Interview: EU-China ties most easily cemented in technical areas: scholar

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of China-EU diplomatic ties, a European scholar told Xinhua that there are no major strategic, security, or territorial disputes in the relationship, and cooperation can most easily and likely be enhanced in technical fields.

"The relations are cordial and pragmatic, the two economies are by-and-large symbiotic and complementary. The relations are close because they are useful to both sides," Roland Vogt, an assistant professor on European politics of the University of Hong Kong, told Xinhua in a written interview.

However, Vogt noted that there is not much in terms of shared values, history, culture, and worldview that could serve as a more permanent "glue" between Europe and China.

He underlined that the two sides need to make efforts to narrow the gap of understanding and expectation.

The Europeans often know little about China. European politicians fail to understand how the Chinese government operates and what kind of pressures it has to respond to. Similarly, many Chinese have only rudimentary knowledge of Europe. Chinese leaders are often puzzled by the complex decision-making processes of the EU and its constituent democracies, he said.

Compared with the prospects for cooperation in technical areas, Vogt said that substantial discussions on more politically controversial matters are being postponed for the time being, since "policy-makers' minds are first-and-foremost concentrated on pressing domestic concerns."

The EU is currently heavily engaged in trying to manage its own internal problems and challenges - the situation in Greece, the refugee crisis, the British wish to renegotiate a number of provisions of the treaties governing the EU, he said.

"The Juncker Plan and the Chinese initiatives are medium-term policy plans that will need to be adapted to changing economic and financial circumstances," he said, noting that the EU welcomes Chinese investment and actively seeks it.

China and the EU are important trading partners. Since 2004, the EU has been doing more trade with China than any other economy. China is the EU's second largest trading partner. They are each other's largest source of imports. Endit