Since 2003, the European Union (EU) and China have described their relationship as one of "strategic partnership." But the term is one that puzzles many on both sides. And as one expert said at a forum of EU and Chinese think tanks held in November in Beijing before the formal EU-China summit in Nanjing at the end of the month, "With the EU and China, there is always one other major partner at the table, whatever they talk about—and that is the United States." Are all three "strategic partners?" Can they all work within the same framework together, for common, shared aims? Are there areas in which two of the three are closer to each other, and have an advantage? Are there times, as the English saying goes, when "two really is company and three is a crowd?"
China and the EU have $400 billion of trade between them. This is the largest amount between any two entities. Such massive trade flows raise expectations to the amount of common interests between both sides. But no one could pretend the last four years have been easy ones in the relations between both sides. Failure by the EU to lift the arms embargo in 2005 after pressure from the United States led to disappointment in Beijing. Opposition by the EU to granting China market economy status despite doing so for Russia in 2002 added bewilderment. The meetings between Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France in 2007 and 2008 respectively with the Dalai Lama only topped off a rocky period between both sides.
Note EU-Digest: Contrary to the above report we must also recognize that the EU in contrast to the US and China looks at other countries based on its own philosophy which is not solely business oriented, but also has a humanitarian, social environmental and moral aspect. China and the US must therefore take this into account when dealing with the US that "they can't have their cake and eat it to".
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