Inquiry conducted by Sub-committee C (Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Policy)

Government and Commission responses Session 2009-10 : 4th report of Session 2010-11

Today, as China's influence in the world grows and as the European Union moves to strengthen its position in international affairs, it is all the more critical for U.S. policy leaders to take careful stock of China-Europe relations and their implications for U.S. interests. Europe-China relations have become increasingly regularized, institutionalized, and mutually beneficial, encompassing a broadening range of political, economic, military, scientific, technological, educational, and cultural ties. The China question has arisen as an area of potential transatlantic disagreement, especially over the arm embargo issue, but also on broader concerns of global order, multipolarity, balancing U.S. power, and economic competition. Given the political, economic and security-related importance of China and Europe to the United States, improving China-Europe relations pose important challenges and opportunities for U.S. interests. These developments may not only challenge the U.S. position vis-à-vis China and Europe; they also could contribute to an increasingly competitive, confrontational, and ultimately detrimental deterioration in traditionally strong transatlantic relations, while also further exacerbating persistent mistrust in U.S.-China ties. Were U.S.-Europe-China relations to deteriorate, Washington could lose out on the enormous strategic opportunities that would encourage positive political, economic, and security-related outcomes in China, which favor U.S., European, and Chinese interests over the longer term.

Any analysis of the current state of international affairs would require devoting a great deal of its efforts to the examination of the People’s Republic of China,its policies, its capabilities, its approaches, as well as its position regarding a wide range of issues. Not in vain, the People’s Republic of China is a rising power whose attitudes and policies will have a direct impact on the future development of the international system and the international relations within. Thus, the importance of the People’s Republic of China status as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, the impressive growth of both its GDP and its Defence Budget over the last few years and its relatively good performance through the global financial and economic crisis are all factors that might recommend to pay attention to the evolution of this country.

This book considers the effect of China’s unprecedented economic growth and more prominent geopolitical role in the twenty-first century. Rising powers considerably alter international relations, leading to the emergence of a multipolar world order that impacts more traditional international players like the European Union (EU). China’s growing economic and diplomatic influence is particularly relevant in Africa, where it presents an alternative to conventional North-South relations and proposes a new type of South-South partnership. Stahl examines the EU’s foreign policy response regarding China’s growing presence in Africa, as well as the EU’s attempts to refocus attention on the African continent. Drawing on a rich body of evidence collected through fieldwork in China and Africa, and extensive expert interviews, the author sheds light on the novel trend of EU-China-Africa trilateral relations. The book offers a new analytical framework for the study of the EU’s foreign policy of engagement with emerging powers and will appeal to graduate students and scholars interested in the EU’s international role, international relations and development, as well as contemporary Chinese and African studies.

The launch of China's "New Silk Road" has seen a rapid development of its higher education and research systems. In this book an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars address how academic mobility and cooperation is taking shape along the New Silk Road and what difference it will make in the global higher education landscape.

This book discusses transport research and innovation, highlighting prospects for cooperation between different countries. To create a basis for such cooperation, the book first describes the status quo in individual countries, focusing on China, Japan and Korea, and identifies the main technological trends as well as current innovation policies in these countries, discussing their main advantages and the challenges to establishing collaborations between them. The book is a valuable resource for transport researchers, research authorities and transport organizations, not only in the three countries considered, but also in the US and the EU. By providing a revealing snapshot of current transport research and policies, it fosters exchanges and collaborations between nations.

In this important new book the renowned historian Serge Gruzinski returns to two episodes in the sixteenth century which mark a decisive stage in global history and show how China and Mexico experienced the expansion of Europe. In the early 1520s, Magellan set sail for Asia by the Western route, Cortes seized Mexico and some Portuguese based in Malacca dreamed of colonizing China. The Aztec Eagle was destroyed but the Chinese Dragon held strong and repelled the invaders - after first seizing their cannon. For the first time, people from three continents encountered one other, confronted one other and their lives became entangled. These events were of great interest to contemporaries and many people at the time grasped the magnitude of what was going on around them. The Iberians succeeded in America and failed in China. The New World became inseparable from the Europeans who were to conquer it, while the Celestial Empire became, for a long time to come, an unattainable goal. Gruzinski explores this encounter between civilizations that were different from one another but that already fascinated contemporaries, and he shows that our world today bears the mark of this distant age. For it was in the sixteenth century that human history began to be played out on a global stage. It was then that connections between different parts of the world began to accelerate, not only between Europe and the Americas but also between Europe and China. This is what is revealed by a global history of the sixteenth century, conceived as another way of reading the Renaissance, less Eurocentric and more in tune with our age.