Viviana Rubio

EU-CHINA POLITICAL RELATIONS

Initially the reading shows us the political relations between China-EU, comprising
a period from 2003 to 2013, relations have gone through several processes of
diplomatic tensions as periods where their relationship has taken an important
force.

One of the main problems is that during the period 2005-2008 relations were
affected by the EU issuing new policies towards China considering them as
"competitors and partners" ensuring that there was a trade imbalance between
China and the EU, so that the EU would have a disadvantage in issues such as
market access, environmental policies, intellectual property, technology among
others, considering that Chinese companies had caused unfair competition for
European companies. Another problem that arises is the bilateral relations
between the two countries, because the EU involves different national actors such
as its member states and also EU institutions, so that the channels of
communication, although fixed, are subject to the regulations of the EU in a
structural way. As a third problem identified, we find that the Council of the
European Union and the European Council in general as intergovernmental
institutions, represent the political position of the EU as a whole, however, it is
inevitable that their final decisions incorporate the collective will of the member
states and is the result of the interplay of interests between the member states.

The main objective is to see how the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership was
established in 2003, comprising a period of China-EU relations from 2003 to 2013,
experiencing periods of adjustment and tension, further seeing the stages of the
bilateral relationship and how this has changed the attitudes of the main EU
institutions and actors towards China.

The author of the reading uses several key concepts to show how, over different
periods, China-EU relations have had strengths and tensions, and makes a
relationship between the EU institutions and as a framework for the decisions of
the different actors. He represents a single position and demonstrates it through a
case study to see the political cooperation between China-EU, which covers
different areas such as security and defense, crisis management, human rights
and immigration, among others.

In security and defense, cooperation has had many political dialogues on security
and arms control, which is why in 2004 the joint declaration on non-proliferation
and arms control was signed and both parties recognized each other as strategic
partners in this field. In human rights, both China and the EU enjoy the same rights
with regard to expressing opinions on relevant issues. The implementation of
projects is characterized by aspects such as the EU adopting a strategy linked to
"softness", i.e. suspending criticism of China on human rights issues in
international dialogues or discussions.

To conclude, as shown above, the author shows us comparisons, government

institutions and makes his thesis under the relationship of tensions and strengths
that have had the political relations between China and the EU, so it is concluded
that these relations have recovered and developed completely since the
establishment of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2003, which means
that future relations will remain stable as the speech of Chinese Prime Minister
Wen Jiabao at Cambridge University in 2009, "the basis for China-EU cooperation
is solid and the outlook is bright, there are no historical problems or fundamental
conflicts of interest between the two parties". However, it should also be borne in
mind that the EU is a dual decision maker because it must also respond to its own
interests, i.e. its policies and positions must not be completely replaced, since it is
composed of more member states so in this type of case there could be some
tension.