Yearender: China-EU relationship opens new chapter in 2015

While the year 2015 marks the 40th anniversary of China-European Union (EU) diplomatic relations, and the two sides have witnessed a flurry of exchanges of high-level visits, experts upheld that it is also a year that ushered in a new chapter of China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

FRUITFUL COOPERATION

According to Ambassador Yang Yanyi, Head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, in her recent article published on the Europe-wide policy journal Europe's World, this autumn, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a successful visit to Britain, followed by visits to China by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, culminating in a "China-Europe season."

She noted that earlier this year, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited France and Belgium. The year also saw the organization of several important meetings, including the 17th China-EU Summit, the High-Level Strategic Dialogue, the High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue and the High-Level People-to-People Dialogue.

"These encounters allowed the two sides to identify the direction of their relations and to reiterate their commitment to a positive, long-term strategic perspective and a rational approach to handling their relations while transcending differences in social system, cultural tradition and ideology," said Yang in the article.

Moreover, during the summit in China's Suzhou on Nov. 24 and 25, China and 16 central and eastern European (CEE) countries identified priority sectors for cooperation from 2015 to 2020, ranging from infrastructure, finance, agriculture to people-to-people exchange, in the latest effort to make their cooperation and coordination into an all-round way.

"Giving full play to their geographic location connecting the Asian and European continent, the CEE countries can play a critical role in infrastructure and connectivity building as well as global production capacity cooperation, thus contributing to the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership," said Zhang Lirong, a senior diplomat with the Chinese Mission to the EU.

Zhang said this year China and the EU reached consensus on drawing synergies between the "Belt and Road" initiatives and the development strategy, the global production capacity cooperation and EU's Juncker plan, as well as China-CEE countries cooperation and China-EU cooperation.

In 2014, trade volume between China and the CEE countries exceeded 60 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of almost 50 percent over 2010. Direct Chinese investment in the CEE countries hit 5 billion U.S. dollars, providing a great amount of employment and development opportunities for local residents.

Besides, after the eighth round of China-EU Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations, which were held in Brussels between Nov. 30 and Dec. 4, the two sides made great progress in range of topics of the investment treaty, and agreed to confirm the consensus as soon as possible and strive to achieve the negotiation goals settled in last June by leaders of both sides by the end of this year.

Starting from January 2016, the two sides will step up substantive text negotiations on the basis of merged text.

According to professor of Renmin University of China Wang Yiwei, the recent development of China-EU relationship enjoyed some new features. The two sides scored more and more cooperation in developing standards in manufacturing sectors, and exploring third-party markets, as Europe had advantages in high-technology and China was good at the marketization of new high tech fruits.

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.

MORE COORDINATION IN GLOBAL ARENA

Wang said China and the EU had also worked closer in re-shaping world order, as more and more European people began to see China as a partner to solve crises, rather than a competitor which ran against Europe's interests.

"Recognition of China as a global and regional strategic player is growing very much in Europe," said Shada Islam, director of policy at Brussels-based think-tank Friends of Europe.

Islam said that even though Europe was on this moment focused on its neighborhood, its domestic troubles like the refugee crisis, the eurozone debt, and the referendum on Britain's EU membership, the China-EU relationship is there to stay because the ties are based on such a fundamental and indispensable necessity.

"The potential for China-EU cooperation is immense, not just in business and economic cooperation, but also on global stage," said Islam.

China will be the chair of G20 next year, and will be in charge of G20 agenda of sustainable development, green development and global governance, so there is massive potential for discussion between China and the EU for cooperation and dialogue on global issues, according to Islam.

For instance, during Merkel's visit to China in late October, Merkel spoke highly of China's efforts in dealing with climate change and preparation for the Paris Conference and exchanged views on Syria and the refugee crisis with Chinese leaders.

"Even in the short term the EU cannot get rid of the dependence on the United States, but its trust in the United States has been shaken," said Wang, adding that in the meantime, the EU also started to think about the core causes to crises such as the Greece's debt crisis and the refugee influx.

The EU side began to find that far from being the root causes to crises, China can be a reliable partner to realize mutual benefits, he said.

Wang added that the EU still had the traditional relationship with the United States, as the two sides shared deeply-rooted ties in company's investment and cooperation, as well as in security area.

Together, the EU and the United States have the largest bilateral trade and investment relationship in the world, roughly 31 percent of the world trade and over 49 percent of the world GDP, according to the EU statistics.

"But China-EU relationship witnesses rapid growth, which can stimulate employment in the EU side," he said.

Wang said that concerning EU's attitudes towards Russia, some European people realized that one cannot choose its neighbors, so Europe needed to look for proper way to deal with its relationship with Russia, rather than follow U.S. suit by taking continuous restrictive measures.

According to the European External Action Service, "the Russian Federation's role in the Ukraine conflict has seriously affected EU-Russia relations," and some activities were "at a halt and sanctions have been adopted."

Russia is the EU's biggest neighbor and its third biggest trading partner. Supplies of oil and gas make up a large proportion of the country's exports to Europe.

"There are no major strategic, security, or territorial disputes in the relationship, and cooperation can most easily and likely be enhanced in technical fields," said Roland Vogt, an assistant professor on European politics of the University of Hong Kong.

"Looking ahead to 2016, we have every reason to believe that the launch of China's 13th Five-Year Plan and continuing integration of the EU will enable the two sides to find more synergies in their development strategies," said Ambassador Yang in her article on the outlook of the China-EU relations. Endit