Zhongqi Pan

Role Dynamics in a Structured Relationship: The EU–China Strategic Partnership

In this article, we investigate the function of strategic partnerships as a new type of state interaction in the international system. We are primarily interested in the dynamics of strategic partnerships and to that aim we analyze the competitive role-playing that occurs in the EU–China Strategic Partnership. We contend that EU and China engage in competitive role-playing in order to enhance their position and status as global actors and to seek recognition of their international roles. The interaction between the EU and China is analyzed throughout four periods in which their role conceptions have undergone change and adaptation. The article claims to make a theoretical contribution by developing the understanding of social interaction in the international system by conceptualizing strategic partnerships as arenas (structures) in which international roles play out, and an empirical contribution by tracing the complexities of the EU–China Strategic Partnership by utilizing role theorys conceptual apparatus.

China in its Neighbourhood: A ‘Middle Kingdom’ not Necessarily at the Centre of Power

China’s regional policy is mainly centred on its efforts to forge a friendly, stable and prosperous neighbourhood. To achieve this end, China has developed an approach combining both partnership bilateralism and tailored regional multilateralism. By and large, China does not consider its neighbourhood as a whole and has been very cautious and hesitant to engage in overarching ‘region-building’. China has relied mostly on soft (attractive) use of power, particularly economic power, supported by cultural and assurance diplomacy, even though diplomatic and economic coercion have been exercised occasionally. China has once again become the biggest economy in Asia. Yet, neither the new power configuration in Asia nor China’s own ambitions point to a return to the old ‘Middle Kingdom’ with China holding a dominant position in its neighbourhood. China will most probably continue to see itself as a self-restrained regional power in the foreseeable future.

Unlikely Partners? The EU-China Strategic Partnership in a Changing World Order

This first chapter introduces the main aims of the book. These pertain to analyzing and understanding the significance of the increasing number of strategic partnerships in the world and to explicating the development of the EU-China strategic partnership since its creation in 2003. The authors argue that in order to fully understand the dynamics of the EU-China strategic partnership, the deep-seated conceptual differences which reign between the EU and China must be taken into account. To this end, the following chapters of the book provide in-depth analyses of these differences focusing on external and internal norms, vision of power, worldviews, and modes of international engagement. Furthermore, the authors argue that to understand the social dynamic that has emerged in the EU-China strategic partnership, its significance should be assessed from a three-pronged approach taking the international, bilateral, and individual levels into account.

China, Europe, and Normative Preferences on Sovereignty and Human Rights

This chapter explores persistent deep conceptual differences between China and the European Union (EU). It is argued that in regard to sovereignty and human rights, China and Europe usually stand at the two opposing ends of a normative spectrum as the Europeans give priority to human rights while the Chinese give preference to sovereignty. This has resulted in contending views on the management of international security crises, military intervention in third countries, the diffusion of norms, and the purpose and outcome of the EU-China dialogue on human rights. However, despite opposing normative standpoints, China and Europe are not bound to perpetual conflict over sovereignty and human rights issues as both are capable of pragmatism as well as dogmatism depending on the issue at stake.

Europe, China, and the Diffusion of Norms

This chapter differentiates norms for states according to an internal-external dichotomy. While internal norms define what is regarded as appropriate behavior of nation-states in domestic governance, external norms define that in the international sphere. For China and the European Union (EU), their normative power resources, their efforts on norm diffusion, and their normative influence in the international arena, all constitute big contrasts. Their normative divergence is more evident and severe as concerns internal norms, with human rights and sovereignty the most noticeable, than compared to external norms, such as multipolarity for China and multilateralism for the EU. Despite the fact that the normative dimension has become an ever-greater irritant in China-EU relations, their normative engagement has also influenced positively on the establishement of the China-EU strategic partnership.

The Development of EU-China Relations

This chapter contains a chronological account of the development of EU-China relations from the resumption of relations after the Tiananmen Square unrest to the visit of Xi Jinping in March 2014 as the first Chinese president to pay an official visit to the EU headquarters in Brussels. The chapter documents the first steps toward the setting up of the strategic partnership, which were taken by the EU in an effort to create good commercial and political relations with China and include China into the world community. Further, it describes the near breakdown in the relations following the EU’s criticism of China’s human rights record and its handling of Tibet in 2008–2009, the impact of the eurozone crisis of 2010–2012 on bilateral relations between the EU and China, and the re-set of the relations on a more realistic basis which prevails today. The chapter also gives a short overview of the issue areas in which the EU and China have long-standing, unresolved disputes and contentious relations: the human rights dialogue, the EU’s arms export ban, the recognition of China as a market economy, and the lack of cohesiveness among EU member states regadings the EUs relations to China.

European and Chinese Perspectives on the International System

This chapter analyzes the deep-seated differences in perceptions that the Chinese and Europeans hold in regard to the international system, the aims and principles for international cooperation, and the contending visions of power. It also investigates the difference in terms of actorness of China and the European Union (EU) and how it impacts their outlook on the world, foreign policy behavior, as well as their ability and resources to influence the conduct of international politics. It is argued that the roles played by China and the EU in the evolving international system are important on a global level, not least because of the differences in outlook on global governance, interdependence, and the nature of the evolving global order. In order to fully gauge the ramifications of the EU-China strategic partnership, it is important to consider the differences in their understanding of their respective international roles and identities as global actors.

Relations Between the European Union and China in a Future Perspective

The concluding chapter summarizes the main findings of the book. The first aim of the study was to actualize a complex understanding of the deeper meaning of strategic partnerships. For this purpose, a three-pronged conceptual framework was devised which analyzes the significance of strategic partnerships on the systemic, bilateral, and individual levels. The second aim was to explicate the complexities of the relationship between the European Union (EU) and China and the evolution of the EU-China strategic partnership. To this end, the authors analyzed the conceptual differences that reign between the EU and China in regard to their perceptions on sovereignty, internal and external norms, soft and hard power, as well as their views on the world and appropriate forms of international engagement. These conceptual differences play an important role in shaping the bilateral engagement between the EU and China explaining the EU’s and China’s contending international roles and milieu-shaping ambitions. To conclude, the authors contend that the EU-China strategic partnership constitutes an important piece of the puzzle as to why the number of strategic partnerships has surged in recent years and the function they have in the emerging world order.

Strategic Partnerships: A New Form of International Engagement

In this chapter, the authors explore the meaning of strategic partnerships and their place in the international system on the basis of a number of interrelated dimensions and contending theoretical perspectives. In order to analyze in detail the meaning of strategic partnerships, the authors propose a definition of these partnerships based on their descriptive and conceptual properties which are derived from contending theoretical approaches: the classic realist and the social constructivist. On this basis, the authors devise a three-pronged analytical framework with the purpose of establishing what functions strategic partnerships fulfill for the partnering states and which aims they are associated with. First, the systemic level is considered by asking what functions strategic partnerships have in the international system. Second, the inter-relational level is analyzed by querying why and with what aim states engage in bilateral partnerships. Finally, the intra-relational level is explicated by investigating what functions strategic partnerships have in the construction of the identity of the participating states and the expectations that individual actors (states and international organizations) hold in terms of their reputation and status. The chapter concludes with a brief description of the approaches that the European Union and China have taken vis-a-vis strategic partnerships in general and what can be deduced in terms of foreign policy strategy on the basis of existing strategic partnerships.

Peaceful Rise, Multipolarity, and China’s Foreign Policy Line

Along with China’s increasing engagement at regional and global levels, its foreign policy and strategy have attracted a flood of research. Many researchers have highlighted a far-reaching change in China’s foreign policies and diplomatic practices. For example, Evan Medeiros and M. Taylor Fravel argued, in their 2003 Foreign Affairs article entitled “China’s New Diplomacy,” that China’s foreign engagement had become more active, more moderate, and more diverse.1 Liu Guoli similarly claimed, in his 2004 edited volume entitled China’s Foreign Policy in Transition, that “in conjunction with rapid economic growth and profound social transformation, China’s foreign policy is experiencing a significant transition.”2 Against the background of the 2008 global financial crisis, Barry Buzan, who believes in China’s peaceful rise, felt that “China is at a turning point bigger than any since the late 1970s” and that the rather successful policies China has adopted for the past 30 years will no longer be equally effective in the next 30 years. He concluded, China’s “continuing with ‘peaceful rise’ is going to get more difficult.”3 At the same time, however, some others were inspired by the prospect that China was overtaking Japan as the world’s second largest economy in 2010 to ask questions such as “will China change the rules of global order.” Notwithstanding no convincing answer to this ambiguous question, two authors were very sure to articulate that “Beijing’s growing economic power and political influence have promoted a transformation in its foreign policy.”4