Fifth APISA CongressRegional Integration in Asia and Europe in the

21st Century

  

Not Very strategic but hardly Ignorable:The dilemma and opportunity of China-EU

cooperation

Fifth APISA CongressRegional Integration in Asia and Europe in the

21st Century

  

Not Very strategic but hardly Ignorable:The dilemma and opportunity of China-EU

cooperation

Dr. Max Lin

University of Liverpool

Dr. Max Lin

University of Liverpool

1

The engagement between Europe and China

1. Nixon's 1972 'Ice-Breaking' Visit to China.

2. The European Community began to engage with China in 1975.

3. In 1985, the EC published the first official paper towards China: the EU-China Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

4. The bilateral relationship has gone backwards since the sanctions resulting from the 1989 Tiananmen Tragedy.

5. In 1995, the serial bilateral dialogues had hammered out definitive strategy in A Long Term Policy for China–Europe Relations (1995) 2

In 2003, it is the first time that the commission paper uses the phrase of “strategic partnership”:

“It is in the clear interest of the EU and China to work

as strategic partners on the international scene …

Through a further reinforcement of their cooperation,

the EU and China will be better able to shore up their

joint security and other interests in Asia and

elsewhere.”

The EU regards China as a strategic partner

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The EU’s external relationsThe EU has created and worked on a network of

‘strategic partnerships.

4

In Asia, the EU has 5 strategic partners.

5

In Southern Hemisphere, there are only two strategic partners.

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What is the EU’s strategic intension

towards China :

1. China is a rising power.

2. The EU attempts to influence China’s development.

3. The EU’s conviction that China could be steered towards democratisation and multilateralism.

4. Soft balancing the US unipolarism.

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What is Chinese strategic intention towards the EU?

1. Lifting the EU arms embargo on China

China’s military modernization

2. Beijing’s strategic intention in the Galileo

project, advanced technology transfers.

3. The EU is the largest contributor to China of transfer

of technology

4. Soft balancing the US unipolarism.

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Why is the EU-China partnership

strategically insignificant?

9

The case in the EU Arms Embargo on China

1. The EU’s ban of the arms embargo on China was

imposed in response to the Tiananmen tragedy of

1989.

2. Since 2003, the climate was mature of lifting the

arms embargo on China. The growing EU-China

political and military connection made to lift the arms embargo initiated to be discussed. (F, U, S)

3. From Whitehouse to Congress and Academic,

American are strongly opposed to lift the ban.

10

The case of Galileo Satellite plan • In 2003, the EU and Chin signed the

agreement of the Galileo Global Navigation

Satellite System.

• Before the US intervening, around €35 million

had been contracted to China for developing

different applications of the Galileo project in

China by July 2008.

• After the US intervention, the EU excluded

Chinese

contractors to join the Galileo plan in 2008. 11

The US intervention:

1. To maintain its strategic predominance in East Asia.

2. Contain China’s military modernization.

In only a decade, the official military budget has almost

quadrupled from about US$ 8.9 billion in 1996 to

US$ 35 billion in 2006.

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• In the second pillar, the Common Foreign and

Security Policy, the EU still remains at the

intergovernmental level.

• The character of intergovernmentalism is that

Member States remain their own foreign policy.

• The ‘Big Three’ have built strategic relationships

with China respectively.

The EU is not a state

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China didn’t view the EU as a strategic partner

1. After the US intervention, China is aware that the

EU is not an independent actor in global security.

2. China is aware that there is no coherent foreign

policy in the EU.

3. Bejing values Berlin, London, and Pairs more

than Brussels.

4. Moreover, China concerns that the EU helps India

to

modernize its navy.14

The so-call strategic partnership is

rhetoric.

But, why is the EU-China partnership

hardly ignorable?

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China needs an alternative plan

• After the US intervention of the lifting of the arms

embargo and the Galileo Project, China shifted its

attention back to

Asian countries.

• China’s neighboring countries concern the expansion

of

Chinese military.

1. Japan has a dispute with China in East China Sea.

2. South Korea concerns economic interest in Yellow

Sea.

3. Southeast Asian countries are anxious China’s

assertiveness in South China Sea.

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Economically, China needs the EU

• The bilateral trade is huge:

€296 billion in goods and €31 billion in services in

2009.

• The further economic growth - 12th five-year plan

The EU is China's biggest source of foreign

investment and

technology import

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1. Largely, Chinese economy relies on foreign

trade.

2. Is it true that the poor Chinese save wealthy

European?

Should China contribute to a bail-out for debt-ridden European countries?

Discussion:

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Thanks

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