China’s Economic Diplomacy and Sino-EU Relations

Economic cooperation and trade relations are the cornerstones in EU-China relations. For several decades, their cooperation in economy and trade developed much more rapidly than their political relations. Dialogue at different levels covering a broad range of issues help institutionalize bilateral ties, regularize bilateral exchange and strengthen communication and mutual understanding. The EU stays as China’s largest trading partner and China the EU’s second largest trading partner. Economic diplomacy serves as an important part in Sino-EU relations. Yet, in recent years, along with China’s rise and the euro crisis, there are new challenges to bilateral economic and trade relations. China’s economic diplomacy needs to be revised in order to deal with the changes and meet the challenges. This paper will be composed of the following parts: after a review of EU-China relations, it will define China’s economic diplomacy and its features and analyse four cases of China’s economic diplomacy in its relations with the EU. In the conclusion, it will examine the challenges for the partnership.