Europe-China Relations: From promises to action

“Xiang Jiang Forum (湘江论坛): Co-operation on City Building” will be held from 20-22 October 2014 in Changsha, Hunan Province by China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA), with the support of the Foreign Ministry of the P.R.C. and Hunan Provincial Government.

The theme of the forum is to exchange experiences on the urban development from the perspectives of different countries and to promote international co-operations on how to build a better city.

Tackling 21st Century foreign policy challenges requires the building of global partnerships. Europe and China share a commitment to multilateralism and to diplomacy in dealing with a rapidly-changing and often unstable world. Europe remains an important regional and global actor and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently promised a stronger role as a “responsible big power”. Beijing is seeking not only a “new type of great power relations” with the United States and reinforced cooperation with Europe but is also building stronger ties with ASEAN and Africa as well as with Central and South America. A plethora of new bilateral and multilateral initiatives have been announced including projects such as the Silk Road Economic Belt through Central Asia, Russia and eastern Europe and the corresponding Maritime Silk Road with ASEAN. Beijing is also actively pursuing free trade agreements with its neighbours, including Australia, South Korea, and India. The outreach has gone hand in hand with a firm stance on the East and South China Sea territorial disputes. Is China poised to take a more active role in international issues, including global governance challenges, and does it now see itself as a global norm-setter? Are EU-China relations still important and relevant in a rapidly-evolving globalised environment? With Europe and China agreeing to start an annual development dialogue, what are the main opportunities—and barriers— to strengthen cooperation in this field? How can both sides ensure closer cooperation in tackling 21st century challenges?

Recognising that building trust is essential to forge a truly strategic partnership, the EU and China have expanded their relationship beyond politics and trade to include a much-needed “High-Level People-to-People Dialogue” (HPPD). In recent discussions, both sides have also agreed to pay special attention to strengthening culture, education and youth exchanges. A range of joint initiatives have been launched under the HPPD framework, including the EU-China Year of Intercultural Dialogue in 2012, the Higher Education Platform for Cooperation and Exchange and the China Tuning project,  aimed at jointly defining learning outcomes to better compare education systems. What progress has been made so far in encouraging more people-to-people contact between China and Europe, particularly among the youth? What strategies can be implemented to foster better understanding between the two sides? What are the main priority areas for strengthening cultural cooperation? What further steps can be taken to expand opportunities for mobility in education and increase the number of exchanges between students and scholars? What are public perceptions of China in Europe and vice versa? What is the role of traditional and new media in forming and debunking those misperceptions?  How can both sides ensure better access to knowledge on respective institutional settings, actors and organisations to foster dialogue and cooperation?

Based on the two-day discussions, participants will be asked to provide actionable recommendations to boost EU-China relations. The moderator will collect action points and synthesise into an agenda for action — providing a relevant list of insightful take-aways to share with policymakers and business leaders on both sides.