Engaging China — Uniting Europe? EU Foreign Policy towards China

Abstract

With the European Security Strategy adopted by the European Council in December 2003, ten years after the Maastricht Treaty came into force, the EU is clearly acknowledging China¹ as a rising key player in the global arena and thus a major target of the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) (European Council 2003). The rapid rise of China challenges the EU’s economic power and competitiveness as well as its political influence: China is now the EU’s second biggest trading partner behind the US, with exports almost tripling between 1999 (€19.6 billion) and 2005 (€51.7 billion), and a massive trade deficit of €106 billion in 2005 (European Commission 2006). Furthermore, China is still the main beneficiary of European development aid, as well as a major competitor in industrial manufacturing, thus placing the European labour market under pressure. What is more, China is an increasingly confident, emerging global actor, and the recent arms embargo has proved that relations with China cannot be dealt with through a solely economic prism:² by overlooking the security implications of lifting the arms embargo, the EU found itself engaged in an acrimonious discussion with its major ally, the US, leaving the world with the impression of a disunited European Union, prone to acting rashly. Thus, the case of China highlights to what extent incoherent European policies may damage long-standing strategic interests of the EU and weaken the EU’s stance at the global level. A common foreign and security policy towards China should therefore be an essential part of the EU’s effort to become a global player.