Let’s not stick boot into China

Date: 02/03/06

With a new EU-China trade dispute brewing, this time over shoes, it is timely to ask what has happened to the much-trumpeted strategic partnership between the EU and China agreed as a joint aim at the EU-China summit in The Hague in December 2004. The Beijing summit in September 2005 confirmed the agreement of the two sides "to move towards early negotiations on a new China-EU framework agreement...with a view to concluding at an early date an agreement that will reflect the full breadth and depth of the strategic partnership between China and the EU".

There has been an intensification in contacts between the EU and China in the nine months between the two summits (including more than 200 visits by EU officials to China - 15 at commissioner level). But it took until 12 December 2005 for the Council of Ministers to authorise the European Commission to open negotiations with China on a partnership and co-operation agreement.

Strategic partnerships have been announced for India and Russia but the term has not been used in relation to the US. Europe�s future relationship with China is critically important both in itself and in how it affects EU-US relations. It is to be hoped that the Austrian presidency and the Commission will make the partnership and agreement a priority.

The EU-China strategic partnership should have three underlying basics: it should embrace all society and not just government, there must be an ongoing strategic dialogue and a 10-20 years mutual understanding programme is needed to remove the gulf in perceptions. This requires networks to be built at all levels promoting a habit of co-operation.

These recommendations are drawn from the transatlantic experience. Despite the multitude of ad hoc contacts between Brussels and Washington, there was, until last year, no ongoing mechanism in place to conduct an effective strategic dialogue and insufficient time has been devoted to understanding each other.

Chris Patten, former commissioner responsible for external relations and the last governor of Hong Kong was once dubbed by Beijing "the criminal of a thousand years".

He says in his book Not Quite The Diplomat that the "best way of encouraging China to behave responsibly...is to treat China as a responsible partner and to draw her into multilateral relationships and the growing network of international rules and regulations".

Do we treat China as a strategic rival or a strategic partner? US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and others in Washington have tended towards the former, coupled with talk of containment and maintaining the balance of power. Europe inclines towards the latter. But in a recent speech, Robert Zoellick, Rice�s deputy, said that it was important to encourage China to be a "responsible stakeholder" which means defending her national interests but also working to sustain the international system. There was no talk of containment or balance of power. This is a welcome statement, clearly approved by Rice but not necessarily by Vice-President Dick Cheney or Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Treating someone as your rival or enemy is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is better to show trust even if there is no guarantee as to reciprocity.

What does this mean for our concerns about democracy and human rights? There are at least two broad views among the Chinese leaders. The first is that the control by the Chinese Communist Party can be maintained indefinitely through transformation falling far short of democracy in the western sense. The second is that economic liberalisation inevitably leads to democratisation, but the pace and manner must be carefully controlled. Patten said: "China shows that it is possible to develop an economy without democracy. But I doubt whether you can sustain a modern economy for long without democracy...pluralism and the rule of law." Either view leads to China adopting the current minimalist policy.

Such democracy that develops in China is not likely to be Western-style democracy. China is still influenced by the Confucian loyalty to the nation state. In the West, interest groups criticise government as an essential part of democracy; but the Chinese will tend in the first place to support their government.

Progress in the field of human rights is worryingly slow: after 15 years many who demonstrated in Tiananmen Square are still in prison. Firm pressure must continue to be applied but preferably pursuant to the need to extend the rule of law, an essential World Trade Organization (WTO) requirement and a prerequisite for long-term foreign direct investment.

Perhaps the biggest problem that China faces is corruption. This is both a cause of unrest and uprisings, and troubles foreign investors. It is not only wasteful, it poisons relationships. We need to reinforce our contribution to developing China�s legal system, courts and law enforcement. There has been progress since China joined the WTO but much more needs to be done.

China-EU relations cannot be discussed without taking the US into account. The US and EU must not gang up on China but they must avoid being divided and ruled by the country.

Some fear a successful China, but the biggest danger would be its lack of success. The huge challenges facing us today should be a reminder, in the words of Lao Zi�s old Chinese saying, that "we are all in the same boat".

• Stanley Crossick is founding chairman of the European Policy Centre. He writes here in a personal capacity.

Major commentary feature on the strategic partnership between the European Union and China.

EEAS: Countries: China http://www.eeas.europa.eu/china/index_en.htm

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