Post on 07-Jan-2016
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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.
8
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
13
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.
16
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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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