EU-CHINA CULTURAL AND PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE RELATIONS

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71 cooperating with international entertainment companies in future. This year, coinciding with President Xi's anti-corruption campaign, Chinese media has released a new drama about corruption, titled "In the Name of the People" (人民的名義). Described by Western media as the China's House of Cards, a popular American show about the same topic, this new drama shows the dark sides of the Chinese bureaucracy, being the first one "in which one of the party’s most senior leaders is portrayed as a villain", with the purpose of showing the efforts made by the current government to eradicate corruption from the system (Phillips, 2016). It is arguably a good example of the innovations made by Chinese politicians in an effort to deal with culture business and diplomacy, combining the folkloristic and more classical topics presented by the CIs (interview n°5, April 2017), with more innovative aspects.

Finally, the Belt and Road initiative can undoubtedly be considered part of the Chinese cultural diplomacy machine, since it is the most comprehensive foreign policy instrument implemented by the PRC, and especially because, among the other purposes, it aims at creating deeper people-to-people connections. The next chapter discusses the role of OBOR in the EU-China cultural relations, as one of its pillars is identified as people-to-people exchanges, and because it has the potential to boost intercultural dialogue between the countries and regions it passes through.

5.2.2 EU-CHINA CULTURAL AND PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE RELATIONS

Interestingly, Matteo Ricci, the father of the modern public diplomacy, who based his approach of "cultural accommodation" on relationship building, can be considered as the pioneer of the China-EU relations (Zhang, Y. 2014:6). Since the 1990s, the PRC has started putting major effort into its relations with various countries and institutions in Europe, and between 2003 and 2005 its cultural relations with the member states also started improving. The UE and China were both Party to the "2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions" (Goethe Institut, 2011). Nonetheless, because of limited areas of competence of the EU over foreign policy matters, Beijing-Brussels cultural relations could not boost until 2006,

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72 when, with "the EU's competences expansion (allowing the European Commission to take foreign policy decisions more independently), the implementation of China's overseas cultural strategy", and further growth of their relations, also the cultural exchanges finally started progressing (Tian, 2017:95). Over the last decade, the two powers have been collaborating in the fields of education, training, culture, multilingualism, youth and very recently also on tourism. "Cooperation consisted of regular policy dialogues at government level, as well as concrete outputs in terms of joint projects and events" (European Commission, 2017b). These activities have all been integrated under the EU-China High Level People-to-People Dialogue (HPPD), which, as already explained in the second chapter, was established in 2012 as the third pillar of the China-EU relations, with the purpose of raising mutual trust and strengthening intercultural understanding between the two sides and their peoples. The first round was held in Brussels on the 18^th of April, 2012, and followed by a HPPD Forum, during which "Commissioner Vassiliou and Minister of Culture Cai Wu adopted a Joint Declaration on EU-China cultural cooperation and participated in the China-EU Multilingualism conference at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU)" (European Commission, 2017b). As already explained in chapter 2, 2012 was declared the Year of Intercultural Dialogue, after the success of the EU-China Year of Youth, launched the previous year.

2013 was rich with events particularly significant for the cultural relations: in April, the first meeting of the Higher Education Platform for Cooperation and Exchanges (HEPCE) took place in Brussels; followed by the EU-China language initiative, which was organized in various European universities, in order to "enrich the professional development of Chinese foreign language teachers".

On the 21^st of November, during the 16^th EU-China Summit held in Beijing, the two partners adopted the "EU-China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation", one of its four chapters addresses the people-to-people exchanges. On the 6^th of April of the following year the second round of the HPPD took place in Beijing, whereas the third Dialogue, accompanied by panels on education, youth, culture and gender equality, was held in Brussels during the celebrations of the 40^th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the PRC and the EU. On the 11th of October 2016

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73 Beijing hosted the first China-EU Education Ministers Conference, enriched by the Sino-Europe Forum on Education Policy Think Tanks as a side event. The next HPPD will take place in China this year, and 2018 was declared the "EU-China Year of Tourism" (European Commission, 2017b) as well as the "European Year of Cultural Heritage" (Interview n°2, February 2017). Finally, under the framework of the HPPD the two sides will cooperate on festivals and on the "Atelier for Young Festival Managers"(Interview n°2, February 2017).

Atlas International Culture (AIC), a Chinese- Belgian company based in Belgium, aimed at

"connecting China and Europe in the fields of arts, culture, education, trainings and business", organizes a wide range of projects and events, for example numerous exhibitions, art and film festivals, forums, talks and internships in Belgium for Chinese students. Its activities focus mostly on "education programs, intercultural training and public relations related to China-EU cooperation"

(Teo & Stec, 2016; Atlas International Culture a). On April 27th, 2016 the organization officially inaugurated the opening of the Europe-China OBOR Culture & Tourism Development Committee, known also as OBOR Committee, with the objective of creating a "network of top-level Chinese and European partners active in touristic and cultural aspects of diplomacy, business and politics"

by working as a "crossroad platform for touristic and cultural initiatives" (Atlas International Culture b). As the new strategic partner of the Belt and Road Initiative, AIC will combine the trade aspects of the Chinese initiative with the EU's cultural diplomacy in order to boost the image of China in Europe, and, in the future, the visibility of the EU in China (Teo & Stec, 2016).

When implementing cultural diplomacy or promoting people to people exchanges, academic cooperation is the field on which states tend to focus first, this does not only include students exchanges, but also professors and researchers networks, organization of training and awarding of scholarships. China and the EU have also been investing heavily in their academic cooperation and interchanges: China is currently investing in youth forums, in order to create a generation of future managers, leaders, scholars with more positive and "receptive attitudes" towards the country (Interview n°2, February 2017). The Hanban provides very rich and appealing scholarships for

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74 foreign students for either short term exchanges or language and culture courses, or for longer periods of undergraduate or degree studies. More and more European students are applying for the Hanban/Confucius Institute scholarship or the Chinese Government scholarship. On the other hand, the EU has allocated a budget of €14.7 billion for Erasmus +, the "EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe" (Erasmus +). The Commission has worked on easing the participation in the Erasmus program, by "providing credit mobility" for European students to be able to transfer to their home university the credits gained during their exchange in China. Also Chinese students can benefit from the Erasmus + scholarship by pursuing their degree or a double degree in Europe, or for shorter exchanges. The program does not only supports students, but also higher education institutions by supporting joint academic projects: numerous Chinese university participated in the 2015 and 2016 projects, for example Tongji University is connected to schools in Ireland, Estonia and Hungary with a Joint Master Degree on Cinematography, whereas students of Nankai University can pursue a joint Master on Global Markets, Local Creativities (Interview n°2, February 2017). Outside the Erasmus framework, many European and Chinese universities have already established double degree programs, for instance Science Po, in France, has a dual degree with Fudan University and with Peking University (Science Po); King's College London set up a double master with Renmin University (King's College London). In addition, many high education institutions from both sides are already cooperating through the University Alliance of the Silk Road, which was launched in 2015 by the PRC as a global Higher Education Platform supporting OBOR (Interview n°2, February 2017). All these initiatives have shown to be very successful, especially from the EU point of view: "there are six times as many Chinese students in Europe as European students in China"(Islam & Kabir, 2015:33).

From a more general perspective, the two powers have been making huge efforts to enhance their cultural relations. China already signed "official cultural exchange action plans or memorandums of understanding with all the EU member states"; it has organized Chinese Culture

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75 Years together with various cultural events in many countries, such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK (Ding, 2014). Furthermore, Chinese and European organizations have established long-term collaborations, for example

"between the Chinese Forbidden palace and the Louvre; between the Chinese national museum and three major German museums, as well as the Venice national palace museum; between the Chinese national library and the British library; and between the Chinese national theatre and the British national theatre"

(Ding, 2014).

Another crucial element of the people to people exchanges is the Europe-China Forum, established by the Chinese Mission to the EU and Friends of Europe¹³ in order to boost Beijing-Brussels relationship and create more dynamic interchanges. The Forum, partner of the China Public Diplomacy Association, meets every year to address the "multi-faceted" EU-China relations (Islam

& Kabir, 2015).

Cultural exchanges do not only include academic and artistic cooperation, but they also involve tourist interchanges and creative industry projects. The old continent is the "second largest destination of Chinese tourists" (Teo & Stec, 2016:1), in particular every year thanks to the ease in visa application, around 10 million Chinese visitors travel in Europe (Arlt, 2017). According to hotels.com 2014 report "European destinations are the most popular amongst Chinese travelers in terms of places they wish to visit in the next 12 months", and their favorite destinations are Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland (hotels.com, 2014:21). Chinese tourists are interested in sightseeing and photographing local landmarks, but especially eager to go shopping, indeed the biggest part of their budget is destined to the purchase of luxury brand-name goods, such as Gucci bags and Bordeaux wines (Chen & Mardeusz, 2015). The PRC and the EU are currently engaging with each other and searching for synergies aimed at boosting their tourism economy (Interview

13 "Friends of Europe is a leading think tank that connects people, stimulates debate and triggers change to create a more inclusive, sustainable and forward-looking Europe." (Friends of Europe)

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76 n°2, February 2017), in order to welcome the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY2018), a tourism initiative launched in 2016 by the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. ECTY2018 "provides a unique opportunity to increase visitors' flows and investments on both sides" (European Commission, 2017c). Moreover, in December 2016 the EU launched the World Bridge Tourism (WBT) project, led by the European Tourism Commission (ETC), an association of 32 national tourism organizations, and the European Tourism Association (ETOA). The WBT will act as the “curtain raiser” for ECTY2018 (Arlt, 2017), since it was established with the purpose of boosting the flows of visitors from China to the EU as well as promoting European fashion and cultural values at tourism fairs around China (Teo & STec, 2016). The World Bridge Tourism will take place in Shanghai on the 9^th and 10^th of May 2017, in conjunction with ITB China¹⁴. The WBT program includes a "conference and a B2B workshop between tourism-related EU companies (particularly SMEs) and Chinese operators" (COTRI, 2017).