After the Lisbon Treaty came into force in December 2009, the European interest in strategic partnerships seemed to re-emerge. A special meeting of the European Council was convened in September 2010, with Heads of State and Government being invited to come debate the concept.
Prior to this, at the end of August, High Representative Catherine Ashton visited China for a first
“Partnership” dialogue, during which HR Ashton declared
"The EU and China face common challenges and share similar goals.
I look forward to working together with State Councillor Dai Bingguo in order to advance a constructive and cooperative relationship with China -- a key strategic partner for Europe in a globalised world."86
This meeting of the European Council discussed the EU's relations with strategic partners, stating in its Conclusions that the EU would seek to act in a more strategic manner, so as to increase its
weight and importance on the international stage, which will necessitate clearer identification of the EU's strategic interests and how to bring them about87. It will also require more coherence and coordination inside the EU, which is probably one of the biggest hurdles for it.
The conclusion of this meeting is that the EU needed to focus more on strategy when it came to its external action; interestingly, the EU's values were not mentioned, a departure from the EU's usual emphasis on engagement and conditionality.
In 2009 and 2010, during visits, Britain, France and Germany all expressed their support of and interest in strategic partnerships with China88
86
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/1077&format=HTML&aged=1&language=EN&guiLan guage=fr accessed May 29, 2012
87 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/116547.pdf accessed May 29, 2012 88 British PM Brown meets Chinese state councilor on bilateral ties, People's Daily (2009, October 20)
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6787727.html accessed May 27, 2012
China, Germany to hold annual consultations to deepen "strategic partnership", Deutsche Welle (2010, July 16)
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From the Chinese perspective, the relation with Europe suffered first when the EU failed to lift the arms embargo in 2005, and second after series of disputes in 2008 and 2009 concerning matters from repression in Tibet to the continued reticence of the EU to award China Market Economy Status. In this state of affairs, China lowered its political expectations when it came to the EU.
Instead, it has reinforced its bilateral relations with individual member states, especially those who have suffered the most from the financial crisis, such as Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain (who now represent thirty percent of Chinese investment and trade facilitation in Europe) and Eastern
European countries (representing ten percent of the same)89 thus possibly creating a “China lobby”
that will advocate for China within the EU to keep the cash flow coming.
Here one may wonder who drew back from the relationship first. As mentioned before, China was severely disappointed when the EU first failed to lift the arms embargo as it had assured it would.
Distrust of the EU only increased in later years, after repression in Tibet led to condemnations from EU leaders and protests in major European cities, marring the relay of the Olympic torch going to Beijing. Beijing's anger was only increased by European heads of state meeting with the Dalai Lama – Angela Merkel in 200790 and Nicolas Sarkozy in 200891, with the Assembly of Paris also making the Dalai Lama a “honorary citizen” of the city92. These events led to the postponement by China of the 2008 EU-China Summit in Lyon.93 China often seems to fail to realise how its
domestic actions influence its relations with other countries, since its own policy is one of non-interference above all. In this way, disapproval or condemnations of its actions tend to elicit very
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,5809459,00.html accessed May 27, 2012
Hu's visit injects new life into China-France relations, People's Daily (2010, November 5) http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7190167.html accessed May 29, 2012
89 Godement,F., Parello-Plesner,J., Richard, A. (2011) The Scramble for Europe, ECFR Policy paper, p.2
90 Merkel Angers China on Dalai Lama, BBC (2007, September 23) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7008931.stm accessed July 10, 2012
91 Rencontre Historique entre Sarkozy et le Dalaï-Lama, Le Figaro (2008, December 6)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2008/12/06/01003-20081206ARTFIG00696-premiere-rencontre-entre-sarkozy-et-le-dalai-lama-.php accessed July 10, 2012
92 Le dalaï-lama fait « citoyen d'honneur » de la ville de Paris, Libération (2008, April 21)
http://www.liberation.fr/politiques/010127746-le-dalai-lama-fait-citoyen-d-honneur-de-la-ville-de-paris accessed July 10, 2012
93 China Condemns France over Tibet, BBC (2008, November 27) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7751889.stm accessed July 10, 2012
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strong reactions in Beijing, the worsening of its relationship with the EU being a case in point.
Numerous trade disputes94 and the non-recognition of China's Market Economy Status by the EU did nothing to arrange matters. Finally, European powers were angered by what they perceived as China's blocking of any meaningful agreement at the 2009 Copenhagen Summit on climate change, as well as the snubs delivered there by China, with Premier Wen not appearing and sending second-tier officials from the foreign ministry.95
From these facts one can see that the depreciation of the relationship was a two-way matter, with both partners being dissatisfied with one another for different reasons.
In 2011, the Chinese Foreign Minister declared China's interest in strengthening the Strategic Partnership, declaring "Both sides should work together to pursue the political partnership based on mutual respect and mutual trust and deepen their win-win economic and trade partnership,"96. The same year China announced that it would work with the EU to « create conditions for the further development of defense-related cooperation »97 thus extending the Strategic Partnership.
In any case, the statements following the Fourteenth EU-China Summit of February 2012 are overwhelmingly positive. In his speech, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy declared that
94 When Partners Attack, The Economist (2011, February 11) http://www.economist.com/node/15502811 accessed July 10, 2012
95 Copenhagen Summit: China's quiet satisfaction at tough tactics and goalless draw, The Guardian (2009, December 20) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/20/copenhagen-climate-summit-china-reaction accessed July 10, 2012
How China and India Sabotaged the UN Climate Summit, Der Spiegel (2010, May 5)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-copenhagen-protocol-how-china-and-india-sabotaged-the-un-climate-summit-a-692861.html accessed July 10, 2012
96 China vows to deepen strategic partnership with EU: FM, Xinhua (2011, March 7)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-03/07/c_13765101.htm accessed May 28, 2012 97 China to promote defense cooperation with EU: defense ministry, Xinhua (2011, 26 October)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-10/26/c_131214225.htm accessed May 27, 2012
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nuclear programme[...]Both the EU and China support the double-track approach aimed at finding a diplomatic solution. »98
The Joint Press Communiqué of the Summit, in the same way, declares the progress in the relationship and in the Strategic Partnership itself, as well as the EU and China's willingness to work together on issues such as non-proliferation, Iran, and others, congratulating themselves on the development of EU-China relations and of the strategic partnership, renamed 'comprehensive
strategic partnership' in this case. The partners also extol the benefits of 'strategic cooperation' between themselves, declaring that it will be helpful to them but also to the rest of the world.
Despite the European Union’s assurances to China that it will continue looking into lifting the arms embargo, it does not seem to be currently on the agenda. In 2006, the European Commission stated that lifting the embargo was conditional upon ‘progress on China’s human rights situation; working to improve cross-straits relations; and [ . . .] improving the transparency of its military
expenditure’.99
In 2008, a new Code of Conduct was finally approved, rather more restrictive when it comes to exporting weapons to non-democratic countries and high-risk zones; if the embargo were to be lifted, this new Code should not make possible a real increase in weapons sales to China. In 2008 as well the EU adopted a new Action Plan on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security, aimed at countering the proliferation of WMDs which should further reinforce export controls in the matter of dual-use technologies and goods, including to China, which further limits weapons sales possibilities.100
Surprisingly, in a sudden move at the beginning of 2010, the Spanish Presidency of the EU renewed interest in the issue, with the Spanish ambassador to China insinuating that the EU would reopen
98 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/127964.pdf accessed May 29, 2012 99 European Commission (2006)«EU – China: Closer partners, growing responsibilities»
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2006/october/tradoc_130875.pdf accessed May 30, 2012
100 http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/fight_against_terrorism/jl0030_en.htm accessed May 30, 2012
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the issue; however, the rotating presidency shouldn't have such initiative, and Spain's involvement did not make it happen. Following this, in 2011, a senior Chinese diplomat called for a lift of the ban, reiterating the Chinese position that the ban is discriminatory against China.101
It is difficult to determine the current level of involvement in the Strategic Partnership from both sides; while the EU seems to have renewed its enthusiasm, it never did withdraw as much as China did, and in the meantime, China has been promoting its ties with different member states, even as it reiterates its commitment to the partnership. New developments such as the defense cooperation may point to a new start for the partnership; China's investment in non-proliferation also appears to be coming closer to the EU perspective, thus facilitating cooperation.
101 EU arms ban against China is political prejudice: diplomat, People's Daily (2011, November 30) http://english.people.com.cn/90883/7660560.html accessed May 30, 2012
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Chapter 6: Conclusions
As we come to the end of this thesis, hopefully it has done what it set out to do, that is examine the current state of cooperation as regards non-proliferation between the EU and China, and examine the impacts, if any, on the arms embargo.