The Development of EU-China Relations

Abstract

This chapter contains a chronological account of the development of EU-China relations from the resumption of relations after the Tiananmen Square unrest to the visit of Xi Jinping in March 2014 as the first Chinese president to pay an official visit to the EU headquarters in Brussels. The chapter documents the first steps toward the setting up of the strategic partnership, which were taken by the EU in an effort to create good commercial and political relations with China and include China into the world community. Further, it describes the near breakdown in the relations following the EU’s criticism of China’s human rights record and its handling of Tibet in 2008–2009, the impact of the eurozone crisis of 2010–2012 on bilateral relations between the EU and China, and the re-set of the relations on a more realistic basis which prevails today. The chapter also gives a short overview of the issue areas in which the EU and China have long-standing, unresolved disputes and contentious relations: the human rights dialogue, the EU’s arms export ban, the recognition of China as a market economy, and the lack of cohesiveness among EU member states regadings the EU's relations to China.