thus, at a conference on the
development of the RFE and the Trans-Baikal region held in
Blagoveshchensk in June 2000, Putin warned: I do not want to dramatize the situation, but if we do not make every real effort, even the indigenous Russian population will soon speak mostly Japanese, Chinese, and
Korean (cited in Lukin 2001: 15-16).
In some US circles, too, there is also a belief that China poses a challenge as an alternative model and source of support for the developing
world; as a counter-balance to US alliances in East Asia (Japan, South
Korea, Australia, Thailand, Philippines) and as an economic competitor
for the US (Bergsten et al 2008: 227). However, there is also an acknowledgment within the US that China wants to improve its international
reputation, does not seek a new Cold War, and so if the Chinese threat is
exaggerated then this might reinforce Chinese suspicions about US disrespect and intention to curb its rise as a major power (Bergsten et al 2008:
228).
Nevertheless, one source states that the US must remain vigilant
about the effects of Chinas rise on its domestic and international interests, but Washington should not look instinctively to blame or denounce
China as a scapegoat for problems (Bergsten et al 2008: 228). The same
thinking can apply to Russia. This is perhaps why there are advocates of
a more balanced Russian foreign policy that favours neither the West nor
China. Chinas development provides opportunities for Russia, especially
in relation to Russian military and energy sales to China. Both are essential to maintaining and strengthening Russias MIC and to Russias con-

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Christopher Williams

tinued economic growth, but at the same time Russia could be creating a
major Chinese adversary in the long-term.
Arms and Weapons Sales: Sustaining the Russian MIC
Bobo Lo argues that Russian official trade with China has tripled under
Putin while unofficial commerce, dominated by cross-border shuttle
trade, is at an all-time high (S10 billion according to Putin) (Bobo Lo
2005: 8). By May 2008, Russian Chinese trade had increased to $48
billion (Factbox 2008). This trade and investment involves nuclear energy, space cooperation, as well as in oil and gas projects, as we shall see
later. Military-technical cooperation is also an important feature of
Russo-Chinese relations (see Tsai 2003). China is now Russias biggest
arms customer, accounting for 40 per cent of Russias arms exports.
Arms exports comprise one-fifth of Russo-Chinese trade, and Russia
earns in excess of $1 billion annually from Chinese arms purchases
(Smith 2003: 12). Chinese arms purchases from Russia reached $6.5
billion from 1991to 1999 (Lee Nam-ju 2001: 64).
China has received 200 Su-27SK and Su-27UB trainers; 48 Su30MKK fighter bombers; a Sukhoi-30 jet fighter, 5 Sovremennyi-class
destroyers, 8 modern Kilo-class diesel destroyers; enough S-300PMU-1
ground to air missiles to equip eight divisions, now the core of the Chinese air defence forces and 35 Tor-M1 ground to air missiles (Lee Namju 2001: 64; Smith 2003: 12). In addition, since 1991 more than 2,000
Chinese officers have studied in Russia and currently around 200 Chinese officers are studying in Russian military academies (Smith 2003: 12).
Of serious concern to Russia is the fact that the balance of power between the Russian and Chinese air forces on the Sino-Russian border is
now in favour of China; whilst from a Western perspective the level of
contacts between the Russian and Chinese armed forces has not so far
matched those between the armed forces of NATO states and Russia but
contacts are being extended at MOD and General Staff levels, so this
may be a worry for the future.
On top of military trade and sales, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has also been used to encourage military co-operation
among SCO members, to boost confidence among members and to
develop a coordinated military policy against potential threats. Thus, in
October 2000 the first round of war games took place between China
and Kyrgyzstan. This was followed in April 2002 by Chinese observers

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159

attending the South Anti-terror exercises in Tajikistan, in July 2002 by

Russo-Chinese talks about joint exercises by signals troops in Inner
Mongolia, and in October 2002 by a China-Kazakhstan joint anti-terror
exercise. Then in August 2003 there were an expanded set of military
exercises which featured all members, except Uzbekistan. Thereafter, in
August 2005 Russia and China held their own military exercises with the
other SCO members, as well as Iran, India and Pakistan sending observers. This was dubbed Operation Peace Mission 2005' (Lanteigne 2006-7:
611).
In March 2006, SCO members conducted a joint East Terror exercise
in Uzbekistan, followed in April 2006 by an SCO Defence ministers
meeting in Beijing. The following year, two events took place the first,
an anti-terror exercise entitled Tianshan 1' between China and
Kazakhstan, the second, an anti-terror military exercise in September
2007 involving China and Tajikistan (Wei 2007: 19). Earlier, from 9-17
August 2007, there was the SCO 2007 Peace Mission held in
Chelyabinsk, Russia and Northwest Chinas Xinjiang Autonomous region. It was the eighteenth joint military exercise between the Chinese
and its partners since 2002. This one involved 6,500 military personnel
and eighty aircraft from the six SCO member states (Smith 2007: 5; Wei
2007: 18-19). According to Wei, this particular drill enhanced security
cooperation in the SCO, strengthened China-Russia relations, improved
the anti-terror capacity of the SCO members and accelerated the modernization of their armed forces (Wei 2007: 18). Finally, Smith suggests
that SCO members have used the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) as a means of ensuring military development of membership until 2010 via unified military systems - air defence, communications, information and reconnaissance support (Smith 2007: 6).
Russian Geo-politics: The SCO and Central Asia
As the evolution and development of the SCO and its role in Central
Asia has been addressed elsewhere (see Williams 2007: 215-237), only
brief comments will be made here: as is well known, the SCO started as
the Shanghai Five in 1996 and later expanded to become the SCO in
2001. It has been used by Russia and China as a way of combating the
so-called three evils (terrorism, separatism and extremism), as a means of
promoting multilateralism via emphasizing the role of the UN, and from
2005 as a way of forging new alliances between Russia and China, on the

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Christopher Williams

one hand, and India, Pakistan, Iran (Atai 2005: 102-103) and Central
Asia (Sun Zhuanghi 2004: 600-612) on the other.
The SCO has also been used to challenge US hegemony in Central
Asia and the biggest coup occurred when the Uzbek government announced that US troops had 180 days to pack and leave in July 2005.
Gleason argues that this change in attitude means that the US has lost an
important outpost in Central Asia, the ability to act as a counterweight to
Russia and China in the region and that in the short to medium term this
will allow Russia to gain a stronger foothold (Gleason 2006: 52). By and
large, though, the SCO lacks the material and diplomatic capabilities to
challenge directly Western interests in Central Asia (Lanteigne 2006-7:
606; on the Wests view of SCO see Zaderei 2008: 48-56).
One issue of concern is the uneven distribution of power within the
SCO. One view expressed in February 2008 argues that it is Russia and
China who largely determine SCO policy, followed by Kazakhstan and
Uzbekistan who exert limited influence, and finally by the SCO minnows Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan who have no clout or influence (SCO
2008). However, although Russia wants the SCO to become a militarypolitical bloc, it has no desire to re-create the Warsaw Pact or to start a
new Cold War. For both Russia and China the significance of the SCO is
thus far largely economic energy supplies are the key to both countries
with Russia focusing on oil and gas exports and China on imports (for
more detail see Aris 2008). It is possible, however, that while Russia and
China will eventually compete for power in Central Asia, for the time
being China seems content to keep a low key in the region and is unwilling to challenge Moscows pride (Merry 2003: 26).
China-EU relations and Russias Oilopoly
The European Union (EU) was created in the 1950s, and since then it
has expanded, growing to its current size of twenty-seven member states,
making the EU a major international actor, like the US and China, in
2009. Diplomatic relations between the EU and China started in 1975,
with the EU firmly supporting Chinas transition process and keen on
sustaining Chinas economic and social reforms, partly through trade and
cooperation agreements since 1978 (Heisbourg 2001). According to
Yong Deng (2007: 889), economic ties have reached a new height. China
is now the second largest trading partner of the EU. Eurostat figures
show that Chinese imports to the EU totalled approximately 191 billion

RUSSIAS CLOSER TIES WITH CHINA

161

Euros in 2006 representing a year on year increase of 21%, whilst EU

exports to China have increased by 22.5% (China-EU trade 2009).
The EU and China also have a science and technology agreement,
concluded in 1994 then renewed in 2004; maritime transport and tourism
agreements (dating from 2002), a customs cooperation agreement (concluded in 2004), and a research agreement on the peaceful use of nuclear
energy (concluded in 2004). New agreements on property rights, competition policy, textiles and enterprise are currently being negotiated. EUChina Summits have taken place annually since 1998; among the issues
discussed are human rights, the environment, telecommunications, energy and trade. One of the stumbling blocks is the arms embargo imposed on Beijing after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, which
has not been removed due to US and Japanese opposition (Yong Deng
2007: 890). This partly explains why China goes to Russia to meet its
arms and weapons needs.
Energy is one of the biggest aspects of Russo-Chinese relations and
perhaps the greatest threat to the EU. Russia is the worlds second largest oil producer and has vast reserves in East Siberia, the Komi Republic,
Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Barents region, and a great potential
for exporting them. This has led to the development of what Marshall
Goldman calls Russias oilopoly under Putin (Goldman 2008). One
source points out that Russian imports account for approximately 50%
of the EUs energy consumption, which is expected to rise to some 70%
in 2030, and in the case of oil products to 90% (Energy: Let Us Overcome Our Dependence 2002: 2-3, 9).
There are, however, concerns in Western Europe that Russia may try
to use its energy exports as a political lever by threatening to turn off the
taps. In line with this view, Russia has already used oil and gas to pressurise the policies of Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, while the cut-offs to
Belarus or the Ukraine had a knock-on effect on Polish and German
reserves back in 2004. Such EU concerns remain real, as the early 2009
energy disputes between the Ukraine (an EU applicant) and Russia during a cold winter snap show.
Although the potential for Russia to cut off supplies to other countries within the EU cannot be totally ruled out, this is highly unlikely as
Russia realizes that EUs demand for energy will probably grow significantly as the market is restricted. Furthermore, Russian growth is based
on high energy prices and profits and any adverse actions would possibly

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Christopher Williams

damage Russias reputation and economy at a time of global recession

(see Traynor 2009: 16).
Nevertheless, the EU is in fierce competition with China, India, Japan
and the USA, all of whom have begun to show an active interest in
Russian oil (Monaghan 2005). As a result, energy security has become a
major issue for the EU (see A Secure Europe in a Better World, 2003: 56). For example, the October 2005 EU-Russia summit focused on EU
dependency on Russian energy; the matter was put on the agenda again
at the recent January 2009 Czech Presidency of EU summit in the light
of Ukraine-Russia gas disputes and their impact on EU countries (Harding 2009: 2).
This makes Russo-Chinese energy relations particularly crucial. Chinese rapid economic growth has had a high cost in terms of resources
and the environment, resulting in Chinas increasing demand for energy
which will reach an estimated 22% of global energy demand by 2030
(Bergsten et al 2008: 141, 155). Although Russia is willing to supply
energy to China, there have been many problems, as the original
Angarsk-Daqing pipeline fell through, in favour of an Angarsk-Nakhoda
route. There have also been arduous negotiations over price and Russian
failures to make deliveries. To try and offset these problems with Russia,
the Chinese were rumoured to have financed Rosnefts purchase of
Yugansknefigaz, while China also reportedly paid a $6.6bn loan for the
long-term pre-purchase of Russian oil (Monaghan 2005: 13). The Chinese have also looked to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan (Ferdinand
2007:852) and started cooperating with SCO members in the energy field
(Frolenkov 2008: 67-82).
Conclusions
It is evident that Russo-Chinese relations have dramatically improved in
the last few decades, moving from reconciliation in the 1980s to relative
stability by 2009. This reflects Russias scepticism towards the West,
Chinas rise, more pragmatic Chinese and Russian foreign policies, and
Russian vulnerability in general and in the Far East in particular. It is the
outcome of what Bobo Lo recently called the Axis of convenience
(Bobo Lo 2008). There are, however, certain limitations on the future of
Russo-Chinese relations historical suspicions, cultural prejudices and
myths, geo-political rivalries, etc, in which Russia sees China as a possible long-term threat to its national security, whilst China needs Russia as

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163

a supplier of energy and weapons, but still realizes that Russia often uses
China to gain global influence (Anderson 1997; Garnett 2000 and Bobo
Lo 2008).
Although China has not yet achieved superpower status, its rise is
nevertheless causing some concern in Washington, Moscow, Brussels
and elsewhere. Whether or not the current close Russia-China ties are
maintained will depend on a number of factors - the course of Russian
foreign policy under new President Medvedev; US-Japanese ties; the
impact of the Obama Presidency on the course of US-China and USRussia relations; the role of the UN; the settlement of disputes over the
Korean peninsula (Zhebin and Yong Ung 2008: 29-47); and finally,
whether the unilaterialism of President Bush (Junior) will gradually give
way to triangularism under the new US President Barack Obama.
From a Chinese perspective, its promotion of peaceful development,
harmony and strategic partnerships (such as the SCO), a relatively
problem-free 2008 Olympics and Chinas willingness to accept international aid during the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake, has partly countered
negative perceptions of China and indicated its new openness. But Taiwan and Tibet remain serious Chinese concerns. In terms of the other
main topic addressed here, energy security will continue to be the biggest
potential obstacle to better Russo-Chinese relations for the short to
medium term, and the issue most likely to dominate EU debates with
Russia as well. Thus far, Russia has - and is still - using geo-politics (see
Levgold 2007: 343-392), and energy in particular (Goldman 2008), to
balance various regional powers in areas of key interest, such as Asia, in
order to offset a perceived Chinese threat and to restore Russias great
power status on the world stage; however, this approach might well
produce major problems in the long-term.

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EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 167-185

THE EUROPEAN UNION, CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES:

COMPLEX INTERDEPENDENCE AND
BI-MULTILATERALISM IN COMMERCIAL RELATIONS
Michael Smith and Huaixian Xie
Abstract
This chapter explores the emerging triangle in commercial relations
between the EU, China and the United States, using the concepts of
complex interdependence and bi-multilateralism as organising and
evaluative devices. The chapter argues that in the triangle there are
important areas of unevenness and variation reflecting differences of
power, institutional factors and norms, but that nonetheless there can
be discerned important elements of complex interdependence as
defined by Keohane and Nye. This can be observed in the bilateral
relationships between the three parties; at the same time, however, the
EU-China-US relationship is central to power, institutions and norms
in the changing multilateral commercial system, centred on the World
Trade Organisation. This means that many of the commercial policy
negotiations between the three parties are essentially bi-multilateral:
on the one hand, the management of bilateral relations creates externalities for the multilateral system, and on the other hand the evolution of the multilateral system creates new forces shaping the management of bilateral relationships. The chapter examines two cases,
Chinas entry into the WTO and the management of trade disputes
over textiles, to illuminate the ways in which bi-multilateral elements
enter into the EU-China-US triangle.
Introduction
Both the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) face a common challenge from the emergence onto the global commercial stage of

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Michael Smith and Huaixian Xie

China (Grant and Barysch 2008; Zaborowski 2006a). In the context of

EU-US relations more generally, which are characterised by a fluctuating
mixture of competition and convergence (McGuire and Smith 2008), it
might be predicted that this situation would produce the same often
uneasy combination of joint positions and action with competitive strategies, producing what has been termed a process of competitive cooperation between the two transatlantic partners (Smith 1998a; Smith and
Woolcock 1993; chapter 3). At the same time, it might be argued that the
triangle of relations between the EU, the US and China would contribute to the development of a new trilateralism between the EU, the US
and Asia-Pacific countries, or even a successor to the more limited trilateralism between the EC, the US and Japan that was widely discerned
in the 1970s and 1980s (Smith 2004). But the situation is not one that
lends itself to analysis in terms of simple labels. It is clear that EUChina-US relations exist at many different levels and that they evolve
against a changing global backdrop, in which the emergence of several
new potential commercial great powers and the continuing difficulties
faced by global institutions such as the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) play a key role. In this set of overlapping contexts, the bilateral
and trilateral relationships between the EU, the US and China must be
seen alongside the continuing development of inter-regional and global
commercial relationships, and in turn the problems of strategy and implementation that confront the EU.
This chapter sets out to analyse the emerging pattern of relations
between the EU, China and the US, and to explore the ways in which
this pattern impacts on the formulation and pursuit of policies, in particular policies centred on negotiations in the field of commercial policy. It
does this in three stages. First, it looks at key areas of development in
EU-China-US commercial relations, drawing attention to the growth of
what has been termed complex interdependence and to the implications
of this interdependence for strategies and their implementation. Second,
it considers the ways in which these relations can be analysed, and proposes an analysis coupling the idea of complex interdependence with
that of bi-multilateralism in commercial policy negotiations. Finally, the
paper focuses on two linked case studies, dealing with Chinas accession
to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the 2005 dispute over
trade in textiles, which are intended to sharpen the questions raised in

THE EUROPEAN UNION, CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES

169

the earlier parts of the argument and to suggest avenues for further
research in this area.
The Development of EU-China-US Commercial Relations
Over the post-Cold War period, the commercial relations between the
EU, China and the US have developed rapidly, often in ways that have
surprised policy-makers in Brussels and Washington. On the one hand,
the explosive growth of the Chinese economy and its export orientation
have created very mixed reactions in the leading developed economies,
with the EU and the US at the centre of the process. Whilst retailers and
consumers have welcomed access to cheap products, producers have
often had much more mixed feelings, depending on the extent to which
they can take advantage of production or licensing arrangements in
China itself. Both the EU and the US have developed large deficits in
their trade with China, which have led to demands in some quarters for
protection and an emphasis on the vulnerability of both the worlds
leading economies to the challenge from East Asia (Crossick and Reuter
2007: Part III; Freeman 2006; Zaborowski 2006b). At the same time, the
growing availability of Chinese capital for investment in both the EU
and the US has led to further mixed reactions, with the desire for new
investment accompanied by the equal desire not to let prized assets fall
into alien hands. Both the EU and the US have developed strategies for
both containing and taking advantage of the rise of China, involving
not only a series of bilateral dialogues and agreements but also the use of
inter-regional and global multilateral organisations to regulate and civilise the new forces to which they have been exposed (Berkofsky 2006;
Crossick and Reuter 2007: 3-15; Tanca 2006; Zaborowski 2006b).
This said, the EU and the US occupy different positions in any
emerging triangle composed of themselves and Beijing. In some ways,
these different positions are similar to those occupied by the EC and the
US in the previous triangle, centred on the EC, the US and Japan during the 1980s and early 1990s. In that case, the linkages between the US
and the EC, and the US and Japan, were not only strong in commercial
terms but also bolstered by important security and diplomatic connections that gave a strong central core to the relationships and prevented
purely commercial tensions from getting out of hand. But the relationship between the EC and Japan not to mention that between the EU
and Asia-Pacific more generally - was both narrower and weaker, fo-

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Michael Smith and Huaixian Xie

cused on commercial considerations above all else and with a much thinner web of linkages between the two parties (Smith 1998b). In the case
of the EU-US-China triangle some of the same qualities can be discerned. The United States continues to have strong and multidimensional relationships with the EU, which embed the commercial relationship into a much broader set of linkages and networks, and which encompass economic, diplomatic and security concerns (McGuire and
Smith 2008: chapter 2). Although it does not have a highly developed
alliance with China, the US does have a multi-dimensional strategic
relationship, which gives a key significance to security issues such as the
Taiwan question and commits the US to a role much broader than a
simple commercial one (Zaborowski 2006b). By contrast, the EU can be
seen as under-powered, pursuing a strategy in which there are important
variations between the stakes of individual Member States and in which
there is a distinct lack of the multi-dimensional economic, diplomatic
and security themes that are so powerful in US-China relations (Crossick
and Reuter, 2007: 73-80). Although there are clearly elements of a triangle between the EU, the US and China, it is clear that there are important areas of unevenness and (from the EUs perspective) gaps in the
overall structure, whilst the overall development of relations is fluid and
dynamic, especially in light of the rapid development of Chinas position.
This unevenness and dynamism translates into important variations in
strategy between the three participants. For each of them, there are key
considerations: the relationship between grand strategy and the requirements of commercial relations, the relationship between the roles of
partner and competitor, and the distribution of responsibility between
the different stakeholders in the overall constellation of relations. Some
at least of these considerations arise as much out of how the three participants see themselves as players in the global arena as they do out of
material resources and conflicts of interest, and thus relate to norms and
role-conceptions as much as they do to specific institutional arrangements or distributions of power.
What is clear is that the different EU, Chinese and US positions lead
to markedly different responses to the demands of international life and
to the demands of life within the triangle. Thus, the EUs response has
been (as it has in many other areas of external policy) to focus on the
building of a strategic partnership with China, centred on the principles
of multilateralism and encompassing a large number of sectoral and

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other dialogues designed to present and promote the interests of commercial groups in Europe (Jing Men 2007); on occasion, it has appeared
that this partnership might be designed partly as a response to the perceived unilateralism and coercive nature of US policy, particularly under
the George W. Bush Presidencies (Crossick and Reuter 2007: 73-80;
Pollack 2003). By contrast, the US has focused much more on an approach to China couched in terms of grand strategy, emphasising the
linkages between economics, diplomacy and security, and linking China
policy to vital national interests in a way that is simply not available to
the EU (Zaborowski 2006b). It might also be argued that the US has as
a result been sharply aware of the wider vulnerabilities that might be
engendered by too great a reliance on China in commercial terms. For
the Chinese, it seems clear that their approach to both the EU and the
US is shaped by broader considerations of Chinas emergent role in the
world, and by the desire to maintain autonomy and shape a multipolar
distribution of global power; but it is also clear that they feel the need to
engage over a much broader front with the US than they do (at least at
present) with the EU (Zhiyuan Cui 2004).
This discussion demonstrates that the increasing mutual entanglement
of the EU, China and the US is central to the development of the global
arena, but that it reflects variations in salience, scope and sensitivity for
each of the three participants. At a very general level, they are entangled
in a common situation reflecting the relative dynamism of their political
and economic trajectories, but at the level of broad considerations of
economic, diplomacy and security, there are important differences among
them. In terms of their approaches to the global commercial system and
to trade issues, this means that they are likely to take different positions
not only on specific issues and disputes but also on the broad relevance
and utility of material power, institutions and norms.
To put it simply, they are entangled with each other in a situation that
has important elements of complex interdependence (Keohane and Nye
2001): their relations have grown in range and scope, they encompass a
wide variety of governmental and other participants, they exhibit important linkages between issue areas and they demand a process of almost
continuous negotiation. However, their responses to this are likely to be
different not only in style but also in substance; not least, as also suggested by Keohane and Nye, the levels of perceived sensitivity and vulnerability to the consequences of growing interdependence among the three

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parties are likely to vary, with important consequences for their approaches to negotiations. The next section of the paper suggests a way in
which the impact of complex interdependence can be linked to the
conduct of trade negotiations among the EU, China and the US.
Bi-Multilateralism and EU-China-US Commercial Relations
As noted elsewhere, the relations between the EU and the US contain
important and coexisting elements of bilateralism and multilateralism,
which create distinctive problems for negotiation and the management of
their relationship (Smith 2005). The argument here is that this quality can
also be discerned in the EU-China-US triangle, although as we have
seen this triangle is also subject to fluctuation and variation. To a large
extent, the EU-China-US relationship manifests the following qualities that
are also encompassed by the EU-US relationship (Smith 2005: 167-8):
Multi-level relationships with strong elements of public-private interaction
as well as intergovernmental interaction.
A search for institutionalisation, for example through the New Transatlantic
Agenda (NTA) and the Transatlantic Economic Partnership (TEP), or
the proposed EU-China Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, but
issues about the gaps between institutional potential and institutional
performance.
Strong linkages between what goes on at the level of the triangle and what
goes on at the global level in the context of institutions such as the
WTO and a range of other multilateral bodies.
Intensifying integration especially in areas of the political economy, but
unevenness of that integration across sectors.
A proliferation of relevant networks and dialogues, both transgovernmental
and transnational, but lack of clarity about how those networks and
dialogues relate to each other and interact with each other.
Co-existing languages of policy discourse, ranging from coercion to
coalition-building and collaboration but often in an uneasy coexistence,
reflecting elements of normative consensus but equally strong areas of
normative confusion.
Issues of choice about forums for interaction, about strategies and about
priorities which affect both the EU, and Chinese and US policy-makers.
As a result, a set of adversarial partnerships or relations of competitive
cooperation emerge, which are arguably suboptimal for all concerned
(but which may also serve the purposes of policy-makers on all sides
from time to time).

As noted above, this produces a context characterised by growing levels

of complex interdependence. Importantly for the argument here, in

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173

such a context one key feature is observable: that it is no longer possible

to distinguish sharply between bilateral and multilateral interactions.
Such interactions are essentially co-constitutive of EU-China-US relations, meaning that what is done at the bilateral level will spill over and
have effects for what goes on at the multilateral level, and vice versa.
Out of this set of circumstances which is effectively inseparable from
complex interdependence, as set out by Keohane and Nye - arise a
number of problems for negotiations between the participants (Smith
2005: 169-74), and this is where the importance of the argument lies.
The first set of problems relates to the occurrence of negotiations,
and the commitment of the parties to them: do the parties privilege
bilateral over multilateral negotiations in specific contexts, and how do
they manage the linkages between the different levels and modes of
interaction that result? A second set of problems relates to participation:
how do the parties respond to the fact that they may be engaged in negotiations at different levels, and that different parts of their governmental
machines may be carrying on negotiations simultaneously, with different
aims? Third, there is a set of problems relating to the agenda for international negotiations: can the three parties manage the intersecting agendas
created not only by their mutual interactions but also by the operation of
multilateral organisations such as the WTO?
Related to this there is a fourth set of problems to do with coalition
building: can we see evidence in EU-China-US negotiations of the ways
in which the building of bilateral partnerships intersects with and creates
problems for multilateral negotiations? A fifth set of problems has to do
with leadership: how do the parties establish, maintain and exercise leadership not only within the triangle but also within other multilateral
settings and are these leadership pretensions mutually compatible?
Sixth, there is a set of problems relating to outcomes: does the operation
of bilateral relations within the triangle facilitate or obstruct the achievement of results at the multilateral level, and do multilateral negotiations
facilitate or obstruct the achievement of results in bilateral negotiations?
Given the ways in which both bilateral and multilateral relations
between the EU, China and the US have developed during the past ten
to fifteen years, we would expect to find evidence of these implications,
and also to find that such implications complicated further the conduct
of often delicate negotiations. The management of bilateral relations
would be expected to create externalities for the multilateral level, and by

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the same token, the conduct of negotiations in multilateral settings could

be expected to produce externalities for contacts at the bilateral level. For
those involved, the key issues are those of information, decision-making,
management and evaluation. These are complicated by the multi-level
nature of the context in which they are involved, but also by differences
of style and approach, which give the participants different perspectives
on power, institutions and norms within international negotiations (see
above).
Thus, it might be expected that the EU would make every effort to
conduct relations within a multilateral context, emphasising the importance of multilateral rules and institutions and making their best efforts
to deal with China (even on a bilateral basis) in ways that increased
Beijings compliance with those rules and institutions. Likewise, we
might assume that the US would adopt a far more strategic approach to
China based primarily on bilateral relations, with multilateral rules and
institutions as a kind of backstop to the exercise of power and the use of
material resources. For China, the argument would be that Beijing would
see the multilateral level as vital to its continued international emergence,
but that there would be a fierce determination to preserve national autonomy and thus points of resistance to the imposition of multilateral
rules in ways that were seen as undermining that autonomy.
So far, the discussion has remained rather abstract, concerned with
identifying broad patterns and problems, rather than with the day-to-day
conduct of relations between the EU, China and the US. The next section of the paper presents two brief and interconnected case studies with
the aim of illustrating how the politics of bi-multilateralism can enter
into commercial relations between the three parties, and of identifying
some questions for further research.
The Politics of Bi-Multilateralism: Two Cases
The first case concerns a key element in the development of the EUChina-US triangle: Chinas entry into the WTO. In a way, of course,
this is almost a pre-condition for other developments in the commercial
relations between the three parties, because it concerns Chinas access to
the key institution for the multilateral management of international commercial policy. There was a lengthy pre-history to the formal negotiations that took place in the late 1990s and the first year or so of the new
millennium, since the Chinese had first indicated their desire for mem-

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bership in the late 1980s. There was also a specific institutional context
for the eventual negotiations, since the granting of WTO membership
requires bilateral agreements with all existing member states (or groups,
in the case of the EU). Given the development between the late 1980s
and early 2000s of increasingly intense trade relations between the EU,
China and the US (and of course, of increasing trade deficits for the EU
and the US), it was to be expected that negotiations would be long and
hard. The model of bi-multilateralism would also predict that these
negotiations would be characterised by linkages, by the coexistence of
issues between the three parties and by the emergence of an outcome
that reflected a complex set of trade-offs. It would further predict that
there would be problems of management for all three of the parties,
particularly the EU as the party with the narrowest and most
commercially-focused set of interests and with important internal interests (in the shape of the Member States) to satisfy.
Both the EU and the US were concerned above all with one key
element in the eventual deal that might be struck with China: market
access, which would give them the potential to expand their commercial
interests in China not only through trade in goods but also through trade
in services, intellectual property protection and potential future investment. They thus set priorities for the negotiations that implied a significant market-opening process in China, and also saw as central the
WTOs role in promoting rules and norms on international commercial
transactions, including both trade and investment (Pearson 1999;
Rumbaugh and Blancher 2004). The notion that China should become a
responsible stakeholder in the world economy and particularly in trade
was a key underlying motivation for both the EU and the US; but it must
be remembered that for the US, this was embedded in a wider conception of Chinas role in the broader world order. For the Chinese themselves, it is clear that entry onto the WTO was seen as emblematic of a
broader integration into the world order and recognition of their status
in addition, of course, the liberalisation of trade in areas such as textiles
was a key material motivation. This liberalisation was a key concern for
both the EU and the US, since it threatened to expose areas of vulnerability in their domestic industries, as well as providing new opportunities
for manufacturers, retailers and consumers.
During the negotiations themselves, between 1997 and 2001, there
was thus a wide range of motivations between the three parties, as well

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as a large number of negotiating occasions giving opportunities for

linkages and trade-offs. For the EU, a key problem was countering the
possibility of an unequal deal in which China would gain relatively free
access to European markets whilst retaining significant levels of domestic protection. This went alongside the fact that at the same time as the
EU was negotiating, the US was also negotiating its own bilateral deal
with Beijing; this meant that the EU was faced with a problem of monitoring and influencing not only what went on in their relationship with
China, but also their relationship with the US, and in turn the US relationship with China (Zimmermann 2004, 2007). The leadership role
assumed by the US in many aspects of the negotiations, whether in the
bilateral context or within the Quad group (US, EU, Japan, Canada)
thus presented a challenge for the EU; should they go along with what
were often peremptory US demands, or should they try to define a distinctive position with the aim of making gains on key issues that were
important for them?
This position for the EU was shaped by the undeniable fact that they
placed great importance on Chinese accession, which was seen as
strengthening the WTO system in general but also as bringing China into
a rules-based system where they would be more amenable to EU influence. Not only this, but there was a further important dimension for the
EU in general and for the European Commission as the negotiator: the
ways in which an active if not leading role in the negotiations could play
into the broader international status and recognition accorded to the
Union. For the US, as previously implied, there was a broader context of
grand strategy, albeit under the Clinton Administration accompanied by
a commitment to enlargement of the multilateral system, and a feeling
that this was part of a strategic bargaining process as well as a need to
protect certain key interests in the commercial and financial sectors. For
the Chinese, as already noted, the issues were not only those of material
economic benefit but also those of recognition within what they would
define as a multipolar global system.
The upshot of this complex and interconnected context was a process
of manoeuvring and a focus on certain key issues in Chinas claim for
membership. Apart from (but linked to) market access, one key problem
was the terms under which China should enter: should it be judged as a
developed or an underdeveloped country (Anderson 1997)? This issue
has major implications for the ways in which a new member is allowed

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to adjust to the pressures of life in the multilateral system, and it was one
on which the EU and US positions differed, with the EU inclined to
accept that China should enter with the status of less developed country.
The US position was much less accommodating than that of the EU
throughout the negotiations reflecting no doubt the relative priorities
placed on membership for China per se, as well as the influence of Congress, which was extremely sensitive to any give-away on the negotiations.
What developed for the EU was a (self-allocated) role as a kind of
intermediary between China and the US, emphasising the importance of
sensitivity to the varying levels of development in different sectors of the
Chinese economy and also stressing the importance of EU interests in
such areas as trade in services and the integrity of the WTO system as a
whole (Eglin 1997). This implied a delicate balancing act for the Commission in its role as negotiator pushing hard for Chinese accession
and stressing sensitivity to Chinese interests, but also accommodating
itself to the hard line pursued by the US and thus emphasising the need
for Chinese concessions on key areas of market access and WTO rules.
It also implied acute Commission sensitivity (underlined by the watchfulness of key commercial interests in the EU, such as financial services) to
what could be seen as unequal deals by the Chinese that would favour
US companies.
When it came to the dnouement of the negotiations as a whole, there
was a key role for timing. The EU as it transpired was the last of the
major WTO members to conclude a bilateral deal with China, and this
enabled it to push for greater concessions in some areas than the US had
already achieved; at the same time, there was pressure on the EU to
conclude a deal so that key Congressional votes in the US were not
jeopardised (European Report 2000a, 2000b). As a result, the final conclusion of the bilateral agreement with the EU was delayed until May
2000 the US having agreed in late 1999. It could be argued that this
enabled the EU to achieve some slight advantage in the deals carved out
for specific sectors, particularly for financial services. But it was also
clear that Chinese entry (formally achieved on 1 January 2002) was only
the beginning of the story. There remained key questions about the ways
in which Chinese status within the WTO would be defined, and about
the impact of the concessions that had been achieved in specific sectors.

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Among these, textiles were one of the most sensitive for all three parties
to the EU-China-US triangle.
Among the key agreements made during the entry negotiations had
been one on the elimination of tariffs and quotas. On their side, the
Chinese had agreed to eliminate quotas and other quantitative restrictions on imports no later than 2005, thus opening up in principle a large
new market for both European and American goods (European Report
2001). Not surprisingly, Chinese entry was followed by sustained pressure on Beijing to introduce if not to accelerate these changes. But
the changes have to be seen in the broader context of the reduction of
quotas and quantitative restrictions for all countries as a result of the
Uruguay Round of trade negotiations that was completed in 1993.
One of these was key to both the EU and the US interest: the phasing
out of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement, which had governed imports of
textile products into industrial countries for many years, and which had,
at its core, a set of quota arrangements (Brambilla et al 2007). The agreement was due to expire on 1st January 2005, replaced by the Agreement
on Textiles and Clothing, which meant that the EU as well as other
WTO members had had ten years to adjust but the phasing out of
quotas brought about a veritable flood of imports from China (as well as
a number of other developing countries, especially those in South Asia).
This posed a number of questions for the EU and for the US. Most
particularly, how would they now deal with a need for crisis management in a particularly sensitive area of declining production and vociferous domestic producer interests?
In terms of complex interdependence, it seems clear that this situation moved the politics of trade in the EU and the US from a discourse
centred on sensitivity to one centred on vulnerability, with all of the
resulting calls for protection and the re-imposition of quotas that might
have been predicted. It thus called into question some of the key undertakings that had been made by both the EU and the US when the Chinese entered the WTO. As a result, the effectiveness of international
institutions and rules was at least potentially challenged, and the potential
for imposition of coercive measures against the Chinese, in the form of
anti-dumping or other actions, was raised. Not only this, but the politics
of textiles set a number of different domestic interests for both the EU
and the US against each other: in each case, there were strong regional
variations in the salience of the textiles problem, between producing and

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non-producing regions; these were accompanied by splits between producers, retailers and consumers that called into question the apparently
technocratic management of trade disputes and opened up the possibilities of broader politicisation.
The crisis, which made its initial and dramatic impact in early 2005,
thus posed major problems of management for the EU and the US within the context of their bilateral relationships with China and of their domestic constituencies; as it developed, it also produced significant problems of adjustment for the Chinese, because of the need to adapt to
successive negotiation phases. Potentially also, it played into the whole
question of the terms on which China had been admitted into the WTO,
since it raised issues about whether the EU and the US had the right to
impose protective measures against the surge of Chinese imports, and
about whether they could use the WTO as an instrument or as a legitimising agent in applying whatever measures they might decide upon.
Thus, although the dispute was about only a part of the trade with China
conducted by the EU and the US, it raised far more general questions
about the ways in which that trade was to be managed both at the time
and in the future.
Between 2004 and 2005, Chinese exports of textiles and clothing to
the EU grew massively both in volume and in value; at the same time,
average unit prices for textile products in the EU had dropped significantly. Not surprisingly, this led to protests from EU manufacturers,
channelled especially through the trade association, Euratex, which identified China as the key culprit and argued that there was a threat both to
EU producers and to other supplying countries from Chinese domination of the import market. The Commission had already identified the
textiles issue as one which might lead to major pressure for protection,
and had deployed a proposed amendment of Council regulations that
would at least in principle allow for the imposition of safeguard measures (European Commission 2004, 2005). But this in itself did not
prepare the EU for the dramatic flood of imports, nor for the conflicting
pressures that arose from the tensions between producers, retailers and
consumers as the crisis developed. In addition to the EU-based instruments, there was also the possibility that measures could be taken under
general WTO provisions to counter market disruption. Finally, there was
also the possibility of coordinated action with other countries or regions

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especially affected by the import surge the obvious candidate being the
US, which was itself confronting a crisis in this area.
The EUs early response was to place the emphasis on self-control by
the Chinese, rather than to undertake unilateral measures, and to hold
any possibility of action through the WTO very much in the background
(Allen and Smith 2006). But the Commissions hand was forced by pressure from Euratex to deploy safeguard measures, and by increasing
evidence of concern on the part of particular Member States, especially
Italy, Portugal and France. In effect, on this as on a number of other
trade issues, there is a North-South divide in the EU itself, and this
became increasingly obvious during the summer of 2005 as the retail
interests of Northern members such as Sweden and the United Kingdom
ran up against those of the producer countries.
As a result of these complex pressures, Peter Mandelson, the EU
Trade Commissioner, produced a set of guidelines; but at the same time,
in April 2005, the US announced that it was considering the imposition
of safeguard measures that might include revived quota arrangements.
Here, the bilateral and domestic problem faced by the EU became
strongly linked to the responses of the United States, in ways that exerted
further pressure on the Commission. Arguably, this led to a hardening of
the EU position as spring moved into summer during 2005, with the
first mention of possible reference to the WTO. But this in itself was
trumped by the planned imposition of quotas by the US. The Commission found itself between a rock and a hard place, since it was determined not to jeopardise its broader relationship with China, and equally
determined not to damage relations with a whole raft of other textile
producers, in South Asia and elsewhere, that would be disrupted by any
imposition of broad quotas. So there was a desperate search for specific
measures that could be seen as evidence of Commission concern but
which would not create significant harm. In this process, the threat of
formal reference to the WTO played a role, by enabling the start of
formal consultations with the Chinese government and an eventual
agreement between the EU and China in June 2005. It was notable that
at this stage, a contrast was drawn between this agreement based on
consultation and negotiation, and the unilateral actions of the US
(Bodeen 2005; Buckley 2005).
The agreement of June 2005, though, only served to create further
problems, partly because the mechanisms for implementation and moni-

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toring were ill-defined, thus leaving room for further increases in Chinese exports but also catching large numbers of textile products in a sort
of limbo, trapped in European ports. It appeared that none of the vociferous interests involved in the crisis had actually been satisfied, and this
led to further negotiations during the Summer eventually producing an
agreement in September 2005 that dealt with the release of the trapped
products and also established a system for reviewing the position in the
medium term (with the intention of phasing out any quotas by late 2008)
(Allen and Smith 2006).
Interestingly, the US hard line, with the implementation of quotas on
a number of Chinese products, ran alongside the EUs negotiations; the
EU can partly be seen as using the US stance as a means of reinforcing
its own position in negotiations and consultations, whilst the Chinese
showed at various stages that they felt the EU stance could be used to
exert some leverage on Washington. There was an apparent awareness by
all three participants that although the disputes were not formally linked,
they intersected and that one could play off the other. Notably, although
all of the processes described took place in the shadow of the WTO, and
all parties were well aware of this, there was no formal move to open a
WTO dispute, or to use the established WTO safeguard provisions.
Evaluation and Conclusions
What do the two cases outlined here suggest in terms of the earlier discussion of complex interdependence and bi-multilateralism? A first
assessment is that both of them show signs of the impact of complex
interdependence, at least as seen from Brussels: multiple actors, multiple
channels, the impact of linkages between different sectors and different
negotiations, and the search for negotiated solutions. But they show
these features in different ways and in different measures. Whereas there
is evidence of pressure from a wide range of public and private actors in
the case of WTO entry negotiations, this is to a degree at least muted
and kept in the background, whilst the key negotiations themselves take
place in a largely technocratic context with areas of politicisation reflecting broader national or regional agendas. There is clear evidence of linkages in the WTO entry negotiations, and of the ways in which these
linkages could be exploited by different parties, just as there is evidence
of a search for negotiated solutions in a context of linkages and possible
coalitions.

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In the textiles dispute, however, the picture is different: multiple

actors are not just there in the background, they are in the foreground,
protesting, advocating and pressing for particular solutions. At the same
time, there is a variety of channels for communicating these interests and
voices, and many of these channels spend a good deal of their time
searching for linkages between different concerns that might be exploited
to turn negotiations in their favour. The different stages in which at least
some kind of resolution of the dispute was pursued also gave opportunities for leverage, and enabled different interests to put pressure on the
Commission in particular. These pressures also existed in the Chinese
and American cases, and there is much more to be said outside the confines of this essay about the ways in which they interacted to produce the
various changes in direction that were apparent during 2005.
In both cases, it appears that there were also important differences of
emphasis or style between the EU, China and the US: to put it simply,
there was a greater propensity on the part of the US to adopt hard line
policies and to pursue strategic bargains, whilst in the case of the EU,
there seems to have been greater reliance on negotiation and persuasion,
even when domestic EU interests might have preferred a tougher
stance, and, for China, the imperative seems to have been mainly that of
establishing and maintaining their position as an important global player,
leading to a relatively accommodating stance. This bears out in very
general terms the arguments made earlier in the essay about different
European, Chinese and American approaches to the global arena.
Apart from evidence of the existence of complex interdependence,
though, there is also important evidence from these two cases of the
impact of bi-multilateralism. Earlier, it was argued that this condition
created a number of linked consequences for negotiations; these were to
do with the occurrence and timing of negotiations, with the ways in
which agendas were set, the existence and uses of linkages, the search for
coalitions and the implementation of agreements. In the case of Chinas
WTO entry, there was almost an institutionalisation of bi-multilateralism, given the ways in which WTO entry negotiations are structured and pursued; this meant that the negotiations carried out by the
EU with China were linked closely to those carried out by the US, and
that this had clear effects on the kinds of strategies pursued by Brussels,
including choices about timing and linkages within those negotiations. In
the case of the textiles dispute, the impact of bi-multilateralism was

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more unpredictable, given the ways in which the need for negotiations
occurred, the range and intensity of the interests engaged, and the different courses chosen by the EU and the US in responding to China.
This essay has only scratched the surface of the processes with
which it has been concerned. As relations between the EU, China and
the US intensify, widen and deepen, we can expect the impact both of
complex interdependence in general and of bi-multilateralism in particular to be underlined. The essay has only dealt with this set of problems in
one restricted area, that of commercial policy and more particularly that
of trade; there are important ways in which the study of such issues can
be broadened, first by dealing with the more politicised areas of commercial policy (such as for example the EUs arms embargo and proposals to
lift it) and second by moving away from commercial policy itself into
other areas of international negotiation, such as those dealing with environmental, energy and security issues. This would enable a more comprehensive picture to be drawn of what is inevitably going to be one of the
main axes of negotiation in the global arena for the foreseeable future.

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EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 187-206

THE EUROPEAN UNIONS ECONOMIC TIES

WITH THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN)1
Paul Joseph Lim
Abstract
The Member States of the European Union (EU) maintain unofficial
relations with the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan), in keeping with
the One China Policy. The Commission, although not a state and principally concerned with trade, maintains diplomatic relations with the
Peoples Republic of China, represented by its Delegation in Beijing,
while having unofficial relations with Taiwan, represented by the
European Economic and Trade Office (EETO) in Taipei. However, the
unofficial nature of relations has not prevented the development of
trade and investment ties between the EEC/EU and Taiwan. Nevertheless, the One China Policy has had its effects on trade matters between the EU and Taiwan. Politics has consequences for economics;
the two cannot be separated. This chapter will look at these aspects
from a historical perspective, with a specific eye on archival materials
collected from the EU completed by the works of a number of Taiwan specialists. This chapter does not cover the area of Development
Cooperation.
Overview: Early Politics and Trade Relations
According to Chung-lih Wu (1985: 7, 9, 12-13), trade between the Republic of China (ROC) and Europe totalled only about 7.8% of the
ROCs total trade in the 1950s, with imports at about 9% and exports at
6%. The ROC imported more from Europe than it exported to Europe,
1
My thanks go to Stephane Gierts from the Archives of the Council of the EU, Anna
Guegan, at the European Institute of Asian Studies (EIAS) and the Taipei Representative
Office in Brussels, for the support provided.

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Paul Joseph Lim

hence there was a deficit. The EEC accounted for 90.26% of total imports from Europe to ROC, while the ROCs exports to the EEC 6
accounted for 98.7% of total exports to Europe. Agricultural products
and processed products constituted a large share of total ROC exports.
In the 1950s, the EEC had a surplus balance of trade with Taiwan.
From 1960 to 1969 (except for 1963 and 1964), trade with Europe
followed the same overall pattern, that is, the value of imports consistently outweighed that of exports. However, the share of the deficit
stemming from European trade showed a gradual decline, from 14% to
8.7%. Until 1973, the period was one of the most successful periods in
the history of ROC foreign trade, especially with regard to exports.
After 1973, the high prices for imported raw materials, shortages in
supply, insufficient demand and stiff competition, resulted in a decline in
foreign trade: trade with Europe exhibited a negative growth of -3.2%
for exports and -26% for imports. Specific to the EEC, Wu stated that in
the 1960s and 1970s imports of EEC goods into the ROC occupied a
minimum of 87% of the total imports from Europe. In the 1960s, ROC
exports to the EEC 6 accounted for 96.2% of total ROC exports to
Europe. In the 1970s, ROC exports to the EEC 9 accounted for 92.8%
of total ROC exports to Europe.
Taiwan was in the early phase of industrialization, when manufacturing exports were low, resulting in the Export Oriented Industrialization
(EOI) strategy. This was promoted by Western economists and politicians at the World Bank, and later adopted by the Asian Tiger economies. In the 1950s and 1960s, if the trade balance was in favour of the
EEC, it was because Taiwan was importing capital goods to manufacture
for export.
In 1975, the EEC established diplomatic relations with the PRC. A
Press Release of 15 September 1975 announced the consent of the appointment of Mr. Li Lien-pi, and stated that he would present his credentials to both the Presidents of the Council and of the Commission. The
Official Journal of 1 September 1975 announced the accreditation with
effect from 16 September 1975.2
These developments had been preceded by the (then) Member States,
except Ireland, establishing diplomatic relations with the PRC: France
transferred its recognition from the ROC to the PRC on 27 January
2

Press Release [1011/75 (Presse 95)]; Official Journal (OJ) of 1 September 1975.

THE EUS ECONOMIC TIES WITH THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

189

1964, Italy on 6 November 1970, Belgium switched recognition on 26

October 1971, the Netherlands granted it on 27 March 1950, Luxembourg recognized China on 16 November 1972 (but it never had official
links with the ROC), and the Federal Republic of Germany and the PRC
agreed a communiqu on diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level in
October 1972. The UK recognized the PRC in 6 January 1950, Denmark
established relations with China on 9 January 1950 and Ireland, on 22
June 1979 (Cabestan, 2008: 85-86, 94; Mengin 2002: 137-139; Brodgaard
2001: 274).
For the EEC to have ties with PRC meant it had to show it had no
trade agreements with Taiwan. This was confirmed to the Chinese Foreign Minister by Sir Christopher Soames during his visit to Beijing in
May 1975.3 As a result, what trade there was with Taiwan was conducted
on an autonomous basis. It is important to note that the ROC had signed
a Self-Limitation-Agreement on 1 February 1971 with the then EEC.4
The agreement was to continue to function unofficially.5 Even though
diplomatic relations was not yet established with the PRC, the expected
behaviour remained as it had been since the first contacts with PRC
representatives. Wilson (1973: 665) stated that this agreement would
expire in 1973. The author could not find any evidence from the archives
of any prolongation of this agreement, nor any document stating that it
had ended.
What was meant by trade with Taiwan on an autonomous basis?
Autonomous basis meant notifying the official Taiwanese trading company of the level of imports acceptable to the Community without the
imposition of quantitative restrictions. The Community did not negotiate
voluntary restraint agreements with Taiwan.6 This means that there were
no consultations or negotiations with Taiwan in making and taking decisions. Rather, business with Taiwan was done via a private company,
based in Rotterdam, and representing Taiwan. However, according to the
Taipei Representative Office in Brussels, in 1971, the company Far East Trade
Service Inc. was established to take the place of the Economic Division of
3

The relevant meeting of 6 May 1975 was recorded.

OJ L 43/24, 22 February 1971; cotton textiles remained relevant in the 1970s.
5
See note to the Commission of 5 May 1972 [SEC(72) 1609]; COREPER, 624th
Meeting of 17 December 1971 and aide-memoire dated 24 April 1972 (01266).
6
See note, of 17/05/74 on China and Europe, with initial CS presumably Sir
Christopher Soames.
4

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Paul Joseph Lim

the Embassy, which closed down on 15 October 1971, on the date Belgium terminated its diplomatic relations with the ROC. As far as economics and trade were concerned, this was considered the contact-point
in all relevant subject-areas, including anti-dumping, until 1990. The
Embassy of the ROC was replaced by the Chinese Cultural Centre (Centre
Culturel Chinois) on 15 October 1971, and then by the Centre Culturel Sun
Yat-sen from 24 February 1972 onwards. This was one of the effects of
the acceptance of the One China Policy and will be analysed further at later
stages in this chapter. Chinese leaders were informed by Sir Christopher
Soames of this autonomous decision concerning the conduct of trade
with Taiwan.
Moreover, a Report, of 1 March 1985, by the European Parliament
(EP), and concerning trade exchanges with Taiwan,7 revealed that Taiwan
felt it was the victim of discrimination in comparison to the other Asian
states which were its main competitors. Parliament wanted a reduction
draconian at times in quotas imposed on textile products between 1978
and 1981, as part of the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA). The EP document further stated that, for many years, the European Community had
principally exercised its action on imports by taking unilateral measures
without either consulting Taiwan or sharing information. The European
Community had never maintained formal trade relations with Taiwan
until the 1980s at the earliest.
On 25 June 1971, the ROC submitted to the Community an aidememoire, arguing that it ought to benefit from the Communitys Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). This was circulated to all Commissioners in a letter dated 12 July.8 From the minutes of a meeting with
representatives of the Chinese Embassy on 22 July 1975, a Mr. Tran
claimed that the EEC had not given Taiwan preferential treatment, because it did not exist (Mengin 2002: 140). This was confirmed in the
Van Aerssen Report of 1985, already quoted above, which stated in a
footnote that the Commission, having taken pragmatic measures in the
course of unofficial contacts with diverse milieus of Taiwanese production, the discrimination was reduced, albeit marginally. From 1971 onwards, Member States had expressed severe political reservations about
7

Van Aerssen Report: Doc. 2-1765/84, PE 94.190/def. p.12.

SEC (71) 2681; the GSP came into force on the 1 July 1971 and applied to the
Group of 77 only within UNCTAD (Council Press Release 688/71 (Press 31). The
Council examined its extension to non-member countries, amongst them Taiwan.
8

THE EUS ECONOMIC TIES WITH THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

191

including Taiwan in the GSP,9 again indicating some of the effects of a

One China Policy. Taiwan as a developing country was consequently denied access to any trade development instruments.
The next time Taiwan appeared on the radar-screens of the EEC
was in the context of the status of the ROC in the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).10 Matters revolved around the question of
whether or not to invite the ROC to the 27th session of the GATT on
the 16 November 1971 and if so, under what status or rather invite the
Government of the PRC. The ROC was a founding member of the
GATT, on 21 May 1948, when it ratified the Protocol of Provisional
Application (PPA), while signing the actual GATT on 30 October 1947.
It withdrew on 6 March 1950 and became an Observer on 16 March
1965. It lost its observer status on 19 November 1971 (see: Hindley
1993: 4, 8-9). From 15 January 1964 onwards, the ROC had also been a
member of the 1962 International Agreement on Cotton Textiles. It had
accepted its extension in 1967 and 1970.11 Further arguments arose on
the question of inviting the ROC to the meeting of the Cotton Textiles
Committee in mid-December 1971.12
The position of the then EEC 6 was to suspend sending documents
to the Taiwanese Delegation to GATT and to discourage any representation of Taiwan during the 27th Session. ROC membership of GATT was
revoked, following UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 (XXVI,
25/10/71), which expelled the Chiang Kai-shek regime. In implementing
this resolution, The GATT, in its capacity as a specialized economic
agency of the UN, re-examined its decision from 1965 regarding ROC
observer status (Hindley 1993: 4; 8-9).
The ROC consequently also withdrew from the meeting of the Cotton Textiles Committee.13 However, while the ROC was no longer a
participant in this agreement on cotton textiles, the agreement which it
had signed with the EEC continued to function unofficially. The archives also contain an aide-memoire, recording an official meeting with
ROC representatives on 24 April 1972. Moreover, in the Minutes of the
COREPERs 624th Meeting on 17 December 1971, there is a statement
9

See, for example: Europe of 24 February 1971, p. 5.

COREPER, 618th Meeting: Doc.: 2230/71 (RP/CRS 37).
11
EC note to the Council, of 9th December 1971: I/263/71 (JUR1) (COMER 46).
12
Note to the Attention of President of COREPER (Part 2) dated 10/11/71.
13
Note of the Council dated 17 January 1972, S/23/72 (COMER 8).
10

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Paul Joseph Lim

that, in the probable case of Taiwan being excluded from the IACT, the
bilateral agreement with Taiwan must be maintained and the Commission must contact the representatives of Taiwan in Brussels to obtain
their agreement.14 Hence, Taiwan, it can be argued, suffered from the
strict interpretation and application of the One China Policy.
Last, but not least, Wu (1985: 10) has stated that over the period
1970-1979 ROC foreign trade accumulated a US$3,776 million surplus;
a large portion of this surplus (45%, or US$1,728 million) originated
through the ROCs Europe trade. Wu further claims that there was
somewhat of a disequilibrium in this trade. This situation would inevitably result in resistance and restrictions from trading partners, if allowed
to continue over a long period. As an example of this, on 5 February
1974, a first Commission Regulation (No. 300/74) subjected to official
authorization the importation into Italy of tape-recorders from Taiwan.
This was an autonomous decision by a regulation.
However, in February 1973 a first Commission Decision, on an autonomous basis, authorized the French Republic not to extend community treatment to Taiwanese radio receivers, falling within the Common
Customs Tariff (CCT). This authorization to France is recognized as a
deflection of trade preventing the execution of measures of commercial
policy taken as regards Taiwan.15
Trade in the 1980s: the Autonomous Decisions Regime
Throughout the 1980s, while deflections continued because they benefited EEC consumers, the restrictions of the 1970s continued, but were
also applied to new products.16 Taiwan might not yet have developed the
capability to develop and produce higher value-added technology, but
there seemed to be a growing sophistication in the range of its products.
For the first time, a number of Commission Decisions authorized intraCommunity surveillance (in France), in respect of certain piezo-electric
quartz-crystal electronic digital watches originating in the ROC. Similar
cases in Italy concerned Taiwanese imports of slide fasteners.17 The Van
14
Notes to COREPER of 10 November 1971; S/23/72 (COMER 8), of 17 January 1972; note [SEC(72) 1609] to the Commission of 5 May 1972; aide-memoire 01266.
15
OJ L33/7-8 and OJ L50/44-45, 73/14/EEC.
16
See: EEC Tariffs hurt ROC Most, in Economic Daily News, 27 October 1988.
17
Commission Decision 20 December 1984: OJ L 033, 06/02/1985 P. 0013 0014; 88/211/EEC, and of 8 March 1988, OJL 095, 13/04/1988 P. 0020 - 0020.

THE EUS ECONOMIC TIES WITH THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

193

Aerssen Report (1985) is noteworthy also for a range of trade measures

which were subsequently adopted. Three key examples of these are:
The extension of the competencies attributed to existing trade representatives of the Member States in Taiwan and of Taiwanese offices in the Community.
The establishment of a system of information exchange regarding
non-official contacts, as well as visits of Taiwanese representatives
of trade and industrial interests to the Community and vice-versa.
An improvement of the practical modalities for visits between the
Member States and Taiwan.
Ash (2002: 159, 163, 166) argued that it was only in the 1980s that Taiwans search for a more diversified pattern of trade relations led to an
acceleration in its trade with more EU Member States. This was a development to which Taiwans increased requirements for European capitalintensive goods contributed significantly. Taiwans surplus trade balance
first peaked in 1980 with US$1.26 billion. Analysts such as Ash have
also suggested that the closer economic ties between Taiwan and European countries, especially with EU Member States, facilitated more technological co-operation and the acquisition by Taiwan of key new technologies and market intelligence.
Developments and Transitions in the 1990s
It is worth noting from Table 1 that both the surpluses on the balance of
trade and volume of trade fluctuated. Ash (2002: 165-167) pointed out
that the deterioration in the trade balance was not only attributable to the
vagaries of financial crises; it was also due to significant fluctuations in
the exchange rate, in particular of the (then) European Currency Unit
(ECU). Moreover, the trend of what may be termed Taiwans accelerated
outreach activities towards Europe and the EU during the 1980s and
1990s also played a vital role. A typical 1993 statement (1993: 32-33) by
Ma Ying-Jeou who was then Vice-Chairman of the Cabinets Mainland
Affairs Council and is now President of the ROC pointed to another
tendency which affected the state of Taiwan-EU trade: in order to facilitate flourishing relations, unofficial representatives in European capitals

194

Paul Joseph Lim

had been gradually replaced by semi-official ones, who were authorized

to issue official visas.18
On 23 January 1990, an Economic and Cultural Office of Taipei (Office
Economique et Culturel de Tapei) was established in Brussels. It subsequently developed into a contact point for relevant legal notifications
regarding the European Commissions decisions, regulations and other
legislative instruments. This office consolidated the handling of economic and trade with other issues. Hence, Far East Trade Service Inc
ceased to be a point of contact in matters of anti-dumping. However, the
latter continued to exist legally, with taxes paid annually. Nevertheless,
from 1990, it did not any more serve its former de jure function as a
Taiwan-EC-EU interface. In political practice after 1990, Commission
regulations on anti-dumping, for example, were communicated via email, followed by the transmission of hard copy. Individual notifications
were addressed to specific persons in charge, working in the Economic
Division. The Office Economique et Culturel de Tapei also replaced the Centre
Culturel Sun Yat-sen. On 12 December 1995, the present Taipei Representative Office in Brussels was established, which subsequently became the
new point of contact.
Table 1: Taiwans Trade Balance and its Volume of Trade with the EU 15 in US$bn.
Year
Jan-Nov89
Jan-Nov90
Jan-Nov91
Jan-Nov92
Jan-Nov93
Jan-Nov94
Jan-Nov95
Jan-Nov96
Jan-Nov97
Jan-Nov98
Jan-Nov99

Export
9,492,117,496
10,489,794,214
12,185,802,375
13,258,279,443
11,081,900,657
10,930,769,420
13,276,901,224
14,343,546,153
15,581,814,688
16,876,026,667
17,259,721,301

Import
6,708,956,036
7,348,452,344
7,745,000,565
9,402,034,746
10,201,371,42
11,821,274,31
13,835,375,27
14,250,546,82
15,953,912,01
15,357,866,51
13,187,163,14

Balance
2,783,191,40
2,235,233,56
4,440,801,80
3,856,244,67
880,529,245
-890,504,951
-558,474,023
92,999,351
-372,097,373
-2973028741
4,072,558,17

Volume
16,201,073,532
17,838,246,558
19,930,802,940
22,660,314,189
21,283,272,069
22,752,043,791
27,112,276,471
28,594,092,955
31,535,726,749
32,233,893,178
30,446,884,465

Source: Directorate-General of Customs, Ministry of Finance, ROC with balances and volume
deduced. The above figures include re-imports and re-exports.

18
Mengin (2002:141-142, 145-146), has investigated the development of Taipeis
offices in Europe, pointing out that there was little coherence to the system, and that
Belgium led the way on issuing visas.

THE EUS ECONOMIC TIES WITH THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

195

The Role of Investment

As Table 2 reveals, the 1990s saw a growth of EU investments in Taiwan. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom were clearly the leaders
in investing in Taiwan (Cabestan 2008: 87; Ash 2002: 177). Conversely,
Table 3 reveals the levels of Taiwanese investments in the EU.
Table 2: EU investments in Taiwan in the 1990s (1 unit = US$1,000).
Year
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1996
1997
1998
1999
Total

France
17
6
28
8
12
9
8
4
15,422
112,921

Germany
37
20
16
33
91
37
66
63
29
420,273

Netherlands
49
54
68
85
79
28
103,865
125,493
192,741
865,057

UK
89
43
11
58
30
35
90
74
143,361
773,504

EU Total
194
124
124
186
214
111
269
268
380
2,171,755

Source: Data provided by the Directorate-General of Customs, M. of Finance, ROC and computed.
Table 3: Taiwanese investments in the EU (1 unit = US$1,000).
Year Czech R. France Germany Netherlands
1990
0
6
9
5
1991
0
1
3
6
1992
0
2
15
9
1993
0
0
5
10
1994
0
180
1
271
1995
20
882
5
20
1996
0
243
3
217
1997
30
127
3
11,113
1998
1
6
6
8
1999
0
1
21
17,800
Total
51 20,368
76,693
91,030

UK

11
14
4
237,918
16
8
6
13
9
10
332,924

EU Total
33
26
32
253
19
54
10
58
32
51
572

Source: Data provided by the Directorate-General of Customs, M. of Finance, ROC and added up.

196

Paul Joseph Lim

Even in times of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997/8, the overall levels
of Taiwanese investment were the second highest of the decade. In this
context, Ash (2002: 174-176) observed the disproportionate role played
by the UK as a destination for Taiwanese capital outflows to Europe.
The Czech Republic emerged as the key target of Taiwanese investments
among the new Member States of the EU. Many observers have seen the
political situation in the country as one possible reason for this. Others
have pointed to more attractive conditions offered in connection with
the Czech Republic as a stepping stone or bridge for products and
services to be sold westwards. Table 4 illuminates the question of
whether the key destination countries for Taiwanese investments also
happen to be Taiwans biggest trading partners.
Table 4: Taiwanese export destinations in the EU in terms of Volume of Trade
1991
Fra
Ger
Ita
Ned
Swe
UK

2,310,146,387
6,334,099,147
1,673,494,443
2,749,623,821
801,036,355
2,955,420,123

1993
2,150,684,765
7,118,535,535
1,881,706,176
2,871,832,668
808,680,489
3,096,492,616

1995
2,776,478,529
8,720,900,525
2,389,863,195
4,085,796,157
1,107,794,630
3,728,731,256

1997
5,126,050,004
8,301,539,718
2,488,291,558
5,394,066,421
1,115,681,417
4,753,461,491

3,173,964,125
8,535,495,180
2,405,583,553
5,343,207,235
1,034,362,812
5,049,056,240

Total 19,930,802,940 21,283,272,069 27,112,276,471 31,535,726,749 30,446,884,465

Source: Data provided by the Directorate-General of Customs, Ministry of Finance, ROC
and computed; basic figures included re-imports and re-exports.

The Table reveals that the UK, in spite of constituting a key target of
major Taiwanese investment, is not in fact the principal trading partner of
the ROC. That role goes to Germany, followed by the Netherlands,
France and Italy. The data also show that the products subjected to antidumping and other restrictions were those most exported to the EU or
most in demand in the Union.
Notwithstanding the wide-ranging implications of the Asian Financial
Crisis of the 1990s, it appears that, under the regime of autonomous
decision, there were no more deflections, although anti-dumping duties
continued in relation to new products. Commission Regulation (EC) No
2397/1999 authorized, for the first time, transfers between the import-

THE EUS ECONOMIC TIES WITH THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

197

limits of textiles and clothing products originating in Taiwan.19 Overall,

the 1990s became a dynamic decade in EU-ROC trade relations, owing
to the kinds of goods exported to the new Single Market in an attempt to
combat the effects of the Asian Crisis.20 This period also reflected Taiwans growing capacity and sophistication in the production and
marketisation of its goods.
On 1 January 1990, Taiwan formally applied for membership in the
GATT. In September 1992, the GATT Council decided to set up a Working Party on Chinese Taipei to examine the application (under Article
XXXIII) in the light of separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu,
Kinmen and Matsu (Hindley 1993: 10; 16-18).21 The meeting of the GATT
Council, from 29 September to 1 October 1992, noted that Taiwan as
Chinese Taipei should be granted observer status.22 The minutes of
this meeting, interestingly, speak of the Working Party as being on Chinese Taipei, as well as on Chinas status.
Throughout these developments, the EU claimed it had facilitated this
process wherever possible. By the end of the decade, a Council Declaration of 23 July 199823 stated that the EU and Taiwan had concluded
bilateral market access negotiations in regard of Taiwans WTO accession. The significance of this for Taiwan lay in the fact that it was afforded due recognition as a legal personality, with the status of an equal
partner. I would argue that, for trade and economic reasons, Taiwan
cannot be left out in the cold. Somehow, the One China Policy will, ultimately, have to be adapted, since trade and economics always transcend
political borders.
Developments in EU-Taiwan Relations from 2000-2009
During the last decade of the 20th Century and still under the autonomous decision regime anti-dumping continued to be an issue; it frequently involved new products, and there were cases concerning alleged
collusion of manufacturers across the Straits.24 Other problems sur19

Official Journal OJL 290 , 12/11/1999 P. 0015 0016.

Ash 2002: 166.
21
It had announced its intention to rejoin GATT and the IMF in 1988 (Europe,
1988/4695: 14). It was reported (Europe 1980/2893: 16) that Taiwan withdrew from
the IMF, on the grounds that the admittance of the PRC was unlawful.
22
Doc. C/M/259, 27 October 1992, p. 4.
23
Reported in: IP/98/692.
24
Examples: OJ L 267, 20.10.2000; OJ L 139, 6.6.2003; OJ L 326, 12.12.2007.
20

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Paul Joseph Lim

rounded, for example, anti-dumping and anti-subsidy proceedings concerning imports of polyethylene-terephthalate (PET). Is it fair to infer
from this that import restrictions were placed on the most important
ROC exports to the EU? A document concerning Taiwan-EU relations
by the Taipei Representative Office reproduces the following Eurostat information for 2007:
Product Groups
Total
Agricultural products
Energy
Non-agricultural raw materials
Office/telecom equipment
Power/non-electrical equipment
Transport equipment
Chemicals
Textiles and clothing
Iron and Steel

Exports ( Million) % Imports ( Million) %

26,139 100.0
13,266 1000
78

0.3

740

56

140

0.5

50

192 0.7
10,672 40.8

110
8
1,509 114

1,142

4.4

1,201

91

1,819

934

71

665

2.5

597

2.3

262

20

426

1.6

285

22

2,071 157

Source: Eurostat.

Accompanying this Table is a commentary. In the area of anti-dumping

relating to Taiwanese imports, bicycles, as well as bicycle and motorcycle
parts were referred to as transport equipment. It is noticeable that exports of the latter, according to data from the Directorate-General of
Customs, Ministry of Finance, ROC, grew from US$149,299,271 in 1989
to US$542,767,251 in 2007. One prominent chemical which was the
subject of anti-dumping cases was PET (see above). It is clear that, in
terms of exports to the EU, Taiwan moved out of this labour-intensive
industry in the 2000s. From these figures, it is possible to conclude that
anti-dumping was, by and large, applied to products in demand in the
EU.

THE EUS ECONOMIC TIES WITH THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

199

Table 6: Trade in goods between the EU and Taiwan billion Euro

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
EU exports to
Taiwan
12.0 15.1 13.4 11.9 11.0 12.9 13.1 13.2 133
Annual Growth
rate
+25.8 -11.3 -11.2 -7.6 +16.8 +1.3 +1.3 +0.8
EU imports
from Taiwan
21.3 28.3 26.0 23.2 22.6 23.9 24.1 26.7
Annual Growth
rate
+32.9 -8.1 -10.8 -3.4 +5.7 +0.9 +10.7
Total
33.3 43.4 39.4 35.1 33.7 36.8 37.2 39.9
Annual Growth
rate
+30.3 -9.2 -10.9 -5.1 +9.2 +1.1 +7.3
Balance for the
EU
-9.3 -13.2 -12.5 -11.3 -11.6 -11.0 -11.0 -13.5

261
-22
394
-13
-128

Source: Eurostat (billion euro) EU25 until 2002; EU-27 from 2003 onwards
(growth rates for 2003 are based on EU-25 figures); extracted from European Economic
and Trade Office (EETO): EU-Taiwan Trade / Investment Factfile 2008: 4.

As regards the state of both the balance and volume of trade, Table 6
allows some pertinent conclusions: there are considerable discrepancies
between Eurostat trade statistics and Taiwans own customs statistics.
These can be said to be due, among other things, to variations in exchange rates and changes from one year to another, as new Member
States were added to the EU. Those figures speak for themselves: if the
EU in 2007 was able to maintain the same level of exports to Taiwan,
this was mainly thanks to the sustained performance in machinery and
electrical equipment, iron, steel, and chemicals.
On the other hand, the low level of EU exports explained the EUs
sustained deficit, but also accounted for the decline in Taiwans position
among the major trade partners of the EU. The documents, Relations
between Taiwan and the EU and EU-Taiwan Trade and Investment Factfile
2008, issued by the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO)25 both
emphasized ROC-PRC trade and production relations as a key factor in
raising Taiwanese trade flows. Both Ash (2002: 166-167) and Schucher
25

Pages 1 and 6, respectively.

200

Paul Joseph Lim

(2007: 32) pointed out that Taiwans merchandise trade surplus attained
record levels in 2000, but declined until 2002 by 22%, as a result of international factors, and owing to Taiwans own economic crisis. Is it, therefore, possible to assume that, whatever decline in ROC exports to the EU
there is, will be made up by Taiwans contribution to Chinas exports to
the EU?
In 2007, Taiwan was the EUs thirteenth largest trading partner, because of Romania joining the EU. This was one step up from 2006.
Taiwan was, overall, the EUs fifth most important partner in the whole
of Asia. Conversely, the EU was Taiwans fourth largest trading partner,
accounting for around 10% of Taiwans external trade. Moreover, Taiwan
was in 2007 the EUs twelfth largest import partner and twenty-second
largest export partner.26 Table 7 concerns the services aspect of EU-Taiwan trade. The figures of the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO)
speak of trade in services as a growing part of bilateral trade, which was
equivalent to about 13% of trade in goods. 2003 and 2004 were described as years of rapid growth, followed by a pause and no more
growth after that. Services trade with the ROC still amount to a small
fraction only of EU total external trade in services: only 0.7% in 2006. At
1bn since 2004, this surplus was far from sufficient to compensate for
the more than 10bn deficit on trade in goods.
Table 7: Trade in Services between the EU and Taiwan
EU exports
to Taiwan
EU imports
to Taiwan
Total
Balance for
the EU

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2.0

2.0

2.4

3.2

3.1

31

1.8
3.8

1.8
3.8

201
4.5

2.1
5.3

2.1
5.2

21
52

0.2

0.2

0.3

1.1

1.0

10

Source: Eurostat (billion euro) EU-15 until 2003; EU-27 from 2004 onwards.

26
EU-Taiwan Trade and Investment Factfile 2008, Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign
Trade /CNA, 20 January 2008, pp. 2, 3, 4, 6.

THE EUS ECONOMIC TIES WITH THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

201

Table 8: Taiwanese export destinations in the EU in terms of volume of trade for alternative
years of the 2000s (1 unit = US$1,000)
Jan-Nov 00
Belgium
Finland

Jan-Nov 02

Jan-Nov 04

Jan-Nov 06

Jan-Nov 08

1,290,192,811 1,018,009,114 1,396,577,432 1,359,769,691 1,667,777,254

674,406,898

460,876,448

994,401,930 1,101,621,350 1,380,690,329

France

3,157,355,115 2,443,563,135 3,287,895,451 3,441,268,166 3,759,292,931

Germany

9,596,488,188 7,549,755,210 9,500,401,508 10,218,101,792 12,376,517,789

Italy

2,665,388,620 2,129,801,520 2,805,356,249 3,377,184,484 3,830,488,109

Netherlands 6,491,198,280 4,868,093,885 6,335,350,180 6,072,256,214 6,563,012,885

Spain

1,055,380,890

86,656,998 1,215,090,092 1,340,805,262 2,230,824,389

Sweden

1,131,010,212

UK

5,896,441,833 3,978,850,745 4,710,102,709 4,826,631,566 5,190,454,441

756,006,531 1,045,975,589

987,399,374 1,169,469,485

Source: Extracted for this table from: Directorate-General of Customs, Ministry of Finance,
ROC; the basic figures included re-imports and re-exports.

From the above Tables, it is possible to infer a certain level of continuity

as regards the major destinations of Taiwanese exports: Germany, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France and Italy are the principal destinations. However, in 2008, Italy overtook France. With regard to the investments of EU and ROC in one anothers territories, Tables 9 and 10 are
quite instructive (1 unit = US$1,000):
Table 9: Taiwans Investments in the EU
Czech
Year Republic
2000
2001
2,502
2002
2003
8,886
2004
567
2005
10,503
2006
10,974
2007
5,750
Total
39,182

France
1,669
47
614
2,008
7,822
465
335
132
13,092

Germany
8,878
5,297
17,066
10,860
22,781
6,262
9,719
7,976
88,839

King- EU Total
Netherlands United
dom
3,245
31,250
45
5,797
29,218
42
56,421
43.028
117
15,137
25,257
621
8,146
17,931
57
256,750
10,789
284
383,044
9,167
413239
399,933
2,671
416
1,128,473
169,311
1,997,897

Source: Taipei Representative Office; totals computed.

202

Paul Joseph Lim

It is possible to conclude that Taiwan invested more than US$2.4 billion

in Europe. Taiwanese investment in the old EU countries fluctuates,
with France having the lowest level of Taiwanese investment. It is weaker
in that respect than the Czech Republic. The latter, of course, is still a
relatively new Member State, enjoying special attention from Taiwan. It
seems that many Taiwanese investors see new EU Member States as a
springboard into the wider EU market.27 Taiwanese investment in the
Netherlands represents 95% of all its investment in Europe. It can also
be noted that, with the exception of the Czech Republic (see above), the
key destinations of Taiwanese investment in the EU are also the countries which are the biggest trading partners of Taiwan.
What does the picture look like in respect of overall EU investment in
Taiwan? Table 11 contains some interesting clues, indicating that all the
old EU Member States made strong investments in Taiwan. In 2007,
US$7 billion accounted for half of all incoming EU investments in Taiwan. This is explained by a surge in Dutch investments and was preceded
by similar developments in 2006. The EU stock of all foreign direct
investment (FDI) in Taiwan rose to US$24 billion, accounting for 26%
of all foreign investment into Taiwan, putting it ahead of the USA (19%)
and Japan (16%). At the end of 2006, the EU held 21% of Taiwans total
FDI stocks.28
Table 10: EU Investments in Taiwan
Year
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Total

Czech
United
France Germany Netherlands
EU Total
Republic
Kingdom
28,091
96,979
310,965
683,597 1,119,632
33,374
56,522
525,563
245,393
860
19,296
56,364
306,680
189,083
571
14
5,510
299,486
274,818
33,757
613
203,844
102,274
328,882
192,992
827
21,473
53,999
406,381
140,636
622
11,878
434,158
5,417,195 1,505,955 7,369,186
18,802
56,931
6,313,591
651,386 7,040,710
14 342,268 1,156,713 13,884,075 3,642,799 19,025,869

Source: Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium; totals computed.

27
28

Taipei Representative Office, Relations between EU and Taiwan, 2008, p. 4.

EU-Taiwan Trade and Investment Factfile 2008 of the EETO, p. 14.

THE EUS ECONOMIC TIES WITH THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

203

WTO Accession and the Politics of Representation

On 19 September 2001, the European Commission approved the terms
of accession of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic
of China (ROC) on Taiwan to the WTO. This was subject to separate
Commission declarations.29 The accession terms for the ROC included
Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. The PRC accepted Taiwans membership of
GATT as Chinese Taipei. Once again, complex issues of the interconnectedness of economics, diplomacy and politics can be seen to have
arisen through these developments.
The European Commission subsequently opened its European Economic
and Trade Office (EETO) in Taipei on 10 March 2003. Lan (2004: 129-130)
argued that, from the Commissions point of view, WTO membership of
the ROC had been a pre-requisite for any future representative office in
Taipei. The Office mainly covers economic and trade relations, as well as
cultural and information activities. As seen above, and in line with the
One China Policy, the Office is not to be engaged in relations of a diplomatic or political nature.30 However, even if the EETO professes to be
non-political and not a diplomatic mission, all the other activities it is
involved in are identical to those of all other EC Delegations globally.
Moreover, it seems almost inconceivable not to talk politics in meetings
with government officials even on the sidelines. One could ask whether
this situation constitutes the recognition of de facto diplomatic relations. In
an October 2008 interview, for example, a European official in Taipei
stated that his Office, while being un-official, certainly has political
relations and monitors the political scene. This seems to be a situation
second-best only to having full-blown diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Moreover, it has to be noted, that the European Parliament repeatedly
called for an EU Representative Office in Taipei.31 An office such as this one
had been late in coming. At least one former Commissioner, it was said,
played a key role in pushing for it, and the situation therefore became
appropriate for it to be inaugurated (Lan, Yuchun 2004: 129-130).32
But what were the real reasons for such a long delay? Did they really
lie in the issues connected with WTO membership? Observers such as
Mengin (2002: 136, 140-143, 145) and Cabestan (2008: 88-89) examined
29

Details: IP/01/1289; EP Resolution A5-0367/2001, of 25 October 2001.

IP/03/347.
31
See the References section, below, for a few examples of relevant Resolutions.
32
Also: Europe, No. 6464, of 20 April 1995 and No. 5951, of 31 March 1993.
30

204

Paul Joseph Lim

the establishment, throughout the 1980s, of unofficial offices in Taipei

by several European countries, including those in Eastern and Central
Europe. They claimed that, from time to time, growing economic exchanges between Europe and Taiwan had, in fact, exceeded the limits
implicitly or explicitly set by the PRC. In parallel with this, political extensions to economic ties had multiplied. This was interpreted as a sign of
the ROCs claim to statehood. However, no European country opposed,
in the long term, Beijings One China Policy. What this meant was that, by
now, the European Commission was able to communicate its autonomous decisions in anti-dumping and other cases to the Taiwanese government through its European Economic and Trade Office (EETO) in Taipei
apart from also liaising with the Taipei Representative Office in Brussels
from 12 December 1995 onwards.
Conclusions and Aspects of a Future Research Agenda
Could all of these events and developments be interpreted as granting
Taiwan some kind of recognition close to statehood, or a legal personality? Do they amount to de facto diplomatic relations on the level of trade?
In terms of developments between 1971 and 1990, the archival material
available, and which has been consulted for this study, allows the following conclusions to be drawn:
On textile products, a new regime became applicable from 1 January
1987. In exchange, community exports (wine, tobacco and alcohol) to
Taiwan were not subjected to discriminatory treatment. The Commission
would propose the textile quantities for 1987 at their normal level.33 This
seems to demonstrate quite clearly that some kind of compromise deal
emerged between the EEC and the non-state of Taiwan. The autonomous decision principle existed, but seems to have left space for negotiations of both an official and unofficial nature.
Events such as a 1992 meeting between the Commission services and
Taiwan, or the visit of the then Commissioner Martin Bangemann to the
island,34 can provide further clues to this effect. Small steps were thus
taken more frequently than is traditionally acknowledged to move away
gradually from the rather rigid doctrines of the One China Policy.

33
34

Council Document, 13 January 1987, p. 8.

Europe, No. 5951, of 31 March 1993: 15.

THE EUS ECONOMIC TIES WITH THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

205

In addition to this, observers such as Ash (2002: 164-165) and Lan

(2004: 123), as well as the websites of the Commission and of the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO), point to annual consultations between the Commission and the ROC, which took place in Brussels between 1981 and 2008. This format covered issues as wide-ranging as
research and technology, the information society, fisheries, environment,
intellectual property rights, and standards and norms.
Can these and similar consultations be seen as confirmation of de
facto statehood recognition of the ROC by the EU? Are they indicative
of the fact that Taiwan is given recognition, officially or unofficially, and
being seen as an equal partner? To which degree is it possible to disengage political and economic considerations from one another?
Many such questions are still open and will form the agenda of future
research in this area. Among them is the issue of the legal basis of these
consultations, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. The 1998 WTO agreement with the EU may be a legitimate starting point for such arguments,
but consultations have expanded beyond the trade agenda, as can be seen
from the many areas of cooperation which have emerged in contemporary EU-ROC relations.
In conclusion, it seems fair to say that, at least on the level of the
WTO, Taiwan has found its place on the international scene. Whether
this comes close to a more formal statehood-recognition, is not, at present, an issue for which there can be any clear-cut answers. Therefore,
EU-Taiwan relations continue to be conducted in an area characterised
by shades of grey. For the time being, this may well be the best possible
solution. It affords both sides the space to be creative and to make the
best of the developing relations. Each participant can thus have their own
interpretation of the nature and extent of the One China Policy. The PRC
may, in the future, want to commit the EU further to pin it down,
perhaps. A new EU-PRC Partnership and Cooperation Agreement will be
a welcome occasion for much-needed further dialogue in this area.

206

Paul Joseph Lim

References
N.B.: a detailed list of archival materials from the Council and European Commission, supplementing the resources cited below, and relating to EU-ChinaTaiwan issues, is available from the author upon request.
Ash, Robert.2002. Economic Relations between Taiwan and Europe. in The
China Quarterly, No. 69, Special Issue: China and Europe since 1978: A European
Perspective, March 2002.
Brodgaard, Kjeld Erik. 2001. China and Denmark: Relations since 1674, in
Kjeld Erik Brodgaard & Mads Kirkkebaek (eds), NIAS Press.
Cabestan, Jean Pierre. 2008. The Taiwan issue in Europe-China relations in
Shambaugh, David; Sandschneider, Eberhard; Zhou Hong (eds.)
ChinaEurope Relations: Perceptions, Policies and Prospects, London: Routledge.
European Parliament Resolutions (Selection):
On CFSP: Resolution A5-0340/2000 (30 November 2000)
On Taiwan B5-0347, 0356, 0372 and 0388/2000 (13 April 2000)
On EU External Services in Southeast Asia: A5-0199/2001 (14 June 2001)
On China Policy: C5-0098/2001-2001/2045 (COS) A5-0076/2002.
EETOs EU-Taiwan Trade and Investment Factfile, EETO: 2008.
Hak Choi. 1983. The Analysis of the German-Taiwanese Trade and the European Economic Community-Taiwanese Trade Theory and Econometric Analysis, Bonn
Hindley, Michael. 1993. Report of the Committee on External Economic Relations on the
Inclusion of China and Taiwan in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 19
March 1993 (Source: A3-0092/93, PE 203.426/fin).
Kaspereit G. 1977. Report on Economic and Trade Relations between the European
Community and the PRC (Source: European Parliament, 5 May 1977, Doc.
76/77, PE 47.759/fin).
Lan, Yuchun. 2004. The European Parliament (EP) and the China-Taiwan
Issue: An Empirical Approach in European Foreign Affairs Review 9, Kluwer
Law International.
Ma Ying-Jeou. 1993. Taipei-Beijing relation and East Asian stability: Implications for Europe in NATO Review (April 1993).
Mengin, Franoise. 2002. A Functional Relationship: Political Extensions to
Europe-Taiwan Economic Ties in The China Quarterly, No. 169, Special Issue:
China and Europe since 1978: A European Perspective (March 2002).
Schucher Gunter. 2007. The EUs policy toward Taiwan in Issues and Studies
43(3).
Taipei Representative Office, Brussels. 2008. Relations between Taiwan and the EU
Van Aerssen, Jochen. 1985. On Trade Exchanges with Taiwan (Source: Doc. 21765/84, PE 94.190/def: 12).
Wilson, Dick. 1973. China and the European Community in The China Quarterly
(56) October-December.
Wu Chung-lih. 1985. Trade Relations between the ROC and European Countries in the Twentieth Century in Industry of Free China, LXIV(6), December
1985.

ISSUES POLICIES PERCEPTIONS

EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 209-224

CHINA, NEWS MEDIA FREEDOM AND THE WEST:

PRESENT AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
Peter J. Anderson
Abstract
One of the most frequently made European criticisms of China under
communist rule has been of the continuing restrictions that the government places upon the freedom of expression of citizens and journalists. This study analyses Chinese journalism within an evolving
political system, penetrated increasingly by Western ideas and criticisms as a result of globalisation, the opening up of the Chinese economy and the education of significant numbers of Chinese students in
the West. It examines formal and informal restrictions on journalists
freedom of expression in China. It discusses the modest expansion in
their freedom of manoeuvre, as the media has been opened to market
forces, and limited forms of criticism have been permitted. The study
further explores Chinese views on media control in the context of
both historically-rooted concerns about social stability and Communist Party ideology. The analysis concludes by discussing possible
paths forward for Chinese journalism, bearing in mind the fact that
the internet is likely to become increasingly difficult for the authorities to control, with both user numbers, and technological advances,
increasing significantly.
Introduction
The criticisms and debates concerning Chinas attitude towards both
Chinese and foreign journalists and the news they report are well rehearsed and have formed already the subject matter of numerous book
chapters, articles in academic journals, news items and blog commentaries (Herbert 2003, Shoemaker and Cohen, 2006, Yuezhi, 2000). The

210

Peter J. Anderson

intention here is to review some of the most relevant developments and

to open up some new perspectives on contemporary and possible future
Chinese attitudes towards the news media.
This study will do two things: first, the situation relating to the freedom of speech of the Chinese news media during the Olympic year of
2008 will be examined in terms of both the historical context, and its
implications for the immediate future of Chinese journalism. The position of the foreign media in China during and after the games will be
examined too.
Second, given that the detailed inner workings of the highest levels of
policy making within China are not accessible to those outside the Communist Partys inner circle, an attempt will be made to portray media
freedom from the governments perspective via informed scenario analysis. It is highly likely that pressures generated by criticisms from some
of Chinas key trading partners, the education of large numbers of Chinese students at Western universities, and the knowledge that the difficulties involved in keeping the lid on the internet are likely to increase
substantially over the next few years as technology progresses have
forced Beijing to think through the extent to which they might have little
choice ultimately but to increase press freedom, including the consequences of so doing. Various options, which policy makers are likely to
have looked at, are outlined, therefore, from a specifically Chinese point
of view. Finally, some informed thoughts on where Chinese journalism is
likely to go over the next few years will be offered.
Chinas Olympic Year, its Aftermath and Press Freedom1
Apart from the Olympics and the global spotlight that the games threw
on everything Chinese, 2008 was notable for three things with regard to
the news media. First, the preparedness of the Chinese authorities to
allow their domestic media to cover more fully than previously a major
natural disaster: the Sichuan earthquake (Branigan 2008b). Second, the
partial, but not insubstantial, fulfilment of the promise by the Chinese
government to allow foreign journalists to report and to access the web
within China, without restrictions, for the duration of the games. A wellpublished tussle ensued between the authorities and journalists over the
implementation of this promise. Moreover, reports appeared afterwards,
1

See also the chapter by David Askew in this volume.

CHINA, NEWS MEDIA FREEDOM AND THE WEST

211

suggesting that the opening up was in a number of respects being

closed down again, as the memory of the games began to fade (Branigan,
2008a, Branigan and Kiss, 2009). Third, the continuing imprisonment of
Chinese journalists for straying beyond the boundaries of what is
deemed politically acceptable to report and what is not (Reporters Sans
Frontires 2008a and 2008b).
The underlying causes of each of these trends within Chinese official
attitudes towards the news media during 2008 have both overlapping
and distinctive dimensions. The coverage of significant natural disasters
had to be opened up more than previously, because the scale of such
events as the Sichuan earthquake when combined with the growth of
the internet and the ability of some to get around government net controls has made it impractical to try and conceal their occurrence, or the
scale and effectiveness of the governments response. Despite Beijings
massive attempts to control what its people access on the internet,
through its own and proxy controls (Bandurski 2007, Branigan and Kiss
2009, Kiss 2008), the fact that Chinese citizens with enough technical
knowledge, guile and courage can still use it to disseminate forbidden
news, means that there is now no hiding place with regard to the effectiveness of government reactions to disasters. From the Beijing leaderships point of view, it now makes much more sense to allow detailed
coverage and to use its glare to suggest and highlight both the depth of
the leaderships concern for and sympathy with the plight of its citizens
and the rapidity and appropriateness of its response. This latter concern
in turn creates an incentive to pull out all the stops to try and meet disasters with proportionate rescue and relief operations. However, it should
be noticed that the authorities did start to rein in the ability of the mainstream media to cover the aftermath of the earthquake when some of the
reporting began to reveal more of a critical nature than they were comfortable with (Branigan 2008b).
Furthermore, informed China watchers have noted that it is much
easier for journalists from parts of China other than the provinces affected by particular disasters to report on them and that the same is true
with issues such as provincial corruption (Yuezhi 2000: 590-591).2 The
supposition is as follows: because negative factors contributing to the
impact of disasters (such as negligent construction) can be caused by
2

This is a point also made by former CBS journalist, Robert Beers, for example.

212

Peter J. Anderson

interests connected with provincial officials, and on account of possible

linkages between provincial corruption and some regional Party people,
there are frequently likely to be strong pressures on journalists from the
provinces concerned to leave such issues alone. However, such pressures
often do not apply to the same extent to journalists from other provinces.
The government also had little choice but to provide a greater degree
of freedom, openness and access to foreign journalists during the games,
because a failure to do so would in effect have meant that they had completely reneged on the international understanding on which the award of
the 2008 games had depended. The negative publicity that would have
followed would have seriously damaged Chinas attempt to use the
Olympics to portray itself as a progressive state and an economic powerhouse coming of age. The Government could hardly risk antagonising
any more than was already the case the very people from the worlds
media upon whom the success of this propaganda exercise depended. A
number of Western news organisations were already complaining, before
the games actually began, about continuing restrictions on media freedom for their journalists (Reporters Sans Frontires 2008a).
That there should be some claw-back of freedoms granted after the
conclusion of the games (Branigan 2008a) is hardly a surprise. While this
would be guaranteed to produce some criticism in the worlds media, this
would be low on the global publics radar, given its status as one story
among many fighting for attention in the post Olympics period. Had the
spotlight still been on China, then such reinvigorated obstructing of
journalists would have been highlighted automatically, as part of the
wider China story, and the political damage to Chinas reputation would
have been more significant.
The granting ultimately of more officially recognised freedom to
foreign news media, and the prominent coverage of this in some of the
Western news media, arguably also had the effect of reducing the negative impact of both the number of domestic journalists still languishing
in prison during the games, and of further oppressive measures against
Chinese nationals stepping beyond permitted boundaries of free speech.
The partial relaxation of controls not only conveyed an image of China
as a state that was finally beginning to open up to, at least some, key
Western ideas on freedom and human rights, albeit under considerable
pressure; it also gave credence to Chinese claims that press freedoms

CHINA, NEWS MEDIA FREEDOM AND THE WEST

213

would come gradually. It is often pointed out by Beijings elite that Communist China is still a relatively new state and hasnt had the hundreds
of years that it took countries like Britain to evolve notions of free
speech and press freedom (Organgrinder 2008).
The opening up and the initial tussle over the degree to which it
would be implemented also allowed Western media to do what often it
likes most, i.e. talk about itself. In making themselves the story for a
while, BBC and other journalists inadvertently left less time and space
for the coverage of stories relating to Chinas continuing repression of its
more adventurous domestic reporters. Again, once the brief Olympics
and post-Olympics media spotlights were gone, the Chinese were able to
continue this policy in the relatively low level glare of the everyday global
news environment an environment in which the repressive aspects of
their policies would have to fight with huge volumes of other negative
news stories all over the world to get onto mainstream television or radio
news bulletins, or into news websites or papers. Even if they make it
onto the agenda of a particular news programme at the moment of writing, pieces about them still have to fight for time and space against
strong stories whose subject matter ranges from cholera in Mugabes
bankrupt Zimbabwe, to atrocities and conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
So, if the story of 2008 was to be summarised, in so far as it relates to
the Chinese regulation of the news media, it might most easily be depicted as two steps forward and one step backward. There does seem to
be a recognition in the centre that some of the things which previously
were tightly controlled in terms of reporting, now have to be treated in a
slightly looser manner, if only for pragmatic reasons. They include natural disasters, following on from the earlier loosening up of controls on
reporting corruption, as long as stories concerning them do not imply
criticism of the Beijing leadership. However, the timing of such reports
can still be affected by the governments perception of when the least
damaging moment for their release is.
This was neatly illustrated by the fact that the reporting of the scandal
relating to the contamination of milk with melamine was delayed as long
as possible within China (Branigan 2008b). This was done in order to
minimise the damage caused to the positive image that the leadership
had been projecting to the outside world via the Olympic Games. As
pointed out earlier, it was also claimed that some of the previously loos-

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Peter J. Anderson

ened controls concerning what could be reported about the Sichuan

earthquake were subsequently re-tightened (Branigan 2008b).
Foreign journalists were given considerably greater officially recognised freedom to report within China than previously had been the case,
although some of this was, once again, withdrawn after the conclusion of
the games. The situation seems to vary from province to province according to the attitudes and numbers of skeletons in the cupboards of
local officials (Branigan 2008a). However, for those Chinese journalists
working at the edge of media freedoms, and most particularly those who
are trying to push the boundaries back further, theirs remains a risky
profession. The boundary lines are not as clearly drawn as is sometimes
suggested. Moreover, what would have seemed to have become permissible one week, can potentially cost a journalist their job when attempted
again the next. Penalties can vary from not being allowed to practise as a
journalist to imprisonment.
Overall, Chinese governmental attitudes towards freedom of the
news media remain pragmatic. Some leeway is given where this can be
seen to fulfil useful goals or to be unavoidable. On account of the
growth of the internet, this can, firstly, mean a degree of bowing to the
inevitable. It is, for example, now simply impractical to suppress all
inconvenient coverage during natural disasters. Secondly, granting limited license to the media to expose local corruption or incompetence
while simultaneously showing the determination of the central authorities
to deal with it helps maintain or improve the image of the Party. A
third case is the facilitation of beneficial economic relations with capitalist democracies, through the making of small, but visible, steps towards
greater press freedoms. Whether this situation is likely to change in favour of significant improvements in the news medias freedom to report
can best be understood by considering the lessons of the past (as China
interprets them), together with present and emerging perceived threats to
the Chinese political system, and then assessing how the government is
likely to see the connection between all of these and press freedom in the
future.
With regard to the past, as has been pointed out many times before
(see, for example, Heren et. al. 1973), Chinese leaderships tend to remember the weakness and chaos of China when it lost the central control of the most effective of the Emperors to the damaging rivalries of
competing warlords. During the twentieth century they remember the

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215

civil war and the Japanese invasions and massacres that preceded the
relative calm and political stability,3 resulting from the establishment of
the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. They do not wish to risk
the danger of such rivalries and weakness arising again by means of the
emergence of a new, competing, effective opposition. One way of helping to ensure that this does not occur is through exerting overall control
with regard to what can and cannot be said on Chinese news media and,
where possible, on the world-wide-web. Within the present, the greatest
potential for instability is seen as resulting from the massive disparity of
wealth that still exists between the cities and the countryside.4 Just as the
Communist Party originally turned the peasants into an effective fighting
force that enabled them to take over the government, they now fear the
emergence of new political movements that might be able to rally the
peasants once again, this time against them. Once more, the management of what goes in the countrys news media is seen as important in
the control of views that could provoke or enable the organisation of an
opposition with the potential to attempt a rebellion. The best way of
trying to understand how the government sees the issue of press freedom
in the future is through the device of scenario construction, as the next
section explains.
Understanding News Media Freedom from the Chinese Governments Perspective
The Chinese government is aware, most particularly through the example
of Singapore, that embracing liberal economics does not inevitably entail
the need to embrace liberal politics, with its accompanying press freedoms. As has been pointed out frequently (BBC 2009 for example), what
they seem to be offering their people at the moment is a deal very much
in line with the Asian values concept long expounded by the
Singaporean government (Wiessala 2006: 33): in return for the government delivering economic prosperity it is required that people relinquish
ambitions for Western style democratic pluralism and for freedom of
speech.
Tiananmen Square and the collapse of Communism in the USSR and
Eastern Europe reminded the leadership of the fact that liberal democracy is an idea that potentially could be a potent rallying point for oppo3
The word relative is important, bearing in mind such tumultuous events as the
Cultural Revolution.
4
In the view of an authoritative Party source.

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Peter J. Anderson

sition to its rule. While the Beijing demonstrators back in 1989 were
brutally suppressed with military force, this is an option that now has
higher costs, given the massive extent to which China has become linked
in to the global economy. Among other things, Chinas leaders will have
observed that Russias last use of military power (in its near abroad)
caused a flight of foreign investment from Moscow. The use of military
force, both at home and abroad, can have serious economic consequences for the user within the globalized capitalist system if investors
judge it to be destabilising of the economy/society of the user, or of the
region within which it used. Being aware of this, it is likely that, since
Tiananmen Square, Chinese policy makers have evaluated a variety of
scenarios relating to situations in which pressures for greater freedom of
speech once again arise (it is quite probable that the scenarios investigated by conservative and more liberal factions differ in range and content). They would be unwise not to have done this, given the following
three developments.
Firstly, in 1989, at least initially, the leadership were caught without
appropriate scenarios in place in the face of a public democratic challenge; it showed signs of being temporarily paralysed as a result. Secondly, the Chinese government has taken risks, by allowing large numbers of Chinese students to study courses in Western universities, many
of which are politically sensitive for Chinese domestic society. Returning students will have been exposed to Western ideas and values and will
have noted criticisms of their own governments record on human rights.
Many will, no doubt, be happy to ignore these on their return home if
the Asian values economic deal continues to be delivered. But equally,
should this prove difficult as a result of a major global recession, or
other factors, they are a potential time-bomb at the heart of all of the
major cities. Each one of them has seen at first hand alternative ways of
doing politics and many, if faced with a Communist promise that is
undelivered in the face of a sustained economic downturn, may, at some
stage, demand democratic pluralism and greater freedom of speech. The
knowledge that Party minders are likely to be among their fellow students may well caution what students say while in the West, but that
knowledge cannot control their thoughts. A government that had not
assessed the risks of allowing Chinas young people to study abroad, and
the costs and benefits of different ways of dealing with them, ultimately

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217

would be a government unprepared in terms of possible responses as

was the case in 1989.
Thirdly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to gate-keep the internet, even with the formidable army of access blockers employed by the
Chinese government. The leadership knows that, at some point, it may
cease to be able to keep the lid on internet criticism of its policies (it
cannot stop everything even as matters stand) and of the very idea of a
one Party state. It is unlikely that it hasnt weighed up possible responses
when this day arrives there are already holes in the Great Firewall of
China.
So what might these scenarios look like, presuming, as seems probable, that at least some of them have been considered, or at least are likely
to be considered, should the pressure for greater freedom start to grow
significantly? In the following analysis, we will sample a selection of the
most likely scenarios from a Chinese viewpoint. Given that there is very
limited space here for examining relevant options and given also that the
internet is the challenge most likely to force a rethink of how the Chinese
government handles the news media, it would seem most sensible to
look at net related scenarios.
By means of this analysis, can gain a much deeper understanding of
the options facing the Chinese Communist Party and government as
China becomes more and more integrated into a global system, within
which the influence of democracy is not likely to go away, even as the
power of some Western powers wanes, due to the compensatory rise of
democratic India. However, it is important to remember that these scenarios will be viewed differently by conservative and liberal wings of the
CCP. The extent to which these policies might ever be implemented will
depend upon the balance of power between the various factions within
the Party at relevant points in time.
Scenario One: The Big Bang. Many argue that this is the least likely of
eventualities, bearing in mind the strength of feeling among Party conservatives and their reaction to Chinese media coverage following
Tiananmen Square (Herbert 2003: 126). In this scenario, the Chinese
government agrees to remove all foreign and domestic media restrictions, other than those relating to libel, slander and national security as
understood in its narrower, Western sense. Outside of any BBC-equivalent impartial public service news organisations that the government

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might decide to set up, there would be no requirement to produce balanced journalism; news organisations, journalists and bloggers would be
left to decide on their own reporting. This would only become an option
where the value to the government of trying to block access to criticism
of its policies and leaders had disappeared. This would be the case where
gate keeping the web had become impractical for technical reasons, and
where internet usage across China and the accessing of alternative
news media on the web had become so widespread as to make continuing efforts to censor the mainstream media an ineffective means of
controlling the information flow to the mass of the population. Any
continuing attempt to censor news reporting within China would be both
increasingly obsolete (unless, as in Burma, it was decided effectively to
shut the internet down within its borders) and counterproductive, in so
far as it would confirm some of the criticisms of the regime that bloggers
and others make. Such a dramatic liberation of news reporting would put
the predominant position of the CCP under strain, unless measures were
kept in place to prevent the formation of an effective opposition Party.
However, such restraints would become difficult to maintain if the internet was no longer controllable and journalists and bloggers were given
full freedom to report and comment on the views of those who advocate
alternatives to the current Chinese political system. Even the old Party
stalwarts in the media might prove unreliable if given their freedom, as
the reporting of the Peoples Daily and the Central Television Station in the
brief, heady days of 1989 suggested (Herbert 2003: 126). Should alternative ideas start to become popular, they may, eventually, be held by so
many people that it would be difficult to suppress them. In theory, the
Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) could always be brought in, as happened in the case of Tiananmen Square. But the soldiers that were summoned in 1989 had been given only filtered information. If media controls had been abandoned then the PLA would be free to form their own
views. And if opposition ideas spread into the army as a result, the outcome of any attempt to use military force could be civil war and the
collapse of an effective governmental system within China.
Scenario Two: A Smaller Bang. This scenario would be prompted by the
same basic cause and involves an extension of press freedoms to include
the full reporting of criticism of the central government with regard to its
policies and legislative initiatives, with the exception of a narrow band of

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219

national security matters relating to counter-terrorism, the intelligence

services and military defence. Such criticism would be reported only
within a balanced context in all of the media which Beijing could still regulate. Should this be permitted it would not be the result of any Damascene conversion to the values of impartial reporting, but of a hardheaded political calculation: this would simply be the least damaging way
of extending press freedom, if forced to do so by the pressure of circumstances. The government would be given as much space to put its view
across as its detractors. This would allow it to respond to unregulated
internet criticism by showing that it was no longer censoring the free
presentation of views, while keeping the right for its political and economic arguments to be heard in full. Should sufficient numbers of the
Chinese people still rely primarily on the regulated mainstream media at
the time of this policys introduction and should the government win the
argument in such an open presentation of competing views often enough
to stay in power, then the problems created by freely available access to
criticisms of its policies would be solved to a significant degree. However, should the government lose the debate consistently, or should too
many people switch their allegiance from mainstream, regulated, news
reporting to the unregulated criticism on the internet and decide that a
one Party state was no longer desirable then the situation would be
very different. The government would have to choose whether to brazen
things out, to agree to popular demands for change, or to suppress dissent. As with the first scenario above, if dissent had spread into the PLA,
the risks of trying to use force could be high, since not all of the army
has a stake in the economic system established by Deng and his successors.
Scenario Three. This scenario is nearly the same as the previous one,
above. In contrast to it, however, reporting is balanced to one side: the
government is afforded notably more space to put their views across than are its critics.
On the surface, this might seem a safer option than the previous two,
given an inbuilt debating advantage from the governments point of
view, at least with regard to the media it could still regulate. In practice,
however, it could prove ineffective. A media debate, so obviously
weighted in favour of views and policies that many find unacceptable,
might prompt a large number of people to migrate to unregulated report-

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Peter J. Anderson

ing on the internet. From that, they might develop political ideas that
prompt widespread demands for effective opposition parties.
Scenario Four. This case would, in many respects, echo scenario two,
above. The difference in this scenario is that, within all of the Chinese
news media that could still be regulated, it would be required that criticism should be presented in the manner and style which the Daily Mail
newspaper in the UK uses to present the opinions of the Labour Party. It
does so by representing the latters views as being inferior in quality, logic and
practicality to those of the Party that the paper prefers. The risks would be
similar to those in scenario three, above.
Scenario Five. This scenario involves an extension of press freedom that
includes allowing the reporting of criticism of the central government
with regard to a specific and narrow range of sensitive policies and legislative initiatives, but which does not extend that freedom to allow criticism
of the President and which requires that such criticisms be presented
within a balanced context in which the government is given as much
space to put its view as its critics. This might become an option where it
was still possible to prevent access to the majority of negative postings
on the internet, but enough criticism was nevertheless evading official
controls to make it necessary to acknowledge some of its most populist
dimensions and show a willingness to deal with it. To allow balanced
mainstream reporting of such criticism in this context would be to try
and take the initiative away from the bloggers and counteract it by
improving the credibility of the regulated authoritative mainstream
news media. It would give the government a chance to be seen as listening to, and engaging with, its critics in an open and positive debate on
some issues of popular concern. Should the government lose the debate,
in terms of the reactions of the people, then the president, who would
have remained aloof from it and un-criticised within the media, would
have the opportunity to remain politically unscathed. The Party could
attempt to re-establish its legitimacy through him stepping forward as the
peoples champion to re-shape the unpopular policies, thereby correcting
the consequences of bad advice given to him, or other leading figures,
by other isolated and ill-informed members of the government, in a
manner that would be covered by the mainstream media.

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221

Scenario Six. This possibility would be similar to scenario five, above,

except with reporting that was balanced to one side in so far as the
government would be given significantly more space to put their view than their critics.
As with scenario three, this could backfire and, rather than help build the
credibility of the mainstream news media, it could undermine it further.
Scenario Seven: this eventuality has most of the characteristics of scenario
five, except that such criticism would be presented in the manner that
the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK would present the views of the
Labour Party, as described in scenario four. From the governments
point of view, much would depend on the skill with which this propaganda (in the Western sense of the word) exercise was carried through
and the receptivity of sufficient numbers of the disaffected public to it.
Should it fall short of the mark then it could be just as ineffective as a
misfiring scenario six.
Scenario Eight: The Burmese option. The history of the Peoples Republic of
China has been one of power and influence, shifting back and to from
conservative to more liberal factions within the Communist Party. The
conservatives remain, as always, a force to be reckoned with. Should the
internet get completely out of control at a time when the Party was feeling increasingly insecure as a result of economic or other reasons, and if,
simultaneously, the conservatives were in a dominant position, there is
always the possibility of the internet being shut down within China.
This could be done with the hope of both silencing destabilising dissent
and re-establishing the governments ability to control the flow of information to the people through a closely controlled mainstream news
media. In an age where the internet, and free and open participation in it,
is seen as being one of the key ingredients of advanced societies, such a
move would be likely to be seen externally as an indication that China
was taking a step back developmentally and that the position of the
government was now so fragile that the only way it could keep hold of
power was through a draconian close down of a communication facility
that other advanced nations regard as fundamental. Such a statement of
the fear of instability could also frighten away crucial external investors.
The Burmese option could be costly both in economic terms and in
terms of loss of Chinas external reputation as a modern state and society.

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Conclusions
At the present moment, the collective intelligence of the leadership is
sufficient for it to realise that issues like corruption, which discredit the
Party in the eyes of the people need to be addressed and that the news
media can have a useful role in helping to deal with that. It has realised
too, that natural disasters like the Sichuan earthquake have to be more
fully covered in the internet age, and that the same is true of unnatural
disasters, such as the contamination of milk with melamine during 2008.
The consequence has been a further degree of opening up of media
freedom. However, anything hinting at criticism of the Beijing leadership, or of the authority of Party rule is still as much forbidden as before
and journalists who cross the line can find themselves out of a job, or in
prison. The above scenarios have suggested that the world-wide web has
the potential to grow completely out of the governments control, and
different ways of exploiting it continue to develop at breakneck speed.
The leadership cannot assume that the degree of censorship that pertains
currently will be viable into the future. If it is not simply to be the prisoner of developments it has to evaluate a variety of scenarios for dealing
with such possibilities as the internet escaping from its grasp. It has been
the task of this discussion to show what some of those might look like.
Overall, as far as the above sample scenarios are concerned, several
things are clear. Firstly, the extent to which the Party would be prepared
to risk implementing any of the media policy options covered within
these scenarios would be dependent on how it felt each related to its
fundamental desire to minimise the threats to its continued rule at a
given moment in time. This calculation in turn would be affected significantly by the balance of conservative and liberal forces within the Party
at that time.
Secondly, it would bear in mind also the likelihood of its last resort,
the Peoples Liberation Army, being able to recover the situation through
the effective use of force, should the outcome of the implementation of
policy options contained within particular scenarios turn out to be negative, and should this threaten the Partys continuation in power. Significantly, key army personnel have become serious economic players during
the Deng and post-Deng periods, and it is very much in their interests
that the stability from which they benefit economically should be preserved. However, as has been pointed out, should a freeing up of the
news media lead to the spreading of opposition ideas among significant

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223

numbers of the ranks, the overall reliability of the army might become
questionable in some circumstances.
Thirdly, and finally, it should be noted that, as far as the internet is
concerned, the picture is more complex than it has been possible to
represent adequately here. A lot depends on the extent to which Chinese
users decide to access the web to look for alternative political news and
comment should it in future become un-blockable. One of the things
that research has shown so far is that in internet rich, free, societies,
such as the United States for example, very few people go to political
blogs. Those users who access the internet regularly for political news
remain very much in the minority (Pew 2005 and 2006; Anderson and
Ward 2007: 269-70). Should Chinese net-accessing patterns turn out to
mirror or even accentuate these trends towards low political usage, the
Chinese authorities might conclude that the internet provides them with
fewer worries than they feared, and with less of a reason for significantly
changing policies towards mainstream-media controls.

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2008b. China Tells State Media to Report Bad News. Accessed at:
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/20/china-media-freedom/print
Branigan, T. and Kiss, J. 2009. China Closes 90 Websites as Internet Crackdown intensifies. Accessed at: www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/
jem/13/China-internet-censorhsip/print
Bristow, M. 2008. Stories Chinas Media Could Not Write. BBC Online. Accessed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7171648.stm
Herbert, J. 2003. Practising Global Journalism. Oxford: Focal.
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Kiss, J. 2008. China Defends Latest Web Censorship. Accessed at:

www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/dec/16/china-defends-latest-webcensorship
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organgrinder/ 2008/nov/20/events-television1/print
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Internet, Pew Research Center. Accessed at: http://www.pewinternet.
org.pdfs/PIP_Women_and_Men_online.pdf
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Reynolds, J. 2008. A Cup of Tea with Chinas Police. BBC Online. Accessed at:
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Shoemaker, P.J. and A.A.Cohen. 2006. News Around the World: Content, Practitioners and the Public. New York: Routledge.
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EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 225-240

TRADE AND INVESTMENT IN THE RELATIONS BETWEEN

THE EUROPEAN UNION AND
THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Carlo Filippini
Abstract
Services are the fastest growing component of the import-export
flows of developed countries. At the same time, they are the source
of many disputes because of their nature, being often intangible, and
non-excludable, with high value added. This is the case for service
flows between China and the European Union (EU): they are relevant
but the EU is concerned about the need to level the playing field.
Chinas WTO accession has eased some problems, but not solved
them. The most relevant EU requests concern the intellectual property rights, counterfeit and pirated goods, and technology transfer. In
addition to this, China has not yet implemented all its WTO accession obligations, e.g. in the financial sector. What follows is a detailed
data analysis on service flows. It will comprise of, in particular,
China-EU exchanges compared to world totals. Moreover, data over
time, by EU country, and by sub-sector, will be analysed. Inward FDI
has been liberalized in steps; it is amongst the main export drivers. It
is an important vehicle for the technological upgrading of industrial
sectors. The strict conditions imposed on foreign corporations have
allowed China to acquire nearly up-to-date technologies, acting as a
monopsonist with many suppliers. On FDI, the EU is further stressing a lack of reciprocity. Recently, Chinese outward FDI has been
growing, due to very large Chinese foreign reserves, even though
investment towards the EU remains modest. Last but not least, the
chapter examines relevant data relating to European FDI in China
and Chinese FDI in the EU over time, by EU country of origin,
and by sector.

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Introduction
Trade relations between Europe and China have a long history. Mercantile delegations, diplomatic embassies, and religious missions already
were exchanged between China and the Roman Empire more than 2000
years ago (cf. Innes Miller 1969). In fact, the Ancient Romans were infatuated with Chinese silk and paid huge amounts of gold to acquire it.
Later on, these relations stayed stagnant because China became more
developed than Europe and thought that no external goods were worth
importing. After a long decline of the Chinese economy, the last decades
have seen its strong and rapid revival; EUChina trade relations are now
quite important: China is the second biggest trade partner of the EU, its
first market for imports and its fourth for exports (as of 2007). This
chapter investigates the evolution of EUChina relations and agreements; furthermore, it presents data to quantify trade structures and
raises some critical points relating to views in the EU and China; finally
the chapter offers a number of tentative conclusions.
Globalization: Chinas and the EUs Choices
The sixty years from the birth of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC)
can be divided almost evenly into two periods: the first is characterized
by quite rigid plans that covered foreign trade flows too. Exports and
imports were not linked to relative prices or to comparative advantage.
After 1978, China changed its economic policy and began a slow, but
straightforward, process of reforms that included deeper integration into
the world economy.
A few features of this transformation are worth noting: the coexistence of liberalization in the economy and continuity (that is a monopoly
of power by the Communist Party) in politics and gradualism in the
process: reforms were initially carried out in limited areas, or sectors, and
later on extended on an ever larger scale if successful. In the end one can
speak of a socialist market economy in a communist state.
The international environment was gradually becoming more open or
globalized, because of the general agreements sponsored by the GATT
and WTO and on account of the many more bilateral Free Trade Area
accords. At the same time, innovation and technical progress, together
with the ICT, drastically cut costs in transport and communications. One
of the results was the birth of production networks or fragmentation.

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227

China was very skilful in exploiting its low-cost labour and the (potential) size of its market attracting FDI and asking foreign enterprises to
bring in state-of-art technologies, not the ones dismissed in the country
of origin. By the mid-1980s, China was already a major production centre for many foreign firms. The sanctions following on the heels of the
government crackdown of the Tiananmen protests (1989) simply slowed
the process. Exports have been an important driving factor of Chinese
economic growth, and the countrys 2001 WTO accession was the occasion of further real and promised openings. As one can imagine, liberalization in merchandize trade has been generally greater than in the service sectors. Chinese exports are covering a wide range of products and
seem to defy the traditional theory of comparative advantage. One the
one hand, factor endowments can be modified by economic policies
through expenditures in education, research and technology imports; on
the other hand, quite often only parts of the final high-tech goods that
are exported are produced in China, due to production fragmentation.
The European Union (EU) has adopted a positive attitude towards
China from the beginning and on many occasions has stated its wider
objectives: to support Chinas transition to a pluralist society based upon
the rule of law and respect for human rights, and to encourage its transformation into an open market economy, integrated into the world by
means of the broadening and deepening of both bilateral and multilateral
dialogue.
While in the years up to the beginning of this millennium the EU has
been accommodating towards China because of the latters developing
country status and the high expectations of gains from trade and FDI,
more recently a number of disappointments have emerged: to the EU
China is not only an opportunity but a threat too. At the same time it is
quite difficult to speak of a coherent European policy towards China,
because there are many voices and actors, not always coordinated and
too often conflicting.
Key Steps and Documents in EUChina Economic Relations
After the recognition of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) as the
legitimate government of China (October 25, 1971) by the UN General
Assembly and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the
PRC and most EU member states in the following years, on May 6 1975
the European Union too established diplomatic relations with the PRC.

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On May 2, 1978 a Trade Agreement was signed and the EU-China Joint
Committee was established, the first meeting of which was held in
Brussels 15 months later. On July 18, 1979, the first agreement, on textile trade, was reached. Ten years after the resumption of diplomatic ties,
on May 21, the 1985 EC-China Trade and Cooperation Agreement
(EEC-China, 1985) was signed in order to promote and intensify trade
and to encourage a steady expansion of economic cooperation between
the two actors. This agreement is still the main legal framework for
economic relations with China; it was extended twice, in order to cover
political issues (in 1994 and 2002). Economics and politics are intertwined in complex ways because of the different moral principles, cultural traditions, and historical legacies of the two entities. Two main
turning points must be mentioned: firstly, the Tiananmen Square protests
in December 1989, after which the EU imposed an arms embargo, and,
secondly, Chinas accession to the WTO twelve years later.
A new, and more general, Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
has been under negotiation for some years, in order to take into account
the new realities and to update the 1985 treaty. Over the past decade or
so the EU has produced a range of key documents on EU-China relations; just to mention a few: the 1995 Communication on A Long-term
Policy for China-Europe Relations, the 1998 one on Building a Comprehensive Partnership with China, the 2003 policy paper on A Maturing
Partnership: Shared Interests and Challenges in EU-China Relations. In
2006, a set of Council Conclusions (EU Council 2006), the Communication Closer Partner, Growing Responsibilities and the related working
document on Competition and Partnership marked a clear (even if ineffectual) break with the previous generally optimistic EU position:
these documents emphasise Chinas increased responsibilities, stemming
from her economic growth and global influence, and stress the need for
a level field in solving trade and investment frictions.
In addition to regular political, trade, and economic dialogue meetings, there are many other, sector-specific (sectoral), dialogues and
agreements covering many aspects. A representative list of these sectorspecific dialogues is represented in table 1, below:

TRADE AND INVESTMENT BETWEEN THE EU AND THE PRC

229

Table 1: Sector-specific EU-China Dialogues

Agricultural dialogue
Civil Aviation
Competition Policy
Consumer Product Safety
Customs Co-operation
Education and Culture
Employment and Social Affairs
Energy
Environment
Food Safety
Global Satellite Navigation Services
Information Society

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Macro-economic Policy and the
Regulation of Financial Markets
Maritime Transport
Regional Policy
Regulatory and Industrial Policy
Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Issues
Science and Technology
Space Co-operation
Textile Trade Dialogue
Trade Policy Dialogue
Transport (in general)

A more recent (April 2008), and Chinese-inspired, initiative is the EUChina High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue (HLM), modelled on
the US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, to support and complement
the existing dialogues. In the recent past, there have been informal talks
and negotiations (since January 2007) about a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, to update and upgrade the 1985 Agreement: the
European and Chinese negotiating positions are, however, quite distant,
and the latters decision to postpone, with only a few days notice, the
11th EU-China Summit, scheduled for December 1, 2008, because of a
meeting between the French President Sarkozy and the Dalai Lama is a
clear evidence of existing frictions. Other cooperation programmes have
been going on for many years, covering various areas, in order to support
Chinas development efforts (EU Comm, 2008).
Merchandise Trade
EU-China merchandise trade has been growing rapidly for years; in the
years 1999-2007, EU-25 imports increased four times in value from
52.41 to 230.31 billion EUR and from 7 to 16.1 % as a share; exports
showed a similar pattern in value from 19.62 to 71.67 billion EUR
and from 2.8 to 5.6 %; this implies a larger and larger deficit (excluding
intra-EU trade). In 2007, China has been the second biggest EU-27 trade
partner after the USA (11.4 %), but the 1st import (16.2 %) and the 4th
export (5.8 %) partner. Conversely, EU-27 has been the biggest trade
partner for China (17.3 %), being in 2nd place for imports (12.7 %), after
Japan, and in 1st place for exports (20.6 %). The EU-27 is exporting to

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Carlo Filippini

China mainly manufactured products, machinery, transport equipment,

and chemicals; primary products are not relevant here. This structure is,
broadly speaking, similar to European exports to the world (see table 2).
Table 2: EU27 Exports to China, 2007 (EUR million)
Products (Sitc Sections) by order of importance

% total EU imports

TOTAL

71,757

100

58

Machinery and transport equipment

34,398

47.9

80

Manuf. goods classified chiefly by material

8,639

12.0

52

Chemicals and related products, n.e.s.

6,923

9.6

37

Crude materials inedible, except fuels

5,148

7.2

193

Miscellaneous manuf. articles

3,957

5.5

32

Commodities and transactions, n.e.c.

902

1.3

26

Food and live animals

758

1.1

18

Beverages and tobacco

413

0.6

21

Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials

101

0.1

36

..

14

Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes

Source: Eurostat

The EU-27 imports from China manufactured products, machinery and

textiles, plus clothing; primary products are negligible (see table 3).
Table 3: EU27 Imports from China, 2007 (EUR million)
Products (Sitc Sections) by order of importance
TOTAL
Miscellaneous manuf. Articles
Machinery and transport equipment
Manuf. goods classified chiefly by material
Chemicals and related products, n.e.s.
Food and live animals
Crude materials inedible, except fuels
Mineral fuels lubricants and rel. Materials
Commodities and transactions, n.e.c.
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes
Beverages and tobacco
Source: Eurostat

%
231,516
64,475
61,952
34,867
6,934
2,417
2,264
673
510
83
76

100
27.8
26.8
15.1
3.0
1.0
1.0
0.3
0.2
..
..

% total EU imports
162
367
230
192
61
38
37
2
16
14
11

231

TRADE AND INVESTMENT BETWEEN THE EU AND THE PRC

Table 4: EU-27 Trade with China, by Member State, 2007 (EUR million)
Exports

Share in
Extra-EU
exports

Imports

Share in
Extra-EU
imports

Balance

Extra-EU

71,757

231,516

100%

100%

-159,759

Belgium

3,344

12,526

4.7%

5.4%

-9,182

Bulgaria

70

608

0.1%

0.3%

-538

Czech Rep.

504

4,340

0.7%

1.9%

-3,836

Denmark

1,282

3,892

1.8%

1.7%

-2,61

Germany

29,874

47,877

41.6%

20.7%

-18,003

Estonia

65

299

0.1%

0.1%

-235

Ireland

1,284

2,013

1.8%

0.9%

-730

Greece

111

2,795

0.2%

1.2%

-2,684

Spain

1,980

15,737

2.8%

6.8%

-13,758

France

9,032

18,000

12.6%

7.8%

-8,968

Italy

6,311

21,764

8.8%

9.4%

-15,453

Cyprus

333

0.0%

0.1%

-325

Latvia

17

257

0.0%

0.1%

-240

Lithuania

15

498

0.0%

0.2%

-483

Luxembourg

194

3,413

0.3%

1.5%

-3,219

Hungary

752

5,394

1.0%

2.3%

-4,642

Malta

27

92

0.0%

0.0%

-65

Netherlands

3,724

37,746

5.2%

16.3%

-34,022

Austria

1,666

2,928

2.3%

1.3%

-1,262

Poland

724

5,050

1.0%

2.2%

-4,326

Portugal

181

1,063

0.3%

0.5%

-882

Romania

157

1,667

0.2%

0.7%

-1,51

Slovenia

69

447

0.1%

0.2%

-378

Slovakia

321

1,569

0.4%

0.7%

-1,248

Finland

2,161

3,296

3.0%

1.4%

-1,135

Sweden

2,396

4,703

3.3%

2.0%

-2,307

UK

5,489

33,207

7.6%

14.3%

-27,719

Source: Eurostat

232

Carlo Filippini

Almost half of the EUs trade deficit with the PRC is due to machinery,
mechanical appliances and electrical equipment; other important items
are textiles, base metals and articles in base metals, as well as miscellaneous articles. As far as individual member states are concerned the most
important exports partners are Germany (more than 40 % of the EU-27
total), France, Italy, and UK; for imports Germany, Netherlands, and
UK are in the top positions; the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany
show the highest deficits. The substantial figures for Netherlands are of
course due to the function of Rotterdam as a key entry point (see table 4).
Trade in Services
In 2007, the extra-EU trade in services shows an EU-25 surplus. The
credit side is worth 1,166 billion EUR and the debit side 1,026 billion
EUR, with a net positive balance of 140 billion EUR. As is well-known,
many heterogeneous items are included under the service heading.
China and Hong Kong represent a small share of the total, just over 2%
on both sides of the accounts. In the past few years, China almost doubled its flows, while Hong Kong nearly balanced its exchanges thanks to
rising exports to the EU-25 (see table 5).
Table 5: EU-25 Trade in Services (EUR million)
Extra-EU 2004
2005
2006
2007
China 2004
2005
2006
2007
Hong Kong 2004
2005
2006
2007
Source: Eurostat

Credit
874,341
956,851
1,057,862
1,165,855
9,105
12,419
13,329
17,742
7,124
8,402
6,998
8,225

Debit
799,428
869,054
943,776
1,026,073
7,370
9,392
11,860
13,722
5,211
5,648
6,602
8,122

Net
74,913
87,797
114,086
139,782
1,735
3,027
1,469
4,02
1,913
2,754
396
103

TRADE AND INVESTMENT BETWEEN THE EU AND THE PRC

233

The positive service balance sheet of the EU-25 with China alone represents less than one-fortieth of the negative trade balance. The EU is
estimating potential losses in the order of billions or euros, because of
Chinese unfair practices. The credit side is worth 17.74 billion EUR and
the debit one 13.72 billion EUR, giving as a result a net figure of just
over 4 billion EUR; the figures are showing an upwards trend in the past
decade in particular after the WTO accession in 2001 (see table 6). However the EU performance in service trade with China is difficult to fully
evaluate, because the flows are, to some extent, indirect and going
through Hong Kong.
Table 6: EU-25 Trade in services with China, 2007 (EUR million)
CHINA total
Royalties
Financial services
Insurance
Transportation
Travel

Credit
17,742
1,179
453
109
5,501
1,877

Debit
13,722
120
181
281
6,561
2,893

Net
4,02
1,059
272
-172
-1,06
-1,016

Source: Eurostat

EU Linkages between Economic and Non-economic Issues

From the very beginning, the EU has stressed the importance of democracy and human rights in its relations with China1. This appears quite
typical of its cultural traditions and values: democracy, freedom, and the
rule of law are all the foundations of a state. One of the aims of EUChina contact was thus to support Chinas transition to a more open
society. In the past, however, a greater weight was given to the process
rather than to the actual results. In addition to this, the possibility of
gains from the opening of such a huge market played a role. Throughout
the current decade, rapid Chinese growth, both in economic and political
terms, and the perception of a challenge rather than a chance, have
changed the EUs position (Holslag 2006).
Moreover, Chinese policies in Tibet, with regards to political dissidents or simply internet users, have been increasingly subject to severe
1

[editors note] see also the chapters by D. Askew and G. Wiessala in this volume.

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Carlo Filippini

criticism in Europe. If one adds environmental issues, and Chinas refusal to be bound by international protocols, it is easy to understand why
relations are, at times, turning sour. China maintains that trade issues
must be discussed independently from other problems, some of which
are seen as domestic (Tibet, e.g.), not international. Of course, the Chine
power elite is reluctant to give up its status and role; it perceives too
much openness as a threat; the collapse of the Soviet Union and its
Communist Party is a clear reminder of what might happen in China too,
if democratic reforms are introduced.
The EUs Trade Deficit with China
The EU has been running a trade deficit with the rest of the world for
years; in 2007, the negative balance amounts to over EUR 186 billion
about 15% of total exports. Over the past decade this percentage almost
doubled. The trade deficit with China is just less than EUR 160 billion.
This amounts to more than twice the value of EU exports to that country, and is equal to EUR 72 billion (2007). It would, of course, be nave
to say that the EUs deficit is caused by China alone; it would be even
more nave to claim that eliminating the deficit would, somehow, solve
all problems. However, the size, growth, and circumstances of the deficit
are disquieting for many in the EU.
A first point to be made pertains to the undervaluation of the Chinese
currency. It is quite difficult to tell the right level of any currency, in
particular, in relation to another one (Frankel 2009). A number of scholars are, however, arguing for a substantial revaluation of the renmimbi
versus the US dollar and the Euro. This opinion is often raised in the
USA, even by the new Obama administration; the Big Mac index, a very
rough and oversimplified PPP version, shows a 40% undervaluation
(The Economist, Jan 22, 2009). In addition, as we shall see later, many
groups and firms are complaining of unfair practices, and of obstacles to
both EU goods and investment. Last but not least, the trade surplus is
one of the sources of Chinese official reserves, the biggest in the world,
used also to finance the sovereign funds.
On the other side of the coin, one has to consider that a large part of
Chinese exports (to the EU and to the world) are due to European or
other foreign direct investment; moreover they incorporate a substantial
share of imports. Koopmans R., Zhi Wang, and Shang-Jin Wei (2008)
estimate that the share of foreign content in Chinas exports is at about

TRADE AND INVESTMENT BETWEEN THE EU AND THE PRC

235

50%; in some high-tech sectors, it can be as high as 80%. This, however,

does not decrease the EU deficit. In other words, China imports capital
intermediate goods and re-exports them. Globalization pressures, the
increasing relevance of FTAs and similar arrangements, and innovations
in the transport and communication sectors, have all boosted production
networks across the world, and more specifically in China.
EU Concerns and EU Complaints
While acknowledging that some progress is being made in these matters,
the EU has long been complaining about Chinese behaviours which, the
Union alleges, are unfair, in regard to trade and investment. A list of the
principal problems can be seen in table 7, below.
Table 7: Obstacles to trade and investment
Obstacles to market-access
Tariffs
Non-tariff barriers
Government procurement
Transparency and administrative coordination
Discrimination of foreign operators
Investment restriction
Conditions of competition
IPR and legal rights
Forced technology transfers
Export subsidies (and taxes)
Environmental, social and safety conditions
Market for global trade in natural resources distortion
Source: EU Comm, 2006 and EUCCC, 2008

While China has substantially lowered its tariffs after WTO accession,
from about 35% to 9% for non-agricultural products (and 15% for agricultural ones), there still are some tariff peaks on goods of particular
importance to European firms. Quite recently, for example, the WTO
Appellate Body has ruled in favour of the EU (plus USA and Canada)
about surcharges over car parts. More relevant are the non-tariff barriers
in the form of product certification (a compulsory system covering more
than 100 items), labelling standards (for instance for pre-packaged food),

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Carlo Filippini

import approval requirements, and custom clearance delays. Agricultural

and pharmaceutical goods and cosmetics are subject to strict and
groundless requirements; there are often more severe than those required
for domestic goods, in contrast to WTO rules. Moreover, Chinese standards are sometimes appreciably different from international ones. This
results in additional costs, of both monetary and non-monetary nature,
affecting, in particular, many EU small and medium-sized enterprises.
The application of laws and regulations is often not uniform across
provinces and local authorities in China. Administrative discretion is
quite large, and foreign firms are discriminated against. There appears a
need for more active and timely official interpretations of administrative
regulations. The prosecution in bribery cases is quite erratic, obscure,
and rather exceptional. Even if public calls for comments from the Government on proposed legislation are becoming more frequent, there is
inadequate time to analyse the bills and provide constructive feedback.
The value of public procurements is not easily calculated, but certainly
quite large. In 2007, it was over EUR 38 billion according to the Chinese
Ministry of Finance; however, given the figures for the total of fixed
asset investments, it ought to be much higher; the economic measures
announced at the end of 2008, in order to overcome the effects of the
world financial crisis, will certainly increase this. China must accede to
the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, but the initial proposal made
in 2007 was judged quite unsatisfactory by the European officials and
firms. In too many areas foreign (and of course, European) firms are
discriminated against, in policy or practice, as a result of a China first
approach. The same grievance applies to FDI, because of over- stringent
requirements imposed on non-Chinese companies.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are one of the most contentious
topics in EUChina trade relations (see Shi 2008 for a detailed analysis);
on the one hand, European firms are upgrading their productions: both
goods and services have an increasingly high-tech character; on the other
hand, counterfeiting is becoming more and more widespread (and not
only in China). Despite improvements, it is still quite difficult to get a
real protection in Chinese courts, and, if protection should be reached, it
is often unduly complex to implement decisions. Too much confidential
information is required in applications for technical and regulatory approval for products, and this information is not adequately protected.
Local firms not only copy EU products, and often sell them under the

TRADE AND INVESTMENT BETWEEN THE EU AND THE PRC

237

name of the EU firm, but increasingly apply for patents regarding identical or near-identical products. At the same time, filing for trademarks can
take as long as three years in case of opposition.
Last but not least, significant subsidies, or preferential access to
credit, are afforded to companies destined to become national or regional
champions. The taxation system is granting tax preferences, contingent
on the use of local content or export performance. Export subsidies have
effects similar to currency devaluation, while export taxes (also quite
common in China) contribute to currency revaluation. Recent cases of
dangerous products originating from China from toothpaste and powdered milk, to toys have hardened the European stance, undermined
consumers confidence, and frequently turned public opinion against the
made in China label.
Chinese Perceptions and Objections
China too is expressing concerns about those EU policies and decisions
seen to be unfair or restrictive for Chinese firms. It has already been
mentioned that China views the EU nexus between human rights and
trade issues as an example of interference in Chinas internal affairs.
Additional problems are the question of market economy status (MES),
the EUs technical barriers to trade and its agricultural policy, EU peak
tariffs on some products, and, last but not least, the arms embargo
against China.
China maintains that MES is not being granted, in order to put a
further constraint on its growth, and that it is discriminated against,
pointing out that Russia was given this status in 2002, even though at
that time it was not (and still is not) a member of WTO. There is a formal reputation aspect not to be played down, because harmony and not
losing face is paramount in any Confucian culture. However, the wider
consequences of this status are much more important: MES would render it very difficult for the EU to open anti-dumping (AD) cases against
Chinese firms this is the essence of the problem. Upon joining the
WTO, China accepted to be treated as a non-market economy for 15
years but quite soon, in June 2003, it asked the EU to be granted MES.
Over the past few years, the EU has opened many AD cases and used
safeguards against Chinese exports; in relation to trade value China is the
biggest target. In order to avoid a full confrontation, the EU has given it

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Carlo Filippini

the status of transition economy. That, however, does not carry much
weight.
More fundamentally, the EU argues that China is, in fact, not fulfilling most of the five criteria required for a market economy. These are:
A degree of government influence over the decisions of firms;
Existence and implementation of a transparent and non-discriminatory company law;
Similarly, a set of laws ensuring the respect of property rights;
Existence of a genuine financial sector independent from the state;
Absence of some state-induced distortions in the operation of privatized firms.
Only the last criterion is met, at least according to the EU. The EU has
rather strict technical standards due to its citizens concern about health,
safety, work conditions, and the environment, and many of them appear,
to China, unreasonable and discriminatory (e.g., in the area of chemical
products). The increasing number of dangerous products originating
from China is not inducing the EU to be more accommodating quite
the contrary appears to be true.
The arm embargo was imposed in the aftermath of the Tiananmen
repression in 1989; this problem too has two aspects: a face-saving and a
practical one. China is seeing it as an offence to its status as a world
power, and as an obstacle to its efforts to modernize the armed forces.
After many decades of low profile in military matters China is now upgrading weapons and equipment, in order to be able to play a more
visible role. The transformation, for instance, of its navy, from a brownwater to a blue-water force, is quite telling.
Conclusions and Outlook
In conclusion, it may be said that the EU has been investing enormous
political, diplomatic, and financial resources into expanding its relations
with China for many years. It has done so with a number of aims in
mind: to support change towards a democratic society and an open
market-economy; to lower tensions in an increasingly strategic region;
and to enter a rapidly growing, very large, and potentially profitable,
market. Over the years, the Union suffered some disappointments, but
these were overcome because of Chinas status as a developing country.

TRADE AND INVESTMENT BETWEEN THE EU AND THE PRC

239

In 2006 however, the EU realized that most of its hopes were unfulfilled
and changed its political mood, asking China to deliver its part of the
bargain (Berkofsky, 2008 and Scott, 2007). The EU ought now to set its
priorities clearly, speak with one voice, and build up a credible stock of
human capital. European objectives are many and encompass other areas
than just economics: international security and politics, human rights, aid
and cooperation, cultural exchanges count amongst those. What is clearly
lacking is a coherent and open ranking with relative weights for any
trade-off or compromise solution. This may be due to the fact that competences are fragmented and the EUs bodies and Member States have
their own aims and policies. The EU Commission has exclusive competence over trade matters, but is not always in tune with the EU Council;
the Lisbon Treaty, if and when ratified and implemented, may solve
some problems, at least partially. But national interests are often in conflict, and there is no clearing room for finding a synthesis. Throughout
2004 and 2005 for example, conflicting signals over the arms embargo,
and surcharges on Chinese (and Vietnamese) shoes and clothing, served
to prove this point.
It seems that people working with China frequently have little or no
knowledge of its language or culture. Assignments rotate every few years
and there is no incentive or time to acquire information and knowledge.
Also, to many scholars and experts the solution appears quite simple: the
EU ought to separate human rights and trade, give China the MES, and
take a long-term view about IPR and similar problems (Messerlin and
Wang, 2008, among others). However, it is not evident what the EU
would gain from this compliant policy, given the past history of EUChina relations. The present world crisis is an additional obstacle, because economic nationalism and protectionism are making a come-back
(Dreyer and Erixon, 2008 and Erixon and Sally 2009). A compromise
solution will have to be found, because a breakdown is very unlikely and
contrary to everybodys interests: as major political and economic actors
on the world stage, the EU and China are far too big to engage in long
and costly confrontations.

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Carlo Filippini

References
Berkofsky Axel. 2008. EU-China Relations: Rhetoric versus Reality. ISPI, Milan,
Policy Brief 12/2008.
Dreyer, Iana and Fredrik Erixon. 2008. An EU-China Dialogue: A New Policy
Framework to Contain Deteriorating Trade Relations. ECIPE, Brussels, Policy
Brief 03/3008.
Erixon Fredrik and Razeen Sally. 2009. Fighting the Urge for Protectionism.
Far Eastern Economic Review, January
EEC-China. 1985. Agreement on Trade and Economic Cooperation between the European Economic Community and the Peoples Republic of China. Brussels, OJ L250,
19.09.1985.
EU Comm. 2006. European Commission. Competition and Partnership. Brussels,
24.10.2006, COM(2006)632 final.
EU Comm. 2008. China Country Strategy Paper 2007-2013. Brussels (draft downloaded on Jan 21, 2009).
EUCCC. 2008. European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. Position
Paper 2008-2009. Beijing.
EU Council. 2006. Councils Conclusions on the EU-China Strategic Partnership.
Brussels, 11-12.12.2006, 16291/06.
Frankel, J.A.. 2009. New Estimation of Chinas Exchange Rate Regime. NBER wp
14700.
Holslag, J. 2006. The European Union and China: The Great Disillusion. European Foreign Affairs Review, 555-580.
Innes-Miller, J. 1969. The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire, 29 BC - Ad 641, Oxford, Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press.
Koopman R., Zhi Wang, and Shang-Jin Wei. 2008. How Much of Chinese Exports
is Really Made in China? Assessing Value-Added When Processing Trade is Pervasive.
NBER wp 14109.
Messerlin, P. and Jinghui Wang. 2008. Redesigning the European Unions Trade
Policy strategy towards China. ECIPE-GEM wp 04/2008
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EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 241-258

EU-CHINA FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT:

A DOUBLE-SIDED PERSPECTIVE

Valeria Gattai
Abstract
This chapter analyzes the EU-China Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
relationship, through a double-sided perspective that considers the
two partners in the mutual roles of host and home economies.
Although many have traditionally identified China as a low-cost manufacturing location, the country has recently turned out to be an important home for multinational activity. Since internationalization of
Chinese companies represents a very recent chapter in the countrys
long history, this chapter first provides a brief historical overview to
highlight the main steps along China open up path and clarify the role
of government intervention in accelerating its global engagement.
Based on recent data, the relative importance of China and the EU in
the respective FDI outflows is then examined, so as to delineate the
relevant trends, discuss the main findings and evaluate future perspectives.
Introduction
Many analysts regard Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as a privileged
entry mode into a foreign market.1 The upward trend in FDI that began
in 2004 accelerated further in 2007, at a pace that varied greatly across
1
According to the IMF/OECD definition, FDI is investment in a foreign company where the investor owns at least 10 percent of the ordinary shares, undertaken
with the objective of establishing a lasting interest in the country, a long-term relationship and a significant influence on the management of the firm (IMF 1993; OECD
1996).

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Valeria Gattai

industries and regions (UNCTAD 2008). The sector pattern has been
experiencing a steady shift towards services: while Foreign Direct Investment has significantly increased in the last 30 years in all major sectors,
the shares of primary and manufacturing activities have declined sharply.
The geographical pattern has changed as well, with new countries emerging as significant host and home economies. Inflows into developed
countries reached 1248 billion USD in 2007, with the United States (US)
in a leading position as a recipient, followed by the United Kingdom
(UK), France, Canada and the Netherlands. The European Union (EU)
turned out to be the largest host region, attracting two thirds of total
FDI inflows into industrialized economies (UNCTAD 2008).
As far as developing countries are concerned, FDI inflows reached
their highest level ever in 2007 (550 billion USD), with an increase of
21% over the previous year. Moreover, developing countries started to
gain importance as a source of Foreign Direct Investment, mainly because of overseas expansion by Asian Multinational Enterprises (MNEs).
Even though any observers have traditionally considered Asia as a host
for Foreign Direct Investment, it has recently turned out to be an important home for multinational activity. China, in particular, has consolidated its position as a global investor, challenging the dominance of the
Asian new industrialized economies as the main source of FDI outflows
from the East (UNCTAD 2007).
In December 2004, the Lenovo Group, Chinas largest computer manufacturer, successfully acquired the global PC business of IMB, through a
deal worth 1.25 billion USD. At the same time, the China Minmetal Group
was negotiating a 100% acquisition of the Canadian nickel and copper
mining giant Norand. The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation was
considering injecting up to one billion pound sterling into a joint-venture
partnership with MG Rover, Britains carmaker. In fact, since the early
1980s, China has been able to surprise global observers through a number of record performances, from steady economic growth to FDI attraction, from trade expansion to the emergence of a large and relatively
affluent middle class.
However, the one aspect of Chinas rising power that is most noticed
nowadays, with a mixture of enthusiasm and concern, is the dramatic
growth of its outward FDI, moving from virtually zero in 1978 to the
record stock of 95799 millions USD in 2007 (UNCTAD 2008). With
lower restrictions on outward investment, and an increase in government

EU CHINA FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

243

efforts to promote global expansion, many expect Chinas role as a major

investor to keep on growing in the future (Zhang Y. 2005).
Given these impressive figures, it soon becomes clear that China and
the European Union have become two major players in the global arena,
holding a leading position both as foreign investors and as recipients.
Hence, going beyond any bias, this paper aims at providing a fresh picture of the EU-China FDI relationship, through a double-sided perspective that considers the two partners in the mutual roles of host and home
economies. Is the EU a privileged destination for Chinese investment?
What share of European FDI is oriented to the Chinese market? What
are the sectors involved? What are the key issues and future perspectives?
This chapter aims to answer the previous questions, by means of a
detailed empirical analysis. Based on recent data, the relative importance
of China and the EU in the respective FDI outflows will be described,
highlighting the relevant trends and discuss the main findings. The
double-sided perspective adopted here represents the main novelty of
this analysis, compared to the traditional view of trade and investment
flowing one direction from developed to developing countries. At the
same time, it is obvious that the Chinese global strategy represents a very
recent chapter in the countrys long history.
This is the reason also, why I provide a brief historical overview first,
in order to stress the main steps in Chinas process of opening-up, and
with a view to clarifying the role of government intervention in accelerating its global engagement. After delineating the historical background,
much attention is devoted to the empirical analysis through a number of
detailed statistics on European and Chinese outward FDI. Some concluding remarks then close the paper and suggest future lines of research.
The Historical Setting
Having remained aside from the international arena for a long time,
China has emerged as a global economic power since the 1980s.2 This
has resulted from important economic reforms that accelerated the transition from a planned towards a market system. The so called Open
Door Policy (jingji gaige), promoted by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, initiated
a new era of modernization and growth: fast development, structural
2

[editors note]: see also the chapter by Nicholas Rees in this volume.

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Valeria Gattai

changes and lifestyle improvements have made the country one of the
main Asian players and an important FDI platform. Chinas government
intervention has been a leading ingredient beyond the whole modernization process, and a key force in first attracting, and later promoting Foreign
Direct Investment, as a privileged gateway to capital and technology.
The contribution of the Open Door Policy to inward FDI roughly
falls in two major phases, from 1978 to 1990 and from 1990 to the present.3 The year 1978 proved to be an important threshold-date between
the past, characterized by autarchy, socialism and planned economy, and
the present, made by trade, internationalization and market structure.
Through a gradual approach, the reform launched at first in few Special Economic Zones (SEZs) subsequently extended to coastal regions,
where the SEZs were the theatre of a massive modernization effort,
which subsequently spread from agriculture to manufacturing and from
the army to the political system. In 1979, the Law on Equity Joint-Venture legitimised Inward FDI. It provided the legal base for (partial) foreign ownership of Chinese enterprises. However, one has to wait until
1986 for wholly foreign-owned FDI to be formally accepted. Due to
economic and legislative reforms, Western multinationals started to
target the Chinese market, locating along the coastal regions were conditions to inward investment were more favourable.
Some observers suggest (e.g., Li and Li 1999), that the year 1990 was
a second critical threshold along the Chinese path of opening up. If the
government objective during the 1980s was to modernize and internationalize as many regions as possible, the new goal in the 1990s is to
deepen reforms, adding contents rather than territories. Therefore, incentives to inward FDI were increased and foreign penetration to the Western Chinese provinces was encouraged under the Go West policy. It is
during this phase that outward FDI started to grow and cross-border
acquisitions by Chinese companies captured international attention for
the first time, even if Beijing had been formulating its going out strategy
since the early 1980s, as a critical component of the larger Open Door
Policy (Wu 2005).
The outward internationalization of Chinese enterprises has evolved
in stages, moving from experimental and highly regulated flows during
the 1980s, to rapid spread of overseas affiliates one decade later, and
3

For more details see Li and Li (1999).

EU CHINA FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

245

hyperbolic growth of multinational activity nowadays (Cai 1999; Tseng

1994; Warner et al. 2004). While it was a part of the overall design of a
number of policies to help companies to invest abroad, the main motivations for the Chinese government in supporting multinational expansion
lay in the three categories of access to overseas natural resources, geopolitical positioning and increase of national competitiveness through
advanced technology and business experience (Schuller and Turner
2005).
Broadly speaking, government policy on outward direct investment
can be classified into five stages, corresponding to the years 1979-1983,
1984-1992, 1993-1998, 1999-2002, 2003-present (Zhang K. 2005). It is
possible to characterize the first period (1979-1993) as a process of caseby-case approvals. At this stage, only state-owned trading companies and
municipal-based economic and technological cooperation enterprises
could legitimately invest abroad. The State Council was the only authority to examine and approve outward FDI and there was no regulation
specific on this issue. The second period (1984-1992) saw the standardization of the approval procedures. In particular, the liberalization of
restrictive policies allowed more enterprises, including non state-owned
ones, to establish subsidiaries abroad.
However, one has to wait until 1993-1998 for a stricter screening and
a more rigorous monitoring process, induced by a surge of state asset
losses in Hong Kong real estate and stock markets. As a result, several
new measures helped to regularize FDI outflows. They also ensured that
investors placed Chinese capital abroad properly, i.e. for production
purposes. Many analysts consider the fourth period (1999-2002) as the
starting point for Chinese enterprises to go global, by encouraging overseas projects in processing trade. The government specifically urged
enterprises producing textiles, machinery and electrical equipment to
establish manufacturing subsidiaries abroad, in order to process raw
materials.
To favour international involvement, export tax rebates, foreign
exchange assistance and financial support were granted to Chinese companies using own raw materials or made parts and machineries. Finally,
in the course of the Sixteenth Party Congress of the Chinese Communist
Party (CPP) in 2002, the new leadership advocated the so-called Go
Global strategy (zhou chu qu) to improve overall levels of the opening-up
of the economy. Therefore, during the fifth stage, outward Foreign Di-

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rect Investment received a great boost from government intervention in

creating incentive policy, streamlining administrative procedures, easing
capital controls, providing information and guidance and reducing investment risks.4 Because of its relatively late start, Chinese outward FDI
is still quite small by world standards, but it is accelerating fast. To analyze it in detail, the next section describes the EU-China Foreign Direct
Investment relationship, through recent data and comparative statistics.
Empirical Evidence: FDI from the EU to China
By the end of 2006, total FDI outflows from the European Union
amounted to 260.2 billion EUR, against 157.1 billion EUR of inflows
during the same year (EUROSTAT 2008a). Figure 1 shows the geographical distribution of outward flows to stress the relative importance
of Asia in general, and China in particular, as a destination of European
overseas operations. Based on EUROSTAT (2008a) data, North America received the largest share (40%) in 2006, followed by European
countries not included in the Union (26%), Latin America (15%) and
Asia (11%). Hence, EU multinationals showed a clear tendency to locate
their overseas affiliates in high-income developed countries and to target
transition economies with minor emphasis. Asia as a whole accounted
for a limited 11% of outflows, however almost half of these were oriented towards China that turned out to be the major recipient of the
region.
Figure 2 details the geographical distribution of Foreign Direct Investment from the EU to East Asia, organised by host economy, in the
years 2002-2006. Empirical evidence shows that China was a privileged
host over the whole period, with a peak in 2004. Nowadays, almost 50%
of the accumulated outward stock of FDI in East Asia emerges from
China, along a steep ascending path begun in 2005.

For more details, see Zhang Y. (2005).

EU CHINA FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

Figure 1: EU FDI outflows by destination, 2006

Latin America
15%
North America
40%

Other European
countries
26%
Africa
5%

Oceania
3%

China (incl. HK)

3%

Other Asian
countries
8%

Source: abstracted statistics from: Eurostat (2008a)

Figure 2: EU FDI to East Asia, by country (million EUR), 2002-2006
15500
13500
11500
India
Thailand

9500

Malaysia
Indonesia

7500

Singapore
5500

Philippins
China (incl. HK)

3500

South Korea
Taiw an

1500
-500

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

-2500

Source: abstracted statistics from: Eurostat (2008a)

247

248

Valeria Gattai

A number of purposes can drive the decision to operate in China, from

the huge market dimension to the low cost labour force, from the need
to avoid thigh competition or constrictive laws at home, to the wish to
establish a commercial platform in Asia. According to recent studies on
European FDI in China, market-seeking considerations tend to play the
major role, followed by the low cost labour force. This issue correlates
with the destination of the goods produced in China. In a comparative
study of Swiss, Spanish and Italian operations in China, I have shown
earlier (Gattai 2008) that Swiss firms export most of their production
(87%), Spanish companies mainly attempt to satisfy local demand (57%),
and Italian enterprises are located mid-way between the two extremes,
both producing for the Chinese market (48%) and to export abroad
(52%).
It is clear that market-seeking considerations are crucial for horizontal
FDI, aimed at serving the host market, while asset-seeking motivations
are of major importance in the case of vertical operations, driven by
production efficiency considerations (Markusen and Maskus 2001). If
one analyses the entire sample of European direct investments in China,
one can see that manufacturing activities are represented most significantly (48%), as taking advantage of the low cost labour force; however,
services (37%) are also gaining in importance, because of the countrys
modernization process and technology advance. As many authors suggest (see, among others, Zhang Y. 2005) China is no longer a low cost
manufacturing location or; at least this not the only view of a country
with almost 800 foreign R&D centres dotted all around its territory
Looking at EU Member States, it transpires that their propensity to
invest in China is not homogenous, but it varies greatly across the Union. For instance, UK multinationals showed a strong tendency to operate in China, to make the country the most important home for EU
outward FDI in 2007, followed by Germany, France and Spain (see
Figure 3). Italy, Belgium, Sweden and Luxembourg complemented the
picture of outward direct investment, but their accumulated stock in
2007 appeared less pronounced.
Many studies (e.g., Guopei 1999; Chapel 1998; Luo, 2000; Harris and
Moran 1996) provide documentary evidence of the perception that China
is still perceived as a very complex and distant destination for European
companies, this distance being not only physical, but also psychological,
which makes it extremely hard for foreigners (especially Western) to
work there and achieve success. Market players sometimes feel frustrated
or even indignant about their experiences in China: they take part in

EU CHINA FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

249

lengthy negotiations, they write letters and send catalogues that fail to
evoke responses and they make journeys to and from China, all without
definite results. Following closely my earlier findings (Gattai 2008), I
would re-emphasise that cultural distance, linguistic difficulties, lack of
good infrastructure and the absence of a clear and transparent legal
system are among the main complaints of European investors in China.
This made many of them opt for joint ventures, rather than wholly
owned subsidiaries.
Figure 3: EU outward FDI stock to China, by member state, 2007

France
19,2%

Belgium
4,1%

Luxembourg
0,3%
Sw eden
Italy
1,0%
Spain
4,3%
8,6%

Germany
24,7%

UK
37,7%

Source: abstracted statistics from: Eurostat (2008a)

The reasons to engage in a partnership range from the sharing of risks

and costs to achieving an optimal size, from enhancing skills and competitive position to gaining local support, with the last motivation being
on top of European priorities. Indeed, many observers still consider
finding a partner who is acquainted with the domestic context, able to
negotiate with Chinese suppliers and customers, and skilful in engaging
the local authorities, as a privileged gateway into the country. Among
European MNEs that established wholly owned subsidiaries in China,
the largest majority chose this entry mode in order to achieve strong
control over technology transfer and high flexibility standards in lines

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Valeria Gattai

with the theoretical expectations.5 Especially high tech companies are

very reluctant to invest in developing countries since they do not want to
share intangible assets, such as technology, human capital and reputation,
with a lower skilled partner. Wholly owned subsidiaries seem the most
natural way to avoid this risk, as MNEs simply work alone and they do
not need to consult with a local counterpart on management decisions.
Having described European outward investment to China, this chapter
now turns to what may be termed the opposite side of the story: Chinese
outward investment to the EU.
Empirical Evidence: FDI from China to the EU
By the end of 2007, nearly 7000 Chinese firms have established more
than 10000 overseas subsidiaries, spreading in almost 200 countries
worldwide (MOFCOM 2008). The accumulated outward FDI stock
accounted for 95799 million USD and outflows reached 22469 million
USD. Figure 4 shows the geographical distribution of Chinese FDI
outflows by destination country, in the period 2005-2007. Based on these
data, Asia is attracting the largest share of Chinese overseas operations,
with increasing importance over the years 2005, 2006, 2007. One can
regard Latin America as a leading destination too, but its weight has
decreased over time, while Africa, North America, Oceania and the EU
accounted only for a limited percentage of Chinese FDI, even if their
role as recipients is larger today compared with the 2005 figures.6
Some authors suggest (see, for instance, Kumar 1998), that Chinese
MNEs exhibit a strong investment-concentration on a small number of
destinations. Some of them are high-income and developed countries.
These differ from transition economy multinationals, which target only
similar markets. As far as the European Union is concerned, its percentage of total Chinese FDI outflows in 2007 amounts to nearly 4%, reaching 1044.12 million USD. This amount is unequally distributed across
EU Member States. The UK is the largest recipient, with more than
50%, followed by Germany (23%), the Netherlands (10%) and Sweden
(7%), while Italy, France, Poland, Romania, Spain and Hungary are
among destination countries as well, but they account for very limited
percentages.

5
6

For a survey, see Markusen 1995, Barba Navaretti and Venables 2004, Saggi 2000.
Similar results hold when we look at the accumulated FDI stock.

251

EU CHINA FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

Figure 4: Chinese FDI outflows by destination country (non-financial), 2005-2007

7 0%

6 0%

5 0%

4 0%

2 00 5
2 00 6

3 0%

2 00 7
2 0%

1 0%

0%
A s ia

A f ric a

EU

Oth e r
L a tin
No rth O c e an ia
Eu r op e a n A me ric a A me r ic a
c o un tr ie s

Source: abstracted information from: MOFCOM (2008)

There exists a close relationship between the sector and geographical

distribution of Chinese outward investments: Chinese investors tend to
target Africa and Latin America for their abundance of natural resources,
whereas they are accessing Europe and North America primarily because
of market and asset-seeking considerations (Nicolas and Thomsen 2008).
Chinese firms are motivated to internationalize their operations through
a variety of push and pull factors. It is possible to group these into
four main categories: the security of raw materials and natural resources,
the support for export and access to new markets, the acquisition of
advanced technology, know how and well-known brands, and the establishment of local distribution networks to compensate for overcapacity in
the domestic economy (Wu 2005; Zhang K. 2005; Deng 2007).
While early protagonists of Chinese internationalization were stateowned enterprises, operating in a highly regulated policy environment,
and motivated by the first class of reasons, new actors are now appearing
in the international arena, driven by global ambitions and strategic considerations, rather than hunt for natural resources (Child and Rodrigues

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Valeria Gattai

2005). This is the reason why Nicolas and Thomsen (2008) argue that,
while Chinas Go Global policy is no doubt fuelling outward FDI, it is
mandatory to keep the importance of the state in perspective. Although
some investments are still aiming to secure raw materials, and involve
state-owned enterprises, the drivers for the vast majority of the projects
are now international and domestic competition.
Put another way, Chinese firms are encouraged to go abroad to acquire those skills and technologies that inward flows were not able to
deliver. This is particular evident in the EU, where localization is dictated by purely opportunistic considerations. In fact, Chinese investors
tend to select the sectors for which a given country has a particular
strength; therefore, they invest in machinery in Germany, in automobile
in the UK and in design in Italy, to capture externalities created by host
country intangible asset clusters (UNCTAD 2004).
A number of authors (e.g. Child and Rodrigues 2005; Nolan 2001;
Boisot 2004), argue that the Chinese example is calling for a creative
reconsideration of mainstream theory concerning FDI and international
expansion. While traditional investment patterns, based on Dunnings
OLI paradigm (Dunning 1993), were explained by resource transfer to a
host country (see, for instance, Caves 1996), strategic asset seeking-FDI
is undertaken in order to access intangible resources and gain new capabilities in a host country. This is particularly true for Chinese MNEs
because, as latecomers, they urgently need to engage in Foreign Direct
Investment to address their competitive disadvantages and improve their
global competitiveness. Notice that competitive disadvantages include a
number of critical issues such as regional protectionism, limited access to
capital, lack of developed intellectual property rights, under-provision of
training and education, poor local infrastructure and fragmentation of
regional markets (Child and Rodrigues 2005).
Figure 5 displays the composition of Chinese FDI outflows in 2007,
by economic activity. Based on these data, wholesale and retail sale account for the largest percentage of Chinese overseas operations (25%),
followed by leasing and business services (21%), mining (15%), transport
(15%) and manufacturing (8%). This is not surprising, since China has
still a comparative advantage in terms of production efficiency, by means
of cheap inputs and low labour costs. There is, therefore, a tendency to
perform manufacturing activities domestically, rather than off-shored.

EU CHINA FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

253

Figure 5: Chinese FDI outflows by economic activity (non-financial), 2007

o th er
8%
le as in g &
bu s in es s se rvic es
2 1%

a gri cu lt ure ,
fo res try , fis he ry
1%
m in in g
15 %
ma n ufac tu ry
8%

tra ns p ort
1 5%

fi na nc e
6%
wh ol es a le & re ta il
2 6%

Source: abstracted information from: MOFCOM (2008)

In line with the previous discussion, it is possible to offer a rough taxonomy of Chinese internationalization strategies, based on their asset-seeking motivations. While developed countries multinationals are primarily
interested in protecting their intangible resources when expanding abroad,
Chinese MNEs try to access those resources, and they select their entry
modes accordingly. As a result, they operate abroad mainly through
acquisitions of foreign enterprises with certain characteristics. Following
closely the arguments of Schuller and Turner (2005), Chinese acquirers
tend to select overseas companies because of their distribution network,
brand name and technology. Ailing or financially distressed firms, competitive niche producers, former partners or contractors are among the
number one targets: indeed Chinese firms contribute financial strength,
but they lack technical expertise, whereas European firms have financial
difficulties, but they are able to supply know how. Hence, a perfect
matching results when they decide to partner. Although acquisition of an
existing facility is the most common entry mode in Europe, some Chinese multinationals have built new plants from scratch, under a greenfield investment scheme. This often consists of the establishment of
headquarters, subsidiaries, trade representative offices, trading companies

254

Valeria Gattai

and R&D centres, in order to facilitate Chinese access to the European

market and to help with the customization of products to meet local
consumers needs (Deng 2007).
Before concluding this analysis, it is worth mentioning that China is
as large as a whole continent. This makes it challenging to explore its
global involvement at the provincial level. Such an analysis would help to
evaluate whether internationalization is a widespread phenomenon, or
confined to a limited number of regions. As can be seen from Figure 6,
Guangdong is the most important home for FDI outflows in 2007
(18%), followed by Shenzen (15%), Shanghai (8%), Jiangsu (8%) and
Zheijiang (6%). In fact, the promotion of Foreign Direct Investment is
not equal throughout the country; rather, it shows clusters in a few
coastal regions, which are also the main recipients of FDI inflows.
Figure 6: Chinese FDI outflows by province (non-financial), 2007

Other
28%

Shanghai
8%

Jiangsu
8%
Zhejiang
6%
Fujian
6%
Xiam en
3%

Sichuan
5%
Shenzhen
15%

Guangdong
18%

Source: abstracted information from: MOFCOM (2008)

Shandong
3%

EU CHINA FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

255

Conclusion
This chapter has provided a brief overview of the FDI dimension of the
EU-China relationship. It has done so by means of a double-sided perspective, since both regions are now acting as both investor and investment recipient on the worlds stage. This reflects the new view of the
Peoples Republic of China becoming a major source of multinational
activity rather than a magnet (Deng 2007; Schuller and Turner 2005).
European observers frequently greet this idea with a mixture of enthusiasm and concern. What then, is the relative importance of China for EU
outward investment? What share of Chinese FDI is oriented to Europe?
Based on the empirical evidence reviewed in this chapter, two distinct
results are worth mentioning: firstly, EU-China Foreign Direct Investment is still a limited phenomenon, both in terms of flows and stocks;
secondly, it involves a growing number of firms, therefore it is likely to
raise some questions about the impact of cross-countries operations on
the domestic market. While the influence of Foreign Direct Investment
on Chinas growth has been widely documented in the past (e.g., Guopei
1999), it has been the particular concern of this study, to explore the
other side of the story; that is to say, the effect if any of Chinese
operations in Europe.
For the time being, Chinese investment in EU has had but little impact. This, however, continues to depend on a number of specific reasons, none of which is set in stone. Firstly, Chinese investment represents a small share of total inward FDI into the EU. Most of it arrived
only recently; secondly, many acquisitions have not yet succeeded in
restoring ailing European firms to health; thirdly, investment is seldom
targeted towards labour-intensive sectors in which the impacts of unemployment could be anticipated; and fourthly, European firms have already transferred a large share of production to China.
The author believes that a number of these issues deserve more attention in the future, as they provide precious clues for future discussion.
Schuller and Turner (2005) point out that acquisitions of Western companies by Chinese multinationals and green-field-operations have frequently resulted in unsuccessful stories, casting doubt on the effective
sustainability of what may be termed the dragons surge. Failures in
acquisitions, in turn, often depend on overly optimistic market expectations and synergy estimations, poor merger integration and excessive
pricing in competitive tender offers (Copeland et al. 2000). These prob-

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Valeria Gattai

lems stand for domestic as well as for foreign operations, but it is likely
that the international scenario exacerbates the relationship between the
acquired and the acquiring firms.
While there is a considerable amount of literature that emphasizes the
difficulties encountered by Western multinationals in China7, cultural
distance and different negotiation styles can also affect Chinese crossborder mergers. Another common fear, among European firms, relates
to the bad reputation of Chinas state-owned enterprises. These still
represent a significant share of overseas investors. Indeed, Chinese participating affiliates appear to be afraid of being tainted by poor management practices, low productivity and a lack of transparency from their
parent companies. Adding to this, in some sectors, Chinese investors
represent a competitive threat to European firms, especially as they become more adept at managing brands and at meeting local tastes.
Finally, Chinas hunt for natural resources raises the alarm of national
economic security in some of the countries being targeted (Zhang K.
2005), once environmental degradation and sustainable development
have become urgent issues in the political agenda. A number of analysts
point out (e.g., Zhang Y. 2005), that political and social turmoil, high
public debt and social inequality are among the most serious drawbacks
of Chinas multifaceted story, adding to the astounding economic
growth.
Having described some potential risks of Chinese FDI for European
firms, I would conclude by pointing to some benefits eventually implied
by Chinas Go Global attitude. As Nicolas and Thomsen (2008) suggest, Chinese operations may contribute to industrial resurgence, through
acquisition of some ailing local firms, and they are likely to provide
direct access to Asian markets by exploiting established links with overseas multi-national enterprises. Moreover, it is noticeable that many fears
about the so-called dragons surge relate to a limited awareness of Chinese outward investment, since it is a relatively new phenomenon. There
is still a considerable lack of in-depth research in this area.
While this chapter represents a first attempt at critically examining
EU-China investment relations, I believe that further research is needed,
based on firm-level data, in order to delineate a neater picture, and with
a view to evaluating some future perspectives in detail. The way in which
7

See the empirical section about FDI from the EU to China.

EU CHINA FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

257

Chinese firms adjust to, and learn from, global markets will not only
affect the economic future of the Peoples Republic of China, but may
influence its relations with other regions of the world first among them
the European Union.

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Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.
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2007. World Investment Report. Geneva at www.unctad.org
2004. World Investment Report. Geneva at www.unctad.org
Warner, Malcom, Sek H. Ng and Xiaojun Xu. 2004. Late Development Experience and the Evolution of Transnational Firms in the Peoples Republic of
China in Asia Pacific Business Review 10: 324.345.
Wu, Friedrich. 2005. The Globalization of Corporate China in NBR Analysis
16(3).
Zhang, Yongjin. 2005. China Goes Global. London: The Foreign Policy Centre.
Zhang, Kenny. 2005. The Why, Where and How of Chinese Companies Outward Investment Intentions in Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada 5.

EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 259-273

CHINAS SEARCH FOR ENERGY SECURITY

AND EU-CHINA RELATIONS

Pradeep Taneja

Abstract
This chapter focuses on Chinas search for energy security, especially
in the oil and gas sector, and on the impact of this search on Chinas
relations with the European Union (EU). It places the Chinese energy
security strategy within the context of the countrys economic reform
program by examining the political dynamics behind developments in
the energy sector. The study outlines some key initiatives China has
taken to ensure regular and cost-effective oil and gas supplies. It
surveys Chinas energy security policy and the institutional structure
which supports it. Chinas search for energy security has led the PRC
to develop closer political and military ties with a number of countries in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia; Chinese state-owned
oil and gas companies have invested billions of dollars in the development of energy assets there. These efforts have been backed up by
Chinese civilian and military aid flows to some strife-torn countries in
Africa. This is seen by many European politicians and EU officials as
undermining their efforts to improve quality of governance and
respect for human rights in those countries. This chapter examines
the differences between the European Union and China over the
situation in the Darfur region of Sudan, a country in which China has
made significant investments in nearly all aspects of the oil industry.

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Pradeep Taneja

Introduction
Since the beginning of Chinas economic reform program in 1978, the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has pursued three basic goals: national
unity, economic prosperity and social and political stability. With the
return of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 and
1999 respectively, the first goal has been partially met, although it will
not be considered to have been fully achieved until Taiwan is reunited
with the mainland. The second goal has also been partially achieved as
reformist policies have delivered an average annual rate of 9 per cent
economic growth over the past 30 years, catapulting China into the
league of leading economies of the world. On the third goal, a precarious
balance has been maintained, especially since the events of Tiananmen
Square in May-June 1989, in the form of an unwritten social compact
between the government and the Chinese people, ensuring social stability
in return for continuing improvements in living standards.
Indeed, the three goals are interrelated, although maintaining social
and political stability is regarded by the CCP leadership to be paramount.
Chinas leaders regard an annual increase of eight per cent in Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) as essential for keeping employment up and
the possibility of social and political unrest down.1 The ongoing global
financial crisis prompted the Chinese government, in November 2008, to
unveil a massive stimulus package of nearly US$600 billion to ensure
GDP growth stays above 8 per cent. As an additional measure to stimulate the domestic economy, in his report to the National Peoples Congress (NPC) in March 2009, Premier Wen Jiabao projected a fiscal deficit
of 950 billion yuan (US$139 billion) for 2009, the highest deficit in six
decades. At the same time, he also committed to improving the early
warning system for social stability to actively prevent and properly handle all types of mass incidents, using the official code for protests and
riots that might threaten the stability of the regime.2
It is, therefore, clear that maintaining a high GDP growth trajectory is
crucial to preserving social and political stability in China. One of the
critical factors behind Chinas enviable record of economic growth over
1
See, for example, Drew Thompson, Beijings GDP numerology. Online at:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4747 (consulted 01.06.2009).
2
Premier Wen Jiabao: Chinas economic challenges. Online at: http://www.
businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/eyeonasia/archives/2009/03/premier_wen_jia.htm
l (consulted 03.06.2009).

CHINAS SEARCH FOR ENERGY SECURITY

261

the past three decades has been its relatively easy access to global energy
and mineral resources. China is now focused on developing a comprehensive energy policy that will underpin its future economic growth.
Given the importance of energy to Chinas future economic growth
and political stability, this chapter focuses on Chinas search for energy
security, especially in the oil and gas sector, and its implications for its
relations with the European Union. It begins by describing Chinas energy policy within the context of its domestic economic reform program
before outlining some of the key global initiatives China has undertaken
to ensure regular and cost-effective supplies of oil and gas to fuel the
continuation of its economic boom. The chapter then looks at areas of
concern insofar as the impact of these initiatives on Chinas relations
with the European Union is concerned. It concludes by highlighting the
potential for cooperation between the two sides in areas where they share
common interests and goals, such as clean coal and alternative sources of
energy to deal with the impact of climate change.
Energy Security: Background
Chinas rapid economic growth over the past three decades has led to a
sharp increase in energy consumption, especially coal, oil and gas. It is
already the worlds second largest oil consumer after the United States,
accounting for over 10 per cent of the worlds total oil consumption. In
2008, China crossed an important energy milestone as its oil imports
equalled domestic production for the first time, making it the third largest importer of oil, relying on imports for fifty per cent of its domestic
demand of 7.6 million barrels per day3. However, unlike other major oil
importing countries, China is not a member of the International Energy
Agency (IEA), set up after the oil shocks of the 1970s to help developed
countries manage oil supplies.4 It largely relies on its own efforts to
secure and manage oil supplies to meet its current and future energy
needs, although it has also begun to work with other countries to promote energy cooperation, as will be discussed later in this chapter.
3

China oil dependence sparks concern, Radio Free Europe, 5 January 2009.
The United States and some other Western countries now believe that it would
be helpful if China joined the IEA. In May 2008, Daniel Sullivan, the then US Assistant Secretary of State, said in Beijing: China should consider a declaration that it
plans to pursue membership in the IEA. This could help ameliorate the anxiety expressed in some quarters over its intentions as it pursues greater energy security (Shai
Oster 2008).
4

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Pradeep Taneja

Ever since China became a net importer of oil in 1993, the countrys
leadership has intensified its efforts to ensure that its continued economic growth will not be short-circuited by energy shortages. In addition
to inviting foreign oil companies to invest in oil and gas exploration on
Chinese territory beginning in the early 1980s, the Chinese government
has also encouraged its state-owned oil and gas companies to look for
and acquire valuable oil and gas assets in other parts of the world as part
of its go out policy. As Daniel Yergin (2005) points out, China is participating in partnerships, acquiring oil reserves, contracting for future
supplies of liquefied natural gas, selling oil field services, developing
projects around the world, and buying lots of oil.
Before discussing Chinas international efforts to achieve energy
security, however, it would be useful to discuss the domestic political
context in which the countrys reform and energy security policies are
formulated. While international politics has always been at the centre of
the global energy security debate, often little attention is paid to the
internal political dynamics in individual countries in relation to their
energy policies5. Doing so in this case would allow us to visualise the
domestic context in which China seeks to secure energy supplies for its
future economic development. While the Chinese state has retreated
from some sectors of the economy, its policy of grasping the large,
letting go of the small means that it continues to maintain a firm grip on
a number of important industrial sectors, including the oil and gas industry, despite many institutional changes over the past thirty years. The
management and control of the energy sector has been the subject of
intense discussion both in official channels as well as in the growing
number of semi-official publications and internet discussion forums in
China.
Economic Reform and Energy Policy
To understand Chinas energy security initiatives it is necessary to first
examine the political dynamics behind Chinas economic reform program. As has been noted by Peter Nolan (2001), Chinas effort to support the growth of national team of large firms, which are globally
competitive was against the prevailing global trend of liberalization and
privatization. By contrast, the neoclassical economic orthodoxy which
5

See also the chapters by Keyuan Zou and Christopher Williams in this volume.

CHINAS SEARCH FOR ENERGY SECURITY

263

guided the industrial reform in Russia and other former Soviet-bloc

countries emphasised the role of small- and medium-sized enterprises
and downplayed that of larger firms. It also had a highly idealised view
of the workings of advanced capitalism and an ardent faith in the corrective mechanisms of the market.
Chinas gradualist approach to economic reform, encapsulated in the
saying mozhe shitou guohe or crossing the river by feeling the stones, represented a break from the old-style central planning but without totally
abandoning it at once. It also represented an evolving political consensus
within the CCP in favour of market-oriented economic reform. In contrast to Eastern Europe, industrial policy in China has drawn from nonmainstream economic theory and considerations of national pride and
power (Nolan 2001: 5). A look at the institutional structure of Chinas
oil and gas industry and the incentives for individual bureaucrats and
managers also provides meaningful insights into Chinas current political
and economic system. As Philip Andrews-Speed (2004: 364) has argued,
the major political questions relevant to the energy sector concern the
role of the Communist Party and the authority of the central government.
In fact, the two issues are interconnected. In spite of the perceived
decline in the legitimacy and controlling power of the Party, the CCP
remains a strong institution. Its membership has grown steadily over the
past decade and now numbers around 73 million as many private entrepreneurs and corporate leaders are welcomed into the Party. According
to some estimates, less than hundred of the one thousand richest people
in China are not linked to the CCP (Lee 2009). It must be acknowledged,
however, that economic decentralisation has resulted in some decline in
the ability of the Party and the central government to control events at
local and enterprise level. But petroleum companies are major enterprises
and the majority of their leaders are senior party members who must
follow the guidance of the Party leadership if they are to survive within
the system. The Chinese government is the controlling shareholder in all
the major oil and gas companies in China even though most are now
listed companies.
However, with the exception of a short-lived and ineffective Ministry
of Energy that existed between 1988 and 1993, China has not had a
significant and powerful coordinating agency charged with oversight of
the oil and gas industry, although several ministries and other govern-

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Pradeep Taneja

ment agencies have overarching authority across the industry. These

agencies include the National Development and Reform Commission
(NDRC), Ministry of Commerce, State Asset Supervisory and Administration Commission, and the State Environmental Protection Administration. In March 2003, an Energy Bureau was set up by bringing together
the energy components of a number of departments within the NDRC,
except the pricing department. But the bureau had fewer than one hundred employees nowhere near enough to provide coordinated policy
certainty to the sector. In 1988, when the now-defunct ministry of energy
was created, the Ministry of Petroleum was abolished and its assets were
divided between two newly-created companies: China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the China National Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) with responsibilities for upstream and downstream
activities respectively. Together with a third company - the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) - these companies control
the bulk of Chinas oil and gas assets at home and abroad.
Because of the dominance of large companies, the petroleum industry
remains highly centralised; at least in comparison with the coal industry
where close to 50 per cent of the output comes from locally-controlled
coal mines. In spite of this, the Party and central government sometimes
find it difficult to exercise adequate control and supervision over these
companies or to hold them accountable for their actions. While these
companies are responsive to the central governments requirements for
energy security, as publicly-listed companies on Chinese and foreign
stock markets, they are also accountable to their other shareholders. This
often presents serious dilemma for the managers of these companies.6
The much-publicised but ultimately failed attempt by CNOOC to
take over California-based Unocal in 2005 highlights some of the political complexities inherent in the current system. As a public listed company, the CNOOC board consisted of eight directors, including four
foreigners who sat on the board as non-executive members. However,
the board members were apparently not even informed about the plan by
the companys chief executive officer, Fu Chengyu, until the negotiations
were already well underway with Unocal management. The four foreign
directors of the company found this unacceptable and refused to support
6
The real issue here is the ability of the Party and central government to adapt to a
changing economic environment, which brings forth new types of market participants
and creates the need for new modes of corporate governance.

CHINAS SEARCH FOR ENERGY SECURITY

265

the plan until the details of the plan were professionally examined
(Powell 2005). What is unknown here is the role, if any, played by the
senior leaders of the central government and the CCP in this audacious
bid by CNOOC to takeover Americas 9th largest oil company at the
time. Was it a purely corporate decision by the companys chief executive
or was he instructed by the Party and government leaders to pursue this
option? It is very difficult to determine the facts in this matter. In answering a question about the role of the Chinese government in his bid
to takeover Unocal, Fu Chengyu later claimed:
The only thing we needed permission from the Central Government was to
take such a sizeable amount of money out of the country. Thats all. We
received that permission from the appropriate financial authorities, and
thats been the extent of government involvement. (Time Asia 2005)

However, given the level of secrecy maintained by Fu before revealing

the plan to his companys board, it seems likely that the plan must have
been at least discussed at the highest level of government and Party
hierarchy. The code used for the acquisition plan operation treasure
ship is also revealing of its importance for restoring Chinas national
pride. Treasure Ship (baochuan) was the name of the flagships used by
the Ming Dynasty seafarer Zheng He who led seven massive fleets to the
Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433. The
acquisition of a major American company by a Chinese firm would have
symbolised Chinas arrival as a major power in the world economy.
One of the potential obstacles to Chinas realisation of the three basic
goals discussed at the beginning of this chapter is energy. Severe electricity shortages since 2002 and soaring oil prices and demand have highlighted the ineffectiveness of Chinas dysfunctional energy bureaucracy.
As a result, the State Council, Chinas cabinet, has appointed a new
energy coordination taskforce under the leadership of Premier Wen
Jiabao. It has also established an Office of Energy which will report
directly to the taskforce.
The creation of the new Office of Energy under the State Council can
be explained as an attempt to halt the breakdown of hierarchies7 in the
face of soaring demand for energy and highly volatile oil prices. This
move is not dissimilar to the creation by the Party of the Central Financial Work Commission (CFWC) in the aftermath of the Asian Financial
7

This concept is developed by Steven L Solnick (1996).

266

Pradeep Taneja

Crisis in 1997. As argued by Heilmann (2005), the purpose of this commission was also to prevent the breakdown of hierarchies and to reassert
central policy decisiveness in financial affairs.
The CCP leadership has shown time and again that the Leninist
means of control, in particular its nomenclatural system, provides the
basis for upholding a precarious balance between economic decentralisation and political coherence. As Heilmann (2005) has demonstrated,
under the Zhu Rongji government, Party supervision in the financial
industry was exercised mainly through appointment, performance appraisal and discipline inspection of company cadres. It is not uncommon in China today for officials to move between corporate and bureaucratic positions at the behest of the Party leadership. A case in point is
the appointment of Ma Fucai as a deputy head of the Energy Office. Ma
was General Manager of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)
when 243 people died in an oil well explosion in Chongqing in December 2003. He later took moral responsibility for the accident and resigned
from the position. His appointment to the Energy Office post signalled
his return to public office after having spent some time in political and
corporate wilderness. The Partys right to appoint, transfer or sack senior
corporate executives of state-owned firms, means that it is able to control their corporate and political behaviour to a large extent. In another
example, Chen Tonghai, the head of Sinopec, the largest oil refining
company in Asia, resigned from his position in June 2007 for what was
then described as personal reasons. But it was later revealed that he was
removed because of corruption and decadent behaviour.8 He was also
expelled from the Party. His replacement was an executive of
PetroChina, a subsidiary of CNPC, another state-owned oil company.
Energy Security: International Initiatives
Ever since it began its economic reform program, the Chinese government has made concerted efforts to ensure its economic growth prospects are not curtailed by a lack of energy resources or interruptions to
energy supplies. It has taken a number of steps in this direction, including supply diversification, the build-up of a strategic oil reserve, more
efficient fuel use, maximizing domestic oil and gas production and sub-

Chinese Business leader corrupt, BBC News, 25 January 2008.

CHINAS SEARCH FOR ENERGY SECURITY

267

stitution. It has also begun working with other countries both producers and consumers of oil and gas to promote energy cooperation.
As a sign of its willingness to cooperate with other countries and to
allay fears about the negative implications of its global energy investments, China has established regular dialogue mechanisms with both the
European Union and the United States on energy-related issues. In June
2004, it hosted a meeting of the twenty-two member Asia Cooperation
Dialogue (ACD) which focused on energy cooperation. This meeting
issued a framework agreement on energy cooperation in Asia. Known as
the Qingdao Initiative, this document was aimed at developing long-term
policies to promote energy security in the wider Asian region (Hu 2004).
Speaking at the Qingdao ministerial meeting, Premier Wen Jiabao said
that the Chinese government stands for accommodating the interests of
others while safeguarding a countrys own interests (Hu 2004).
Not surprisingly, protecting Chinas own energy interests has been at
the forefront of Chinas new energy security strategy. The most important plank of this strategy has been the acquisition of offshore energy
assets in different parts of the world. Chinese oil companies have been
willing to pay premium prices for oil and gas assets in jurisdictions where
many multinational oil companies are reluctant to go because of higher
levels of economic and political risks or because these countries are
listed as rogue states by the United States. Major Chinese oil companies
such as CNPC frequently outbid foreign oil companies, some of them
from other energy-hungry developing nations like India, in acquiring
minority or controlling stakes in overseas oil and gas projects (Rashid
and Saywell 1998).
Oil and gas security considerations have led China to reach out to
countries in Africa, the Middle East, South America as well as its neighbour Russia and the Central Asian states, some of whom have rich oil
and gas reserves. With an eye on their energy resources, China has developed closer political and military ties with a number of these countries.
Chinese state-owned oil and gas companies have invested tens of billions
of dollars in the development of energy assets in these countries. The
first shipments of crude oil from Chinese-owned oil fields located
abroad arrived in China from Kazakhstan and Peru in late 1997, marking
the beginning of this new energy strategy in Beijing (Rashid and Saywell
1998). This strategy entails locking in energy supplies by buying drilling
rights and oil fields or signing loans-for-oil deals with governments

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across the world and shipping the crude back home to meet rising domestic demand.
When crude oil price reached a record level of US$147 a barrel in
July 2008 before falling to a low of US$33 a barrel in February 2009,
Chinese oil companies escalated their acquisition of foreign oil fields and
drilling rights with the help of Chinese state-owned banks. As many oilrich countries lack financial resources to develop new oil fields or other
related infrastructure, China has been offering loans on favourable terms
to these governments or government-owned companies in return for oil
on long-term contracts. Between February and May 2009, China committed more than US$50 billion in loans-for-oil agreements with Russia,
Kazakhstan, Venezuela and Brazil (Richardson 2009).
The Chinese strategy of owning oil fields and forging strategic relationships with oil-producing countries seeks to bypass the world market
as much as possible, which many developed countries want to strengthen
and better regulate. In 2006, the former Australian Treasurer, Peter
Costello, told a gathering of G-20 finance ministers in Melbourne, I
believe that true energy security is not possible without effective energy
markets, strong regional cooperation, and sound policy and regulatory
frameworks (Uren 2006). He added that his vision was the creation of
an energy freeway linking energy suppliers and consumers across the
Asia-Pacific region for the benefit of all. This is a view shared by a
number of oil industry experts and scholars in the West who believe that
Chinas strategy is unlikely to succeed. Citing the experience of France in
the 1980s with Iran, Amy Myers Jaffe (quoted in Uren 2006) warns that
Hard lessons have been learnt in the West about the ineffectiveness of
strategic bilateral relationships with key oil exporting countries to safeguard energy supply. Even some Chinese experts warn that the potential
political and economic risks of overseas investments need to be carefully
assessed (He and Qin 2006: 102). Others argue that International Oil
Companies (IOC) such as Shell or Exxon offer better technology and
more experience to resource-owning countries than national oil companies from China. In a speech to an oil industry meeting in Paris in April
2005, Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer argued that there are advantages
for resource holders in working with IOCs.9 Whereas national oil com9
Jeroen van der Veer, What is the international oil company of the future going to
look like? Online at: http://www-static.shell.com/static/media/downloads/speeches/
jvdv_oilsummb.pdf.

CHINAS SEARCH FOR ENERGY SECURITY

269

panies such as CNPC or SINOPEC will be driven by the interests of

their government and that can make relationships with other governments more complicated, our agenda, he argued, is simply to deliver by
running our business more efficiently and keeping costs under control. It
is perhaps too early to judge the success or failure of the Chinese strategy
as Chinese oil companies remain undeterred by the criticisms of their
foreign business rivals or other experts.
Chinese investments in oil-rich countries are also supported by considerable increases in Chinese civilian and military aid flows to these
countries, although exact figures on Chinese foreign aid and military
assistance are hard to come by. Chinas commerce ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission have published a list of
countries and resources, and Chinese companies which invest in them
are eligible for state subsidies (Zweig and Bi 2005: 27). One of the biggest destinations for Chinese overseas investments in the energy sector is
Sudan, Africas largest country and ranked as the second most politically
unstable country in the world by the Failed States Index in 2008.10
Chinas CNPC owns the largest share (40 per cent) in the Greater Nile
Petroleum Operating Corporation (GNPOC) a consortium that dominates Sudans oil fields in partnership with national oil companies from
Malaysia and India. The consortiums Heglig and Unity oil fields were
producing 350,000 barrels of oil per day in 2004 (Goodman 2004). In
addition to its investment in GNPOC, CNPC separately owns most of
an oil field in the Darfur region. Chinese oil companies have also built
oil pipelines, storage facilities and a major oil refinery in Sudan. In short,
China is heavily involved in the production, storage and transportation
of oil in Sudan. The Chinese share of the oil produced in Sudan is
shipped back to China via the Red Sea. In addition to Sudan, Chinese oil
companies are involved in oil exploration and production in a number of
other African countries. Investment relations are fortified with diplomatic visits at the highest level. Chinas foreign minister traditionally
starts the year with a tour of Africa to underscore the strong relationship
with the continents major energy suppliers.

10
The Failed States Index is published jointly by the Fund for Peace and the Foreign
Policy magazine. Online at: http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/

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Pradeep Taneja

Implications for EU-China Relations

Regardless of the political and economic risks to China of investing in
unstable and dangerous environments, the Chinese strategy of locking in
oil and gas supplies across the world has raised some serious concerns in
Europe. These concerns centre less on Chinas reasons for aggressively
pursuing this strategy and more on where Chinese oil companies make
these investments (Jakobson and Zha 2006: 65). Sudan has been subject
to American and European sanctions for many years now because of the
alleged atrocities committed on the African people of the Darfur region
by its military and the Arab Janjaweed militia supported by the government. It is said that the crisis in Darfur has already killed more than
200,000 people and displaced more than 2.4 million.11 A number of
European non-governmental organizations have campaigned for years to
pressure European and other foreign governments to move decisively
against the government of Sudan to put an end to these atrocities. But
the combined pressure from the EU and the United States has so far
failed to persuade the Sudanese government to respond convincingly to
these demands.
It has long been believed that China, as Sudans most important
investment and trading partner and supplier of military equipment, has
the necessary influence with the Sudanese government to stop these
atrocities but chooses not to use it. Chinas usual approach in dealing
with such issues is to claim that it pursues a policy of non-interference
in the internal affairs of other countries. However, in the lead up to the
Beijing Olympics, and facing the threat of a boycott of the games by
some countries, China appointed a special envoy to Darfur, Liu Guijin,
and took a number of other steps to allay the concerns of European and
other foreign governments and human rights groups. It also became
more active in trying to persuade the Khartoum regime to support the
international community in dealing with the Darfur crisis. During a visit
to Sudan in February 2007, President Hu Jintao is believed to have pressured Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to pursue a peace
settlement. He also urged President Bashir to cooperate with the United
Nations. Sudan subsequently agreed to allow a joint African UnionUnited Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur. China also agreed to provide 315 peacekeepers for Darfur in addition to the 800 it had already
11

Aegis Fund4Darfur. See: http://www.fund4darfur.org/darfur.html

CHINAS SEARCH FOR ENERGY SECURITY

271

sent to Southern Sudan (Grant and Barysch 2008: 87). In the end, a lack
of cooperation from the Khartoum regime meant that most of the peacekeeping force had failed to deploy. In the meantime, despite early fears
that some foreign leaders might stay away from the opening ceremony of
the Beijing Olympics, the ceremony and the games passed off smoothly
and were judged to be a great success for the Chinese organizers. The
pressure had been lifted from the shoulders of Chinas leaders.
Chinas search for energy security and its investments in Africa, particularly in Sudan, have added to the already long list of differences
between the European Union and China. Although the Commission has
adopted a softer and more diplomatic approach in dealing with these
differences, the European Parliament (EP) has been much more strident
in its criticism of China criticism which is strongly rejected by the
Chinese. It passed a resolution in April 2008 expressing concern about
Chinas growing influence in Africa at a time when European influence
was declining. The Chinese government called such criticism irresponsible and totally unfounded, telling the European Parliament to stop its
confrontationist and provocative activities.12 A month earlier, the EP
had decided to disinvest in PetroChina/CNPC in protest against Chinese
support for the Sudanese government (Sengupta 2008). This followed
revelations that its members pension funds continued to be invested in
the Chinese company. In 2007, its Sakharov Prize was awarded to Salih
Mahmoud Osman, a leading human rights activist from Darfur, who has
been very critical of Chinas role in Sudan. In December 2008, Osman
accused China of undermining the lives of millions of people of Darfur
for a long time by siding with the Sudanese government and through
aerial bombardments caused by Chinese helicopter gunships.13
In an article published in a Chinese newspaper, the EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana (2007),
stressed that the EU and China have a common responsibility and interest in dealing with the challenges of poverty, instability and war in Africa. Pointing to the agreement reached at the Helsinki EU-China summit in 2006 to establish a senior official level dialogue on Africa, Solana
12
Europe comment on Sino-African ties rebuffed. Online at: http://www.
chinadaily.net/china/2008-04/24/content_6642341.htm.
13
China deaf and blind to human rights in Darfur Osman. Online at:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/story_page/015-44395-350-12-51-90220081212STO44317-2008-15-12-2008/default_en.htm.

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called for better and more exchanges of information so that our efforts
do not cut across each other as they sometimes have in the past (Solana
2007). Citing a long list of areas in which the EU is actively engaged in
promoting cooperation with African countries, including good governance, fight against AIDS and regional integration, Solana said that there
is positive correlation between EU and Chinese strategies in Africa.
While the tone of this article was clearly upbeat, the underlying message
seemed to be that the EU has spent a long time trying to persuade African governments to comply with certain governance benchmarks and
does do not wish China to undermine European long-term efforts.
Conclusion
Chinas arrival on the world stage as a major player has forced other
major powers to rethink their own strategies in dealing with international
issues of critical importance to their citizens. Its ambitious energy security agenda and its push into Africa have obliged the EU to come up
with creative ways to engage with this rapidly growing power. While the
EU may feel that Chinas so-called win-win approach in Africa might be
undermining EU efforts to improve governance standards on the continent, African governments seem happy to deal with China, albeit not
without driving hard bargains. As Bernt Berger recently pointed out,
China has increasingly regarded Africa as an opportunity, while Europe
has long regarded the continent as a burden.14 The EU will now have to
learn to work with China (and other emerging powers) in seeking the
opportunities in Africa.
As China continues its search for energy security, it will also have to
work with other countries in dealing with the huge challenge of climate
change and environmental degradation. The problems are likely to be
more severe for China and could seriously hamper its efforts to improve
living standards. But a joint and cooperative approach is more likely to
bring about better outcomes for all. It is heartening to see that the EU
and China have already taken the first steps on this long journey. At each
of the past several EU-China summits a plethora of agreements have
been signed to promote bilateral cooperation in areas relevant to energy
conservation, clean energy and scientific and technological collaboration.

14
China outwits the EU in Africa. Online at: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/
China/IL13Ad01.html.

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China. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.
Goodman, Peter S. 2004. China Invests Heavily in Sudans Oil Industry in
Washington Post (23 December 2004).
Grant, Charles and Katinka Barysch. 2008. Can Europe and China Shape a New
World Order? London: Centre for European Reform.
He, Fan and Donghai Qin. 2006. Chinas Energy Strategy in the Twenty-First
Century in China and World Economy 14(2): 93-104.
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1-21.
Hu, Qihua. 2004. ACD Nations Issue Energy Strategy in China Daily (22 June
2004).
Jakobson, Linda and Daojiong Zha. 2006. China and the Worldwide Search for
Oil Security in Asia-Pacific Review 13(2): 60-73.
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2009).
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Policy and the Big Business Revolution. Houndmills and New York, N.Y.:
Palgrave.
Oster, Shai. 2008. US Wants to Get China to Come Inside the International
Energy Tent in The Australian (22 May 2008).
Powell, Bill. 2005. Uncharted Waters in Time Asia (11 July 2005).
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Japan Times (29 May 2009).
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and China: A Neoinstitutional Perspective in World Politics 48(2): 209-238.
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Affairs 84(5): 25-38.

EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 275-289

RECENT CHINESE PRACTICE IN THE MAINTENANCE

OF MARITIME SECURITY
AND THE EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE
Zou Keyuan
Abstract
On an international scale, maritime security is a highly relevant, hot,
issue which frequently attracts the attention of the world community.
China is a big coastal and shipping country; maritime security is,
therefore, critical to its economic growth, national security and international responsibilities. This chapter surveys and assesses recent
developments in regard to Chinas practice in this area, including
Chinas recent maritime legislation, its supportive actions for the East
China Sea, South China Sea and the Malacca Straits, and its response
to the global actions of maritime security, particularly in connection
with the fight against terrorism and sea piracy under the framework
of the United Nations. Some comparisons between the EU and China
will be made throughout the chapter.
Introduction
China as a big coastal and shipping country; maritime security is, therefore, critical to its economic growth, national security and international
responsibility. It has long coastlines and borders on the Yellow Sea, the
East China Sea and the South China Sea, where there are abundant natural resources and various shipping routes. On the one hand, and in terms
of its shipping capacity, China ranked fourth in the shipping world by
the end of 2007.
By July 2008, China had ranked first in the port cargo and in the container throughput sections for five consecutive years. On the other hand,
rapid economic development in China continues to be accompanied by

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Chinas increasing demand for energy. Experts predicted that China

would import more than 500 million tons of oil and over 100 billion
cubic meters of natural gas in 2020, owing to its rapid economic growth
and demand for energy resources.1 The demand for energy and increased
energy consumption will definitely make China more actively involved in
oil and gas exploration and exploitation in its adjacent sea areas, and in
securing the oil supply routes at sea.
This chapter will assess recent developments in Chinas practice in
this area, including Chinas recent maritime legislation, its supportive
activities for the East China Sea, South China Sea and the Malacca
Straits, and its response to the global actions of maritime security, particularly in connection to the fight against terrorism and sea piracy under
the framework of the United Nations. Some comparisons between the
EU and China will be made.
Maintaining the Security of Sea Lanes
After the collapse of the Soviet communist bloc, China gradually revised
its security concept, in response to the changed situation for the post
Cold War era. A new security concept was formulated in the 1990s and
has been reflected in Chinas White Papers on defence. The 1998 White
Paper was the first to put forward this new concept. The 2000 White Paper
provided more detail, by adding four core components: mutual trust,
mutual benefit, equality and cooperation.2 Maritime security is a major
concern in the development of Chinas perception of national security.
It is reported that 80 per cent of Chinas oil for consumption are
imported from overseas by sea routes (Zhu 2004: 19). With the increase
of its energy demand, China is ever more concerned with the security of
the sea lanes in its adjacent seas and the Straits of Malacca. According to
the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention), all States enjoy freedom of navigation on the high seas and in
exclusive economic zones of coastal States. For straits used for international navigation, all states enjoy transit passage. Thus, ships of all nations have the right to the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea
and transit passage in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. However,
after the September 11 terrorist attacks, maritime security has become a
1

CCH Asia China E-News Alert, No.43, February 2004.

NK"http://www.people.com.cn/GB/shizheng/1027/3082005.html"http://
www.people.com.cn/GB/shizheng/1027/3082005.html
2

CHINESE PRACTICE IN THE MAINTENANCE OF MARITIME SECURITY

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serious international concern, in particular the existing and potential

threats posed by sea piracy and maritime terrorism.
It is widely known that piracy is found in the Straits of Malacca and
the South China Sea. In 2000, figures showed that piracy in the region
accounted for 65% of the worldwide total. The incidents in the South
China Sea increased from 120 in 2001 to 140 in 2002.3 Although the
prominence of piracy has been shifted from Southeast Asia to the Somali
waters, vigilance is still badly needed to prevent and suppress piracy and
possible maritime terrorism in the South China Sea and the Straits of
Malacca.
International law has established an obligation on states to cooperate
in the suppression of piracy. It grants states certain rights to seize pirate
ships and suspected criminals. The LOS Convention constitutes a major
anti-piracy treaty, providing that All states shall cooperate to the fullest
possible extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas or in any
other place outside the jurisdiction of any state, and should seize pirate
ships and criminals. Another important international treaty governing the
suppression of piracy and maritime terrorism is the 1988 Convention for
the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA Convention), which authorizes its contracting state parties to
handle maritime violent crimes and threats. According to Chinese Criminal Law, the crime of piracy is punished as robbery, murder, larceny, or
kidnapping, since there is no specific, legal, definition of piracy in the
Chinese legal system. China can also exercise universal jurisdiction permitted by international law to bring piracy cases to trial as international
crimes.
In recent legal practice, China tried several piracy cases including the
vessels Tenyu, Cheung Son, Marine Fortuner and Xanxai. One can take the
Cheung Son as an example of how the relevant Chinese departments dealt
with piracy: on 12 November 1998, the Cheung Son, which belonged to a
Hong Kong shipping company, disappeared in the South China Sea on
the way to Malaysia from Shanghai Harbour. Several days into the voyage, some bodies of crew members of that ship floated in the sea adjacent to Guangdong Province. The Public Security Department of the
province began to investigate the case and found that this was a case of
maritime hijacking, planned by an Indonesian with some Chinese collab3

Report: IMO Doc. MSC.4/Circ.32, 17 April 2003.

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Zou Keyuan

orators. The perpetrators killed all 23 crew members and robbed the
whole ship. As of 8 August 1999, China arrested all suspected pirates. In
January 2000, 13 pirates, including one Indonesian and 12 Chinese,
received the death penalty for crimes of robbery and murder. The remaining 24 pirates were also punished.
While Chinas legal system does not contain the precise terminology
for piracy, China has accepted the term robbery at sea in its legislation.
A regulation issued in 1993, governing the safety of navigation and
fishery activities in the East China Sea, adopted the above term. This is
in line with the new terminology created by the International Maritime
Organization (IMO), i.e., piracy and armed robbery against ships. The
concept embraces piracy on the high seas, as well as acts of piracy in
ports or national waters.4 The regulation requires the coastal regions and
governmental departments concerned to pay close attention to the safety
of navigation. The Department of Public Security is charged with responsibility for combating criminal activities, including robbery at sea
(Wang 1994: 786).
In terms of other legislation concerning maritime security, China
promulgated several important laws and regulations including the 1992
Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, the 1998 Law on
the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Continental Shelf, the 1983 Law
on the Maritime Traffic Safety and the 1992 Regulations on the Management of Maritime Navigational Warnings and Navigational Notices. On
the international level, China acceded to the LOS and SUA Conventions
(see above) and participates in meetings in the United Nations and IMO.
China has realized that, it cannot combat piracy in its adjacent waters
all by herself. Therefore, regional cooperation is necessary to reach the
goal of effectiveness. For that purpose, China signed the Joint Declaration on Cooperation in the Field of Non-Traditional Security Issues with
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in November
2002. This initiated full cooperation between ASEAN and China in the
field of non-traditional security issues and listed various priorities and
forms of cooperation. The priorities include combating trafficking in
illegal drugs, people-smuggling including trafficking in women and children, sea piracy, terrorism, arms-smuggling, money-laundering, interna-

http://www.imo.org/includes/blastDataOnly.asp/data_id%3D1880/984.pdf

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tional economic crime and cyber crime. As to the envisaged multilateral

and bilateral cooperation, the Declaration aims to:
Strengthen the exchange of information personnel and training
Enhance capacity building;
Strengthen practical cooperation on non-traditional security issues;
Strengthen joint research on non-traditional security issues;
Explore other areas and modalities of cooperation.5
In addition, the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the
South China Sea also mentions the suppression of piracy and armed
robbery at sea. Based on the above declaration, China sponsored several
workshops and conferences on non-traditional security issues, including
sea piracy and maritime security. For example, the China National Institute for South China Sea Studies ran a training workshop on maritime
security in the Straits of Malacca in December 2007 for governmental
officials from Southeast Asia.
In April 2000, heads of coast guard agencies from 16 countries and
one region (ten ASEAN countries, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South
Korea, China, Hong Kong and Japan), attended the first regional conference on maritime security where three key documents were adopted. In a
statement entitled Asia Anti-Piracy Challenge 2000', the participants
expressed their intention to reinforce mutual cooperation in combating
piracy and armed robbery against ships. The Tokyo Appeal calls for the
establishment of contact points, for information exchange among relevant authorities and for the drafting of a national anti-piracy action plan.
The Model Action Plan suggests specific countermeasures based on the
Tokyo Appeal.
Regional efforts reached their climax in the conclusion of, arguably,
the most significant regional treaty on anti-piracy: the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships
in Asia (ReCAAP) in November 2004, agreed between the above Asian
states. It entered into force on 4 September 2006. The agreement obliges
the contracting states to:6

5
6

http://www.aseansec.org/13185.htm
http://www.recaap.org/about/pdf/ReCAAP%20Agreement.pdf

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Zou Keyuan

Prevent and suppress piracy and armed robbery against ships;

Arrest pirates or persons who have committed armed robbery against
ships;
Seize ships or aircraft used for committing piracy or armed robbery
against ships;
Rescue victim ships and victims of piracy or armed robbery against
ships (see Article 3).
The contracting states further pledge to implement the agreement, including preventing and suppressing piracy and armed robbery against
ships to the fullest extent possible, in accordance with their respective
national laws and regulations, and subject to their available resources or
capabilities (see Article 2.1). For cooperation purposes, the contracting
parties endeavour to render one another mutual legal assistance, as well
as conduct extradition of suspects for piracy suppression and punishment. The other significant development contained in the agreement is
the institutional arrangement to establish an Information Sharing Center
(ISC) for the cooperation of intelligence sharing among contracting
states. The ISC was officially launched in November 2007. It is located
in Singapore. ReCAAP is thus the first specific international treaty concerning the prevention and suppression of piracy. Because of this, it
becomes a model of law for other regional legal arrangements. It is reported that a similar agreement will be concluded for the Western Indian
Ocean.
Chinas Attitude towards the Proliferation Security Initiative
Related to the suppression of piracy is a recent scheme for maritime
security initiated by the United States: the Proliferation Security Initiative
(PSI). The PSI represents an effort to consider possible collective measures among the participating countries, in accordance with national legal
authorities and relevant international law and frameworks, in order to
prevent the proliferation of so-called weapons of mass destruction
(WMD), missiles and their related materials that pose threats to the peace
and stability of the international community. The PSI is administered by
a core group of eleven countries (Japan, US, UK, Italy, the Netherlands,
Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Portugal).7 Another four
7

http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/un/disarmament/arms/psi/exercise-2.html

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countries joined at a later stage (Canada, Singapore, Russia and Norway).

Forty-six other countries support it as well (Roach, 2006, 352). The core
element in the PSI is interdiction at sea. The US developed a number of
principles guiding the activities of the states participating in the PSI. In
detail, these are designed to:8
Undertake effective measures, either alone or in concert with other
states, for the interdicting of the transfer, or transport, of WMD,
delivery systems and related materials, to and from states and nonstate actors of proliferation-concern.
Adopt more streamlined procedures for the rapid exchange of relevant information concerning suspected proliferation activity.
Review and strengthen relevant national legal authorities where necessary.
Take specific actions in support of interdiction efforts regarding cargoes of WMD, their delivery systems or related materials.
Although the PSI does not target any particular country, countries of
concern include North Korea, Iran and Syria. The PSI raises a number of
issues in international law. In the maritime domain, the LOS Convention
grants exclusive jurisdiction and control of vessels to the Flag State on
the high seas. Any search or visit is thus subject to the permission of the
Flag State. Exceptions do exist, but they are limited to the suppression of
piracy, transport of slaves, illicit traffic in narcotic drugs, or unauthorized
broadcasting. Besides, a warship, having reasonable grounds, may visit a
ship without nationality. Since there is no specific rule in international
law regarding the interdiction of ships suspected of carrying WMD,
Chinese scholars perceive such interdiction on the high seas as a grave
de-valuation of the international legal system and a great downgrade of
the solemnity of international law (Gao and Sun 2004: 170). Because of
the controversial issues existing in regard to the PSI, many demand its
improvement, through institutionalization (Garvey 2005: 125-147).
Chinas feelings towards the PSI are complex: China needs the safety
of navigation in the Straits of Malacca. Most of Chinas imported oil
reaches the country through this strait. However, China is also concerned
about a possible American intervention in the Straits, about possible

http://www.state.gov/t/np/rls/prsrl/23764.htm

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blockages to Chinas oil transportation, and about a concomitant deterioration in Sino-US bilateral relations, owing to some dispute over, for
instance, the Taiwan issue. For that reason, China has long been considering the construction of an oil pipeline from Myanmar to China to
reduce its dependence on shipping oil imports through the Strait of
Malacca. Furthermore, a key Chinese diplomat stated that maritime
security is of vital importance for the welfare and economic development
of the region and that regional cooperation is indispensable for maritime
security (Zhao Jianhua, 2004). However, China has some real doubts
over whether principles embodied in international law including the UN
Charter would be or could be strictly observed in real actions against
maritime threats. Extreme care and sensitiveness is thus needed when it
comes to military involvement (Zhao Jianhua, 2004). In a word, China
prefers a regional rather than an international arrangement of maritime
security for the Straits of Malacca.
In addition to this, China has some previous, bitter, experience regarding interdiction at sea, as the following example illustrates: on 7 July
1993, the Chinese freighter Milky Way (yinhe) departed from Tianjin to
the Middle East with the destination of the port of Kuwait. On 23 July,
the United States accused China of sending chemical materials to Iran
(thiodiglycol and thionyl chloride). These were, allegedly, to be used for
the production of chemical weapons. The American side thus demanded
an on-board inspection of the vessel. From 1 August onward, several
American warships followed the Milky Way, monitoring its movement
and taking photos so that the Chinese ship could not sail normally. Due
to these American pressures, the Milky Way was refused anchorage in
port; it remained on the high seas until late August. Finally, on 29 August, China agreed to check the containers on board together with the
Saudi Arabian representative and some American experts. The investigation proved that there were no chemical materials as the United States
had alleged. As a consequence of this incident, the Chinese Foreign
Ministry issued a statement on 4 September 1993, condemning the
American hegemonic attitude and its groundless accusations.9
Chinese legal scholars accused the United States of having violated
international law, including the freedom of the high seas. They demanded the US bear legal liability to compensate for the economic loss
9

http://news.163.com/2004w09/12686/2004w09_1096092272435.html

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suffered by the Chinese freighter (Zhao Lihai 1996: 237-244). Judging

from this episode, it may become clearer that China is very averse, indeed, to the PSI as far as military interdiction at sea is involved. This
attitude also can also be detected in Chinas basic policy regarding the
South China Sea: China has always reiterated that it will maintain the
freedom of navigation, and of over-flight, in the South China Sea. It has
never interfered in such free passage and will not do so in future. As for
the issue of the PSI, China expressed its position through one of her
Foreign Ministry spokespersons, who made the following statement: we
agree with the objective of PSI. But the Chinese side thinks that relevant
measures under PSI should be taken within the reign of international law
in accordance with relevant principles of the UN Charter. We hold reservations in regard to the possibility of the PSI, of taking coercive interception beyond the reign of international law. At the same time, China did
not close its door to the PSI, by stating further, that we would like to
exchange views with relevant countries on this point.10 On the other
hand, for a number of reasons, China might support military interdiction
or naval inspection in future. The US-sponsored PSI, once fully implemented in East Asia, may more justifiably give China rights of inspection
and of performing the same control actions towards American vessels.
The PSI has been gradually gaining ground in international law as it
has developed. The first significant document which gives the PSI some
kind of legal support was United Nations Security Council Resolution
1540, adopted on 28 April 2004. The Resolution stipulated that, all
states shall refrain from providing any form of support to non-state
actors which attempt to develop, acquire, manufacture, possess, transport, transfer or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their
means of delivery. The Security Council further called upon all states, in
accordance with their national legal authorities and legislation, and consistent with international law, to take cooperative action to prevent illicit
trafficking in nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, their means of
delivery, and related materials.11 It must be noted, however, that the
Resolution only mentions non-state actors - by which it most likely
means terrorist groups. However, the PSI appears also to target some socalled rogue states, based on the perceptions of the US.
10
11

http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/t169072.htm
See: UN Doc. S/RES/1540 (2004).

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While it is debated whether Resolution 1540 has provided legal

ground for the PSI, the amendments made, in October 2005, to the SUA
Convention have clearly shown the legalization process in respect of the
PSI. There are two major revisions/additions: first, a Protocol expands
the coverage of the unlawful acts under Article 3 of the SUA Convention. It does so by adding new provisions. These rules cover, in particular, the following potential scenarios:12
The use against, or on, a ship, or discharging from a ship, of any
explosive, radioactive, biological, chemical, or nuclear materials or
weapons, in a manner which causes, or is likely to cause, death or
serious injury or damage.
The discharging, from a ship, of oil, liquefied natural gas, or other
hazardous or noxious substances, in such quantity or concentration, which causes, or is likely to cause, death or serious injury or
damage.
The use of a ship in a manner, which causes death or serious injury
or damage; the transport on board ship, of any explosive or radioactive material, knowing that it is intended to be used to cause, or
used in a threat to cause, death or serious injury or damage for the
purpose of intimidating a population, or compelling a government
or an international organization to do, or to abstain from doing
any act.
The transportation, on board a ship, of any biological, chemical or
nuclear weapon, in the knowledge that such a weapon is on board.
The carriage of any source material, special fissionable material, or
equipment or material especially designed or prepared for the
processing, use or production of special fissionable material,
knowing that it is intended to be used in a nuclear explosive activity or in any other nuclear activity not under safeguards pursuant
to an IAEA comprehensive safeguards agreement.
The transportation, on board a ship, of any equipment, material or
software, or of related technology, which significantly contributes
to the design, manufacture or delivery of a BCN weapon, with the
intention that it will be used for such purpose.

12

http://www.imo.org/Conventions/

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285

Another major development is the ship boarding regime. According to

Article 8bis of the 2005 Protocol, co-operation and procedures are
needed if a any party from a state desires to board a ship flying the flag
of another state party, when the requesting Party has reasonable grounds
to suspect that the ship or a person on board the ship is, has been, or is
about to be involved in, the commission of an offence under the Convention. The authorization and co-operation of the Flag State is required
before such a boarding. A state party may notify the IMO SecretaryGeneral that it would allow authorization to board and search a ship
flying its flag, its cargo and the persons on board, if there is no response
from the Flag State within four hours. A state party can also give notification that it authorizes a requesting party to board and search the ship,
its cargo and persons on board, and to question the persons on board, in
order to determine whether an offence has been, or is about to be, committed. The Protocol limits the use of force and includes important
safeguarding measures when a state party takes action against a ship.
Through the above amendments, the controversial boarding regime
embodied in the PSI scheme has been legalized under international law.
A number of significant modifications and additions of safeguarding
measures were enacted, in order to ensure that there is no abuse of this
boarding right.
European Experience: An Example for China?
It is Columbus, a European who is said to have discovered the New
World. Other Europeans, including the British, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish explorers, merchants, missionaries and navigators,
dominated the Asian sea-routes for centuries. The law of the sea, the
oldest branch of international law, emerged in Europe. It emerged from
the debate between the concepts of mare clausum and mare liberum in the
17th Century (Johnston 2008: 51-52). More recently, the European Union (EU) has exerted great efforts to develop a more concerted maritime
policy among its Member States. In 2006, the European Commission
adopted a Green Paper entitled Towards a Future Maritime Policy for
the Union. In 2007 the Union also adopted a document on Integrated
Maritime Policy for the European Union. According to this paper, it is
believed that an Integrated Maritime Policy will enhance Europe's capacity to face the challenges of globalisation and competitiveness, climate change, degradation of the marine environment, maritime safety

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and security, and energy security and sustainability.13 According to the

Treaty of the European Union, EU members have to agree to cede some
of their sovereign rights to the EU and let the organization exercise them
on behalf of its members. This arrangement also concerns matters of
maritime security. When the European Community acceded to the LOS
Convention, it made a declaration, stating that certain competences have
been transferred from its Member States to the organization, including
those in the protection and preservation of the marine environment,
commercial and customs policy, conservation and management of sea
fishing resources.14
For the implementation of a unified policy in maritime security, the
European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) was created, with a brief to
contribute to the enhancement of the overall maritime safety system in
the Community. Its goals are to reduce the risk of maritime accidents,
marine pollution from ships and the loss of human lives at sea.15 In order
to prevent safety and security threats by goods brought into or out of the
customs territory of the EU, electronic pre-arrival and pre-departure
declarations, with data elements harmonised on an EU-wide scale, will
become mandatory as of 1 July 2009, for all modes of transport including the maritime sector.16 Law enforcement agencies in the EU Member
States, as well as Europol, have taken coordinated and concerted actions
against illegal immigration from Africa and maritime narcotics trafficking. In June 2008, the EU issued further Guidelines for an integrated
approach to maritime policy and it is expected that under a unified EU
maritime policy, more state power of EU members in maritime security
will be transferred to the EU.
In comparison to this, it seems that China has not yet formulated a
unified maritime policy, and maritime law enforcement is fragmented
among different governmental agencies. The existing institutional arrangements in China show that the State Oceanic Administration is
responsible for ocean affairs in general. Other governmental departments
are also in charge of maritime matters such as the Ministry of Agricul-

13

http://eur-ex.europa.eu/
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_declarations.htm
15
http://www.emsa.europa.eu/end179d002.html
16
DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, non-paper on Surveillance, 13 October
2008:5.
14

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287

ture, responsible for the management of marine fisheries, the Ministry of

Transport for the management of maritime transportation, and the Ministry of Public Security for maintaining maritime public order and security. Some roles are overlapping: for example, while the Ministry of Public Security has the mandate to maintain security and order at sea, the
State Oceanic Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture also have
maritime law enforcement facilities and personnel in this regard. It is
therefore suggested that China should establish a more centralized and
comprehensive administrative agency for the management of ocean
affairs and that, moreover, the country needs a coastguard for maritime
law enforcement. The EU process of endeavouring the formulation of a
unified maritime policy deserves further, careful, study and scrutiny by
the Chinese.
The persistent issue of Somali piracy reflects the attitudes of the EU
and China towards the crackdown on piracy in the Somali waters. In
June 2008 the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on
combating acts of piracy and armed robbery off Somalias coast (Resolution 1816). It authorizes UN Member States to enter the territorial waters
of Somalia for the purpose of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea, in a manner consistent with such action permitted on the
high seas with respect to piracy under relevant international law. Following the resolution, relevant states, especially a number of EU countries,
Canada, Russia and the United States, have taken individual and/or
collective actions against piracy in the waters off Somalia.17 The EU
established its first naval task force called Op Atalanta in December 2008
to protect vessels of the World Food Programme delivering food aid to
Somalia and other vulnerable shipping off Somalia, as well as to provide
deterrence towards acts of piracy, by means of presence and surveillance.
Op Atalanta involved six warships and three surveillance aircraft contributed by the UK, France, Greece, Spain, and Germany, with the UK
Royal Navy in charge.
In contrast to the more pro-active attitude of the EU, Chinas approach is noticeably more cautious. It may be recalled that, during the
discussion of the draft UN Resolution, China expressed the view that the
facilitation initiated by the Council of international assistance in combat17
US Maritime Security Patrol Area (MSPA) in the Gulf of Aden; for the EU:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/11/2415866.htm

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ing piracy should not produce any negative consequences, that, moreover, such assistance must comply with the Law of the Sea Convention,
and must not constitute a conflict with existing international legislation.
It appears that China is reluctant to send its military forces overseas.
However, it seems that Chinese attitudes changed somewhat after its
vessels were kidnapped by Somali pirates. In this case, the ambassador of
the Somali government to Beijing expressed his welcome of the Chinese
navy to the Somali waters. At a special conference sponsored by the UN
in December 2008, the Chinese representative expressed Chinas willingness to cooperate with other countries to suppress piracy in accordance
with international law and the UN Security Council resolutions.18 With
this in mind, it is not known when and how China would be involved on
a more practical level in the crackdown on Somali piracy. Once China
determines to become involved in military actions against piracy in the
Somali waters, the necessary cooperation and coordination between
China and EU can be well perceived.
Conclusion
After the Cold War, non-traditional security issues became much more
complicated and salient in the context of a wider human security. This
concept includes piracy and maritime terrorism. In recent years, China
has considerably strengthened her capacity in maintaining maritime security in its adjacent seas, as well as, seeking to work towards regional and
world peace and security in cooperation with the international community, including the EU. While there are some opportunities for China and
EU to cooperate in the maintenance of maritime security, China is more
immediately concerned with her surrounding areas and has concluded a
number of pertinent legal and political arrangements with neighbouring
countries. It is certain that such a policy will continue. On the other
hand, as a rising power, China may be more willing to contribute its
efforts globally over time.

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References
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Report on International Arms Control and Disarmament, Beijing: World Knowledge Press)(in Chinese), 170.
Garvey, Jack I. 2005. The International Institutional Imperative for Countering
the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Proliferation
Security Initiative in Journal of Conflict and Security Law, Vol.10 (2): 125-147.
Johnston, Douglas M. 2008. The Historical Foundations of World Order: The Tower
and the Arena, Boston/Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.
Roach, J. Ashley. 2006. Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI): Countering
Proliferation by Sea in Myron H. Nordquist, John N. Moore and Kuenchen Fu (eds.) Recent Developments in the Law of the Sea and China, Leiden:
Martinus Nijhoff: 352.
Wang, Huaian et al (eds.)(1994), Compendium of Laws of the Peoples Republic of
China, Supplementary Volume, Jilin: Jilin Peoples Publishing House (in Chinese): 786.
Zhao, Jianhua. 2004. The Straits of Malacca and Challenges Ahead: Chinas
Perspective (Paper presented to the Conference on Straits of Malacca:
Building a Comprehensive Security Environment, 11-13 October 2004,
Kuala Lumpur.
Zhao, Lihai (1996), Studies on the Law of the Sea Issues, Beijing: Peking University
Press (in Chinese).
Zhu, Huayou (2004), Energy Diplomacy in the South China Sea and Its Surroundings, in Zhu Huayou et al (eds.), Collected Conference Papers on the South
China Sea and Chinas Energy Security, Hainan, China: National Institute for
South China Sea Studies (in Chinese): 19.

EUROPEAN STUDIES 27 (2009): 291-295

CONCLUSIONS: TOWARDS AN EU-CHINA

RESEARCH-AGENDA 2010
Georg Wiessala, Pradeep Taneja, John Wilson

We believe that the diverse contributions in this volume have demonstrated the growth and evolution not only of the multi-faceted area of
EU-China relations, but also of a concomitant agenda of study, enquiry
and research which appears as thorough as it is branched-out and complex The chapters in this volume represent not more than a fleeting
glimpse of the state of affairs of research into EU-China relations as of
mid-2009. They were compiled at a time when the relationship has become, arguably, one of most significant and multi-layered foreign policy
arenas of the European Union (EU).
In our view, the chapters in this collection offer both critical assessment and theoretical debate regarding a number of sides of EU-China
relations which have hitherto been largely under-researched, for example
on matters of energy security, maritime safety, the construction of identities, and sports and politics. In other areas, such as human rights, economics and foreign policy analysis, we hope that the preceding chapters
will have done their part to stimulate the debate and to take the academic
analysis of EU-China contacts into new areas and directions. We believe
that a number of important strands and themes have emerged which not
only represent some of the key conclusions to be drawn from this examination, but which will also, we hope, point interested China watchers in
the direction of some future analytical focal points and, perhaps, towards
an Agenda for 2010 and beyond.
Against this backdrop, Rajendra Jain, in the conclusion to his chapter
for this volume, has offered what is, perhaps, one of the most pertinent
observations, albeit in a more specific context: there is a continuing

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need to re-profile and re-orient our mindsets about the growing prominence of the EU as a collective entity. The nature and development of
EU actor-ship in foreign policy in general, and in the context of SinoEU interaction in particular - does, indeed, emerge as one of the principal concerns in all of the preceding sections. This appears to hold true
especially, when seen against the background of the search for that elusive, unified, European Union China Policy on the one hand, and of the
frequently conflicting attitudes and interests in the Member States on
the other hand. Speaking una voce with the PRC, it appears, is still difficult for the aspiring global player that is the EU.
With regard to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), it has almost
become a commonplace to state that this vast country is currently living
through times of unprecedented change, the pace of which seems to be
ever-quickening. In our view, this book has thrown into relief two aspects, in particular, of that change: first, it is possible to conclude from
the findings of several chapters offered here, that the immediate future
of China, and of China-EU relations, will be shaped by the evolving
relationship between Party and regime stability, and national interest, on
the one hand, and questions of openness, democratisation, rule of law,
(media) freedom and internet access on the other hand. Secondly, in
terms of Chinese politics and China-EU relations, the role of Chinese
discursive narratives, identity-constructions and symbolic landscapes in
building political meanings, legitimacy, national prestige, patriotic sentiment and international relations must not be underrated.
This moves into the foreground a third and related aspect: ideational
values, perceptions (and mis-perceptions) as gaps in mutual understanding in the China-EU asymmetrical relationship all continue to
impinge on the conduct of the contemporary diplomacy; in many cases,
bilateral EU-China negotiations are still suffering from underlying, unseen, issues, which threaten to derail progress if wilfully or inadvertently
neglected. We have termed those the iceberg-issues of China-Europe.
These are also the areas where the chequered history of China-Europe
contacts continues to have a significant bearing on the present.
If there is, then, a pressing need for more mutual reaching-out and
interaction, many chapters in this book have pointed to areas in which
bridges can be built and common interests can be pursued.
In a wider context of the network of influence that is international
relations, we think that it is possible to conclude that Chinas relations

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with the EU, through engaging a variety of EU institutions, processes

and decision-makers, and by means of employing a so-called sector-specific dialogue, contain a wealth of potential lessons for other countries,
regional organisations and dialogue-mechanisms, such as India, Russia,
the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) and the Asia-Europe Meeting
(ASEM). However, our examination has also demonstrated that there is
now a wider choice of potential interlocutors and partners for China in
many areas and regions of geo-political competition, for example on the
African Continent and in Central Asia. Chinas growing engagement with
these regions will test the validity of many of the EUs value-based,
ideological, foundations in areas such as human rights, conditional aid
and development.
Some of the contributions in this issue have emphasised the continuing importance of China-US relations for the EU-China dialogue in a
multi-polar world order. Among the important points highlighted by the
writers of the preceding chapters have been, for example, the sometimes
divergent US and EU approaches to the PRC, and the way negotiations
are conducted, and differences amongst partners exploited, in the quest
for political positioning in the global arena. Here, as in other areas, the
concepts of national, regional and inter-regional interests and identities
have once again proved indispensable touchstones for analysis.
Regarding the further evolution and future contours of the dynamic
EU-China relationship, we argue that one of the principal conclusions of
this volume surrounds Chinas responses to globalization, as evidenced
through increasingly confident Chinese foreign and economic policies,
investment relations and in other areas such as sport and identity-projection. Given China's growing contribution to international trade, as well
as its growing technological confidence, we believe that a number of
chapters in this collection have demonstrated that the EU will have to
negotiate much more carefully in the future, in order to ensure that
greater balance is achieved in such matters as cross-regional trade, technology-transfer and investment.
We further conclude that the EU-China relations of the next decade
will be largely determined by the question of how successful both sides
are in striking a complex and inter-related, three-fold, balance: firstly,
what will have to be attained is a balance of views; many of the old (Dinosaur) views, long held in mutuality, will have to be re-visited and ad-

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Georg Wiessala, Pradeep Taneja, John Wilson

justed. In areas ranging from human rights to Taiwan, from the oneChina-Policy to development, EU-China dialogue is in need of being
developed past the stage of a mere laundry-list of formal, sector-specific, (dis-)agreements, towards a much deeper understanding, in an
attempt to overcome procrastination where it exists. This widening and
deepening of EU-China contacts will be the more successful, the more it
embraces aspects of culture, language, and of what is sometimes euphemistically-termed people-to-people-dialogue. In order for it to have a
more enduring impact, the evolving discourse revolving around EUChina must encompass a more comprehensive critical scrutiny of such
concerns as grass-roots and NGO dialogues, lite-perceptions, thinktank-dialogue, cultural distance, educational exchanges, dialogue of civilisations, human capital, inter-faith dialogue, intellectual linkages and
related areas. Dialogue thus becomes the watchword of EU-China
relations.
Secondly, and in close relation to the first point, in EU-China relations, we think that most if not all of the chapters in this volume
have shown that more equilibrium is required in adjusting the balance
between trade and economic matters and other areas. The interaction,
which is, at present, heavily skewed towards material interests and commercial dialogue, will need to embrace also and much more wholeheartedly many of the broader issues hinted at in this book, such as
ideas and values. It transpires from this volume that a deeper and more
meaningful, holistic, China-EU exchange is needed, encompassing a
rage of issues that are sometimes mistakenly claimed to be binary in
character, such as development and democracy, tradition and modernity, equity and growth and human rights and political stability. Furthermore, we both conclude and predict that one of the main directions
a future EU-China research-agenda will take is a social-constructivistinformed approach, to international relations in general, and to the educational, intellectual and ideational dimensions of Asia-Europe relations
in particular. Thus, a more comprehensive future research programme on
China-EU interaction, could and ought to extend to key themes like
political strategy and declaratory diplomacy, identity and text, linguistics and meaning, seeking to employ, where relevant, some of the tools
of disciplines such as discourse-analysis.
The third kind of balance to be addressed and re-dressed in the
EU-China relations of the future surrounds those new hinge-issues of

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the relations, which have been analysed in several of the preceding chapters, and which have such significant potential to shape and distort
the relations of the future. It is both conceivable and desirable, that
future research foci are thus placed on subject-areas like evolving multipolar developmentalism, the environment, global governance, energysecurity, maritime terrorism and a new transcontinental (Asia-Europe)
infrastructure. Human rights too fall into this latter category. The research assembled for this volume allows us to draw the conclusion that
human rights are very definitely in the process of being de-emphasised
in the context of EU-China relations. This is not only careless from the
point of view of political pragmatism; it also ignores the fact that human
rights are a multi-dimensional issue, underlying all areas of the EU-China
dialogue. More constructive perhaps constructivist ways must,
therefore, be found to connect debates about human rights more creatively with other discussions about rights to development, regionalism,
democracy, tolerance and control, dialogue and respect, responses to
globalization and contributions to human civilisation.