Brussels, 20/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The last EU/China summit of the Wen Jiabao era consolidates progress accomplished since the strategic partnership was initiated in 2003. Beijing reaffirms its support for European integration, which is challenged by the debt crisis, and plays the conciliation game regarding bilateral trade tension.
Strategic partnership - dynamism of Wen years. Prior to the arrival, in spring 2013, of a new team of leaders in Beijing, the 15th EU/China summit in Brussels on Thursday 20 September gave European and Chinese leaders an opportunity to draw up an inventory of progress made in bilateral relations during the era of Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister who, like President Hu Jintao, is to give up his place after the 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, for the ten-yearly reshuffle of those in power.
In their joint statement, European leaders - European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso - and Chinese leaders said they were “determined to continue to develop the partnership in the future to further increase its strategic dimension and bring EU-China cooperation to a higher level”. As proof of this determination on their part, several bilateral agreements were signed on Thursday - a comprehensive Innovation Cooperation Dialogue; a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the competition authorities of the EU and the Chinese authorities responsible for application of the anti-monopoly law; an EU-China cyber task force; and an agreement with a view to dialogue on cooperation relating to space technology.
The last summit of the Wen era also allowed consolidation of advances made in all fields of EU-China cooperation: a cooperation plan in agriculture and rural development, agreed in June; a partnership for sustainable urbanisation, launched in May, and which, on 19 September initiated the first Mayors' Forum; the first high level meeting on energy, launched in May, and the opening of discussion with a view to a Euratom/China agreement; a high level people-to-people dialogue, touching on training, culture, youth and multilingualism; cooperation on employment and social affairs; the launch of a joint project on managing the risks of natural disaster; and an agreement to launch dialogue on mobility and migration. Steered by Wen, the Chinese government will also have agreed to strengthen future cooperation with the EU on governance and reform of the public administration, as well as on transport and urban mobility.
Beijing's support for European integration is confirmed. EU leaders, who placed great expectations in the promises of China to pursue its purchase of sovereign bonds from European countries suffering from the debt crisis, may now rest assured. They expressed “confidence that appropriate steps were being taken to tackle the euro area sovereign debt crisis”, while China, which possesses massive foreign exchange reserves evaluated at US$3,200 billion (a quarter of which is in euro), reaffirmed its support for the European integration process. Beijing nonetheless plans to actively discuss means of cooperation with the ESM (European Stability Mechanism), the future permanent fund for rescuing the eurozone, Wen warned.
And yet all is not yet won. Wen reminded his hosts of Beijing's annoyance at the fact that the EU is keeping in place its arms embargo on China, established after the repression of Tian An Men in 1989, and the slowness with which the EU is granting China market economy status. “I have to be very frank in saying this”, Wen said, adding: “A solution has been elusive. I deeply regret this and hope the EU side will take greater initiative to solve these issues”.
Nonetheless, this comes as a sign of opening by Beijing at the end of the reign of China's leading team headed by Hu and Wen, with the signing of an agreement for pursuing dialogue on human rights, a subject that is highly sensitive for the Chinese side. After the session of 29 May this year, Ireland will host the next seminar in October. Like his European counterparts, Wen underlines in the final joint statement to the summit the importance of promoting the protection of human rights and rule of law.
Trade, a stumbling block hard to buff. With tension on the trade chapter especially since the Commission's decision to conduct an antidumping investigation on Chinese exports of solar panels and their photovoltaic components, the meeting seems to have resulted in appeasement. Has anything come out of the promise made by Commissioner Karel De Gucht - during a meeting with China's Trade Minister Chen Denming the day before the summit - to postpone launch of the investigation aimed at Beijing's subsidies to Chinese equipment manufacturers ZTE and Huawei, on the grounds that there was no sound evidence? European and Chinese leaders agreed that trade relations as massive as those between the EU and China - over €428 billion in trade in 2011 - are inevitably prone to friction, with Wen using the metaphor of a stumbling block that is hard to buff. The EU and China nonetheless confirmed on Thursday their commitment to launch talks for a bilateral investment agreement.
At the diplomatic level, European and Chinese leaders spoke of the situation in Syria, Iran, and North Korea, and the tension between China and Japan, which are made worse by the territorial conflict for the Diaoyu islands. They went on to promise to “redouble their joint efforts to tackle global challenges such as the international financial and economic crisis, sustainable development, environmental protection, climate change, food and water security, energy security and nuclear safety”. (EH/transl.jl)