Roland Vogt (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083879
- eISBN:
- 9789882209077
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083879.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Over the last three decades, the relationship between Europe and China has undergone a profound transformation. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, this volume explores new issues and fields of ...
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Over the last three decades, the relationship between Europe and China has undergone a profound transformation. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, this volume explores new issues and fields of contact - beyond trade - that increasingly bind Europe and China together. The contributors reflect critically on the discourses of strategic partnership and constructive engagement that inform many of the official contacts, illustrate the pervasive mutual misperceptions and false expectations that exist on both sides, and examine the challenges in addressing new common concerns ranging from human rights and policies towards Africa, to climate policy, energy security, and Sino-Vatican relations. In the absence of common borders and strategic interests in each others' regions, Sino-European affairs are cordial and friendly, but also distant and of secondary priority. Despite the solidity of commercial ties and the growing quantity of interactions, a qualitative upgrade of the relationship has yet to occur. In Europe, anxieties are increasing about what China's rise will mean for European prosperity and global influence. The global financial crisis is bringing about a structural shift in the relationship but Europe has yet to formulate a viable and sustained response to a more assertive China.Less
Over the last three decades, the relationship between Europe and China has undergone a profound transformation. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, this volume explores new issues and fields of contact - beyond trade - that increasingly bind Europe and China together. The contributors reflect critically on the discourses of strategic partnership and constructive engagement that inform many of the official contacts, illustrate the pervasive mutual misperceptions and false expectations that exist on both sides, and examine the challenges in addressing new common concerns ranging from human rights and policies towards Africa, to climate policy, energy security, and Sino-Vatican relations. In the absence of common borders and strategic interests in each others' regions, Sino-European affairs are cordial and friendly, but also distant and of secondary priority. Despite the solidity of commercial ties and the growing quantity of interactions, a qualitative upgrade of the relationship has yet to occur. In Europe, anxieties are increasing about what China's rise will mean for European prosperity and global influence. The global financial crisis is bringing about a structural shift in the relationship but Europe has yet to formulate a viable and sustained response to a more assertive China.
