Magazine / Current / China / Article | 06/08/2008

A happy couple?

Despite China's discontent with European criticism over the Olympic torch relay, the red dragon still believes in a "peaceful rise”. A Chinese perspective.

EU-China relationship has enjoyed a pace of unprecedented growth over the past decade. Since 2004, the EU has been China's first trading partner. Public expectations for mutual benefits continue to grow in line with the development of what the leaders call a "comprehensive strategic partnership”.

Photo: AP

The EU has been portrayed by the state-controlled media as a prominent global player and an increasingly close ally. It is no coincidence that Chinese journalists and academics have shared a penchant for such colourful notions as "honeymoon” and "marriage” to characterise EU-China relations.

Playing by their own rules

China's interests in the EU are part and partial of its global agenda and ambitions. China would like to rejoin the international community on its own terms, with the aim of consolidating its "peaceful rise” without compromising the authoritarian regime. Strengthening relations with the EU on the basis of mutual respect and equality serves the purpose of counterbalancing the US and reinforcing multipolarity in international politics. The fact that there are no territorial or border disputes between China and the EU has clearly helped.

Concerns about toys

However, the Chinese model of authoritarian capitalism presents both challenges and opportunities to the world and the EU. On the one hand, EU trade with China has grown by 20% annually in recent years. On the other hand, Beijing has been lukewarm to repeated calls for revaluating the yuan against the euro. Moreover, Beijing has made public its dismay at the EU's refusal to grant market economy status to China and to lift the arms embargo which has been in place since 1989.
China's record on food and product safety as well as protection of intellectual property rights constitutes another area of concern in the EU. In 2007, millions of Chinese-made toys were recalled amidst safety concerns about lead paint or detachable parts. Emotions ran high when Chinese vice-premier Wu Yi angrily accused the European Commission of "exaggerating and politicising” the product safety issues. But China returned with a proposal to set up a High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue Mechanism (HLM) to address EU concerns.

Olympics escalating tensions
By and large, Beijing and Brussels have been able to avoid ideological disputes. But Beijing's handling of the protests in Tibet in March 2008 and the ensuing disruptions to the Olympic torch relay in Europe strained the relationship and provoked a wave of nationalistic outbursts in China. In the event, Carrefour and other French companies suffered a boycott by angry Chinese consumers, adding to public anxiety in Europe about the rise of China.

A failed dialogue on human rights

Evidently, the legendary success of China's economy has tilted the political balance in favour of Beijing, as EU member states scramble to secure a niche in the lucrative Chinese market. Since 1996, the EU has stopped backing UN resolutions critical of the human rights situation in China. If public criticism is regarded by EU officials as counter-productive, low-key political dialogue with China on human rights issues has not shown any results either. Nor has the EU been able to use trade and economic cooperation to transfer its norms and standards to China. In fact, Beijing and Brussels are poles apart in their dealings with regimes such as Angola, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Burma.
In the final analysis, China's policy towards the EU is attributable to the interplay between nationalistic sentiments and the interests of the ruling elites. Beijing has learnt to contain the EU's influence to the areas of economic and trade cooperation. Under such circumstances, whether or not the EU can advance its foreign policy agenda and values in China will ultimately depend on its leaders' willingness to speak truth to power.

Kenneth Chan

Kenneth Chan was born 1968 in Hong Kong. He is Associate Professor at the Department of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. ...
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