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Resetting EU–China relations from a values-based to an interests-based engagement

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Abstract

The relationship between the European Union (EU) as an international actor and The People's Republic of China is currently in crisis whose root causes are more than just Eurozone instability but extends into important policy domains including global governance, trade reciprocity and bilateral investment. This article argues that underlying these tensions has been too great an emphasis by the EU on a primarily values-based engagement model that has collided with historically resonant hostility and different social norms to create obstacles that now need to be overcome. In so doing, it moves beyond the theory of defensive normativity, instead proposing that only when European interests can be intersected with China's predominantly realist world view will successful negotiating outcomes begin to be forged. An exploration of China's core national interests is overlapped with the EU's engagement patterns to help explain past failures and illustrate possible future strategies for resolving challenges.

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  1. Contemporary China Studies Programme, School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, University of Oxford, 74 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HP, UK

    Paul Irwin Crookes

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Crookes, P. Resetting EU–China relations from a values-based to an interests-based engagement. Int Polit 50, 639–663 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2013.25

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