Maintaining strategic focus and enhancing cooperation resilience - China and Europe should adhere to the main tone of partnership positioning (authoritative forum)
China and Europe are important forces in promoting world multipolarity, defending the two major markets of economic globalization, and respecting the diversity of civilizations. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the interests of both sides have been deeply intertwined, and practical cooperation has yielded fruitful results. This is not only an important opportunity for each other's development, but also a precious model of cooperation for the international community.
This authoritative forum invites 5 international experts to confront the real challenges facing the development of China Europe relations, explore feasible paths to break free from the misconception of "decoupling and disconnection" and bridge cognitive differences, and look forward to the potential for cooperation in key areas such as green transformation and digital economy, contributing valuable insights to promoting the stable and far-reaching development of China Europe comprehensive strategic partnership.
Cui Hongjian (Director of the European Union and Regional Development Research Center at Beijing Foreign Studies University)
Ding Chun (Director of the Center for European Studies at Fudan University and Jean Monnet Chair Professor at the European Union)
George Catrujaros (Director of the European Institute of Chinese Law, Governance and Civilization, former Greek Foreign Minister)
Yan Ci (President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China)
Bernd Einmeier (President of the German Chinese Economic, Educational, and Cultural Association)
Practical cooperation yields fruitful results
Provide a rule-based, highly complementary, and sustainable 'stabilizer' for the world
Cui Hongjian: Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Europe in 1975, bilateral relations have maintained overall stable development and achieved fruitful results. Through close trade, investment, and technological cooperation, China and Europe have become key economic partners with highly connected markets and deeply integrated interests. Both sides have extended the practical cooperation experience to other fields, established a comprehensive strategic partnership, and reflected and implemented it through a series of dialogue and exchange mechanisms covering strategic security, economic and trade, cultural and social development, green digital transformation, and other levels, multiple fields, and all aspects. This not only strengthens macro policy coordination, but also effectively enhances political mutual trust. Both sides have formed a common position of adhering to multilateralism and opposing unilateralism, continuously promoting cooperation in global governance fields such as climate change, WTO reform, and digitization, becoming the main constructive force in addressing global common challenges.
George Cartrugaros: The most tangible dividend of long-term stable cooperation between Europe and China is providing a rule-based, highly complementary, and sustainable 'stabilizer' for the world. The current international order centered around the United Nations is being severely eroded by unilateralism and power politics. A healthy and stable comprehensive strategic partnership between Europe and China can provide support for world multipolarity and maintain a truly diversified distribution of power in the international order.
As important poles of a multipolar world, strengthening cooperation between Europe and China can help promote effective global responses to common challenges such as climate change, energy transition, and development imbalances, maintain a rules based multilateral trading system, and avoid the world returning to the old path of confrontation and zero sum games.
More importantly, EU China cooperation has proven that countries with different political systems can achieve win-win outcomes through negotiations, which not only meets the social needs of Europe but also aligns with China's development practices, providing a model for developed and developing countries to work together for development. China provides solar energy, batteries, electric vehicles and other technologies to the European market with scale and cost advantages that no other partner can match, significantly reducing the cost and time of green transformation in European society. The EU opens its market to China, provides investment, and drives employment, industrial upgrading, and market reform in China. The deep cooperation between Europe and China in fields such as technology, healthcare, and infrastructure construction directly benefits their respective industrial development and people's well-being.
Yan Ci: The EU and China have a history of over 50 years of fruitful cooperation. For a long time, the investment and technology brought by European companies have played a positive role in upgrading China's industries. On this basis, China now has a vibrant business environment and a world-class industrial cluster supporting level, becoming an important production and procurement base for many European enterprises. In many areas, there is still room for further deepening of cooperation between Europe and China, which will allow both sides to continue benefiting from bilateral relations for the next half century or even longer.
Persist in dialogue to control differences
Some of the economic and trade frictions between Europe and China have been given increasingly strong geopolitical and security colors, and some European politicians confuse them with extreme decoupling from China
Ding Chun: Currently, China Europe relations are in a transitional period of structural adjustment and increasing friction, with multiple real challenges continuing to emerge. The most prominent challenge among them is the interweaving of intensified industrial competition and rising security concerns in the context of China Europe economic and trade interdependence.
The economic and trade relations between China and Europe have gradually shifted from a vertical division of labor model dominated by complementarity in the past to horizontal competition in fields such as new energy and high-end manufacturing. Europe has developed a sense of crisis and even excessive stress response in the face of China's rapid industrial upgrading. At the same time, the trend of anti globalization is on the rise, and unilateralism and protectionism are clearly on the rise, leading to Europe strengthening its "de risk" thinking towards China. The EU's supply chain review, investment barriers, trade remedies, and industrial protection policies towards China continue to increase. The intensification of internal competition within the European Union, coupled with the amplification of economic and trade differences between China and Europe by the European Commission, some member states, and interest groups, has led to the politicization of normal economic and trade issues such as trade imbalances, market access, and industrial competition, becoming frequent points of friction between China and Europe.
George Cartrugaros: The biggest misconception of the current EU policy towards China is that some of the economic and trade frictions between Europe and China have been given increasingly strong geopolitical and security colors, and some European politicians confuse it with extreme "decoupling" from China. The EU should not politicize common business issues between European and Chinese companies, and view normal economic and trade frictions between Europe and China as China's "systemic rival" to the EU. This is not the correct attitude of the EU towards China's development. Such an approach will damage the relationship between Europe and China, and the losses it brings will be unbearable for European countries.
It is gratifying that rational reflection and correction of the above practices have emerged, and practice has also proved that the EU and China are playing a positive role in negotiations in the economic and trade fields. Taking the electric vehicle case as an example, in October 2024, the European Union decided to impose a 5-year final countervailing duty on electric vehicles imported from China, and the two sides conducted multiple rounds of negotiations. In January 2026, the European Commission officially issued guidance allowing Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers to replace countervailing duties with minimum price sales commitments.
European countries are realizing that competition and even friction with China in the field of trade can be properly resolved through negotiations that comply with the non discrimination principles of the World Trade Organization. What Europe really needs to practice is to adhere to strategic autonomy and avoid external interference. A confident EU should not equate "market openness" with "sovereignty damage".
Bernd Einmeier: In the 23 years since the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between Europe and China, bilateral relations have shown a complex state of deep interweaving, interdependence, and rule-based games in areas such as economy, trade, industrial chains, and geopolitics. Despite occasional frictions, economic and trade ties have always been the cornerstone of the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between Europe and China.
Some European leaders hope to reduce their strategic dependence on China, impose punitive tariffs on China or provoke political confrontation, which will push up their own prices and face reciprocal countermeasures. It has been proven that in the context of deep interdependence between industrial and supply chains, it is difficult for European society to operate independently of China's industrial supply.
Ultimately, the correct path for the EU to enhance its economic resilience lies in optimizing Europe's own business environment. The reconstruction of European economic security cannot rely on excessive government intervention and trade protectionism, but should use bold structural reforms to de bureaucratize, adopt competitive tax policies, and actively open up new growth tracks.
To tackle global challenges, Europe needs a strong and stable Chinese partner. Only EU China cooperation, which abandons ideological prejudice and is based on mutual trust and equal cooperation, can promote each other's sustainable growth and enable European enterprises to truly share the development opportunities brought about by Chinese path to modernization and China's market expansion.
Yan Ci: Currently, more than ever before, both Europe and China need to carefully evaluate the enormous value that the deepening EU China relationship has brought to both sides over the past half century. In the broader geopolitical turbulence environment, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China hopes that both Europe and China will recognize that their concerns are common when dealing with trade and investment restrictions, and on this principle, find ways to control economic and trade frictions through continuous consultations.
In recent months, there has been an increase in bilateral political negotiations between Europe and China, which is a very positive phenomenon. We hope that both sides can openly and honestly share their reasonable concerns.
Consolidate consensus and move towards the same direction
A healthy and stable China Europe relationship is not without differences, but rather the ability to maintain communication amidst differences and cooperation amidst competition
Cui Hongjian: The challenges currently faced by China Europe relations are not only an objective reflection of the unprecedented changes in the world, but also a necessary stage in the development of China Europe relations. Although the current cognitive and policy adjustments towards China by some European countries have increased the difficulty for the healthy and stable development of China EU relations, returning to pragmatism, strengthening dialogue, and maintaining cooperation are still the most favorable and reasonable way out for China EU relations.
Both China and Europe should grasp the historical position and development direction, maintain strategic determination, enhance cooperation resilience, make good use of existing dialogue and communication mechanisms, establish a comprehensive, objective and positive understanding of each other, continuously enhance mutual understanding, overcome the obstacles of unilateralism and protectionism, consolidate and enhance the role of economic and trade cooperation as a ballast, eliminate the negative impact of politicization and securitization, find commonalities from differences, seek consensus in differences, and improve cooperation level through benign competition.
Under the changing situation, China and Europe are fully capable of assuming their due responsibilities and providing strong energy and good examples for the reform and improvement of the global governance system.
Ding Chun: Against the backdrop of turbulent international situations, rising unilateralism and protectionism, a stable China Europe summit mechanism itself is a deterministic supply in international relations, which is conducive to clarifying the basic positioning of China Europe partnership from a strategic perspective, effectively hedging against external resistance narratives, and ensuring that bilateral relations do not deviate or lose control. A healthy and stable China Europe relationship is not without differences, but rather the ability to maintain communication amidst differences, cooperate amidst competition, and form more common interests in a changing international environment.
Looking towards the future, China and Europe should focus on building a comprehensive strategic partnership with greater global influence in the following areas: firstly, cooperation in green low-carbon and energy transformation, deepening the integration of renewable energy, energy storage technology, circular economy, and carbon market rules, jointly promoting global climate governance, and leading the global low-carbon transformation; The second is the governance of digital economy and artificial intelligence, promoting industrial digitization and cooperation in smart industry technology, and jointly building an inclusive and just global digital governance system; The third is cooperation between global development and third-party markets, focusing on food security, poverty reduction and sustainable infrastructure construction, respecting the will of host countries, carrying out mutually beneficial third-party cooperation, and assisting the development of the global South; The fourth is the reform of the multilateral system, jointly promoting the reform and improvement of the World Trade Organization and the global economic governance system, resisting unilateralism and protectionism, and maintaining the international system with the United Nations at its core.
Bernd Einmeier: To steadily move forward in an increasingly multipolar world, Europe and China should anchor their bilateral relations within an inclusive and comprehensive governance framework. European foreign policy should break away from the "either or" single camp attachment mentality and maintain a balanced dialogue with China, the United States, India, and Africa. The prerequisite for achieving this balance is for Europe to comprehensively enhance its "cognitive ability" towards China.
The Chinese government has launched a series of measures, including unilateral visa free access for multiple European countries, to pragmatically promote personnel exchanges between the two sides. With the continuous warming of exchanges in the fields of tourism, academia, and economy and trade, more and more European entrepreneurs and scholars are entering China to personally experience the vitality of China's technological innovation and development. This will help to dispel the false narratives and cognitive biases formed by some European media under the influence of ideology. At the institutional level, both Europe and China can strengthen communication and coordination within the framework of the United Nations, and work together to promote the implementation of the sustainable development agenda. The EU can also establish more regular dialogue channels with emerging markets and countries in the global South, represented by the BRICS mechanism, to ensure their full representation in multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations and the G20, and jointly safeguard multilateralism and the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries.
Peace and development are the common aspirations of all humanity. The two major forces of Europe and China share an inescapable responsibility for maintaining world peace and development. Both sides should take economic and trade cooperation as the boat, mechanism stability as the rudder, and rule-based global trade as the outline, jointly leading the stable development of the world.