The European union and China: Partnership in changing times

The European Union’s strategic partnership with China is one of the longest-standing and most institutionalised of the EU’s strategic partnerships. This is striking given that the EU (a post-sovereign collective of liberal democracies) and the People’s Republic of China (a Communist developing state with a strong attachment to state sovereignty) might not be viewed as natural partners. The development of the EU-China strategic partnership through the 1990s and 2000s was facilitated by a number of developments: The apparent triumph of a liberal international order and a context in which China and Russia were reforming; a Western consensus on engagement as the most appropriate policy towards China (and also Russia); and Chinese willingness to reciprocate European engagement. From a social constructivist theoretical perspective, for both partners engagement with the other was significant in terms of legitimating identity projects at the heart of their respective foreign policies and together they constructed a rhetoric of ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’. The EU-China strategic partnership has been more than simply window-dressing, but the rhetoric of partnership also hid substantial differences and tensions. Growing challenges to the liberal international order and China’s increasing authoritarianism domestically and growing assertiveness internationally will make the EU-China strategic partnership hard to sustain.