The EU and China-Myth Versus Reality of a (not so) ‘Strategic Partnership’

Abstract

When the European Union (EU) started referring to China as ‘strategic partner’ in 2003, it announced that the ‘strategic partnership’ with Beijing would facilitate the adoption of joint regional and global foreign and security policies. More than a decade later, however, that has not taken place as Brussels and Beijing have indeed very little (if anything) in common as regards approaches towards international politics and security. In fact, critical scholars and analysts (like this author) have for years argued that there is no ‘strategic dimension’ of EU-China ties beyond the expansion of bilateral EU-China trade and commercial ties. The below-mentioned EU-Chinese dialogue on Asian security e.g. has not produced any tangible results and China’s current regional foreign and security policies in general and those related to Beijing’s territorial disputes in particular are evidence for at least two things: firstly, EU influence on Chinese security policy behaviour remains in spite of a bilateral security dialogue on East Asia de facto non-existent. Secondly, Beijing will continue to completely ignore EU advice and concerns about Chinese regional and global foreign policy behaviour and will continue to pursue regional security policies in general and those related to territorial claims and disputes in particular, which are—to put it bluntly—the very opposite of how the EU approaches and adopts foreign and security policies. Consequently, this chapter concludes that EU-China cooperation in international politics and security will continue to take place largely (if not exclusively) on paper and paper only.