Europe-China Relations

In the past few years, Europe-China relations signaled a dramatic development and became a subject of heated international debate.

If traditionally, engagement and skepticism coexisted in both sides’ perspectives on one another, bilateral relations recently underwent a significant deterioration, providing reasons and opportunities for increasing mutual distrust. Issues involving a level playing field in trade and investment, human rights, and the status of Hong Kong ignited vocal criticism by many within EU institutions and European national governments. China opposes these gestures as illegitimate because they are considered an infringement on Beijing’s domestic affairs. As a result, Europe-China relations have reached an unprecedented low that could further detriment the bilateral ties and determine critical implications for the international system.

Against the backdrop of the current predicament, this digital lecture series will explore the characteristics, drivers, and challenges informing Europe-China relations and their political-diplomatic stances vis-à-vis each other.

As Europe has neither a single stance on nor a unified strategy towards China, the series will employ a number of national case studies to address the status and peculiarities of the bilateral relations. On this basis, this initiative aims to draw a comprehensive framework for understanding Europe-China relations, where due relevance will be given to the differences and specificities regarding European nations’ interaction with Beijing. Finally, the series will be taking a close look at China’s perspective over its relations with Europe, a dimension without which the picture would be anything but complete.

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