EU Observer publishes GPPi op-ed on “Why the China summit didn't happen and why it matters”

GPPi Research Associates Stephan Mergenthaler and Björn Conrad published an op-ed on the recently cancelled EU-China summit. The piece examines the underlying causes of the partnership’s fragility and offers recommendations for a more stable and effective EU approach towards China. The op-ed was published by the EU Observer (online) on 4 December 2008. The piece is part of GPPi’s The European Union, China, and Global Governance: Perceptions, Misperceptions, and Convergences project.

Following the quarrel over Tibet, the Chinese government called off the 11^th EU-China summit which was supposed to take place in Lyon on Monday 1 December, 2008. The article argues that the row over Tibet is in fact only a symptom of a deeper malaise in EU-China relations. One needs to look beyond the headlines to see what went wrong and to figure out how to fix a partnership that has great problem-solving potential.

While expert cooperation has boomed in recent years, EU political leaders have failed to invest in building an equally strong relationship at the diplomatic and political levels. All too often they go-it-alone and use misperceptions and misrepresentations of China so as to pander to domestic audiences, undermining the broader strategic goals of the EU’s China policy. The piece concludes that all attempts to turn China into a responsible stakeholder will fail so long as the EU is unwilling to become joint stakeholders in a new system of international collaboration.