What do you think?

Question:

1. If we compare there the role of China in the world with the role of the EU who you think is a bigger and important global player currently and why and can future bring some changes?

2. Friends, partners or foes? Where do China and the EU have clearly common interest and where are the most problematic points in the relations?

3. How much are relations between the EU and China influenced by the problems of human rights? Because sometimes it looks more only like the political ritual then the real political problem. Usually Brussels criticizes something, the answer of Beijing is it is take care of your business and everything is almost the same as it was before.

Answers:

Gustaaf Geeraerts, Professor of International Relations, Director of Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

1. Whereas in my view, both the EU and China play a crucial role in shaping a new international order, China’s role is likely to be more decisive. As was pointed out recently by David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, China is turning into the 21st century's "indispensable power" with a decisive say on the future of the global economy, climate change and world trade. It is becoming ever clearer that China will be one of the major poles in the international system along with the US. Two decades of impressive economic growth have boosted the self-confidence of the Chinese leaders significantly. In Beijing the notion that China should start taking an attitude, befitting a great power is gradually gaining ground. Beijing’s foreign policy directs itself progressively more towards other great powers in the system. China is taking up ever more space within various multilateral organisations and is setting up diplomatic activities everywhere on the globe. She no longer considers herself an outsider that should crawl back into its shell and steer well clear of a global political system dominated by the West. Europe could emerge as a third major player only if the EU and its member-states learn to work together and to think strategically.

2. None of the three. As it stands, the EU-China relationship is one between competitors that treat each other as equals and respect each other interests. The nature and sustainability of such a competitive relationship is strongly dependent on cool-headed calculations of costs and benefits. Such situations can be described in terms of ‘positive-sum games’ in which the parties can both win if they succeed in coordinating their choices and actions, and both loose if they don’t. The central driver of the relationship is ‘enlightened self-interest’, not shared values. Hence, good communication and transparent bargaining are essential in bringing about effective solutions and mutually beneficial outcomes for the parties involved. The summit in Prague seems to indicate that while sticking to the rethoric of a comprehensive strategic parnership, China and the EU are moving more in the direction of a “realistic” relationship. The main driver is economic interest and shared values come into play whenever possible. There is a growing recognition of differences due to distance, history, culture and politics.

3. Here again one of the main problems is that the EU member states do not speak with one voice. They take varying degrees of interest in human rights. For example, some of the smaller countries in Northern Europe take a strong interest in human rights in China, as do formerly Communist countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic. But many other smaller states see China mostly as a commercial opportunity. They are reluctant to support statements on human rights that could threaten business opportunities in China.

David Gosset, Director of Academia Sinica Europaea, China Europe International Business School, Shanghai

1. From a Chinese perspective and beyond the usual technical issues , there is fundamentally a desire to be able to deal with a more cohesive EU , able to play a global and independent political and strategic role.

2. One of the consequences of the tensions - what I have called the "unnecessary quarrel" - between the EU and China last year has been the idea of a G2 between Beijing and Washington floated by some analysts; this is a theoretical bipolarization which can not help to solve the global problems. On this, I just wrote a small piece which is here: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KE16Dj03.html

3. One needs in the coming months to upgrade simultaneously the EU-China and the US-China links. Our global village needs a EU-China-US trio and not a G2. However, it will be a difficult process. The Dalai-Lama will soon visit Paris and it could again trigger some tensions between France and China which of course will impact the EU-China relationship. A constructive triangulation between Beijing, Washington and Brussels requires an open China, a cooperative America and a cohesive EU, but would depend also on actors free of past ideological barriers and able to conceive cooperation where all the potential synergy could flourish. Instead of speculating on a G-2, the time has come to initiate a strategic trialogue, a process which would bring together top Chinese, American and European leaders.