Title: An Analysis of How the EU Understands Its Strategic Partnership with China
Author: Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang
Affiliation: RMIT University
Issue: Peace & Stability – Volume 7 Issue 1
Publisher: Yonsei University Press
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ABSTRACT
From the European perspective, the rise of China challenges the European Union (EU) on intellectual, technological, organizational, economic and political fronts but also offers ample opportunities for cooperation. The EU has attached increasing importance to building a strategic partnership with China. However, what Brussels means when it talks about forging a “strategic partnership” with China and on what conceptual ideas and principles it wants this “strategic partnership” to develop have not been made clear. This paper aims to offer insight into the EU’s ideas of strategic partnership with China. It will begin with a review of the EU approach to China. Next, it will make an assessment of the thinking behind EU-China communications to show the differences between their respective conceptualizations of strategic partnership. Then, it will demonstrate the difficulties caused by these differences and recommend how the two sides should manage them.