Chinese paper calls for closer China-EU ties

China and the European Union (EU) should speed up their expansion of cooperation and communication channels, China's English-language newspaper China Daily said Tuesday.

Since the late 1990s, China and the European Union (EU) have seen an accelerated development in ties.

China's economic strength is rising and the EU has stepped up its moves towards integrating China with continuous adjustments to its China policy.

Since the first summit held in 1998, in which China and European countries mooted future ties as necessary for a long-term and stable constructive partnership for the 21st century, China-EU relations have progressed in leaps and bounds.

The accelerated exchanges of high-level visits between the two following the summit have provided an extremely favourable environment for prospering political, and especially economic, links.

The September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 in the United States have brought the two influential players closer in the international community, thus injecting a new vitality into co-operation in various fields.

China and the EU remain main trading partners to each other.

There is a series of favourable factors behind the thriving relations.

Compared with other main international forces, China and EU members are free from troubling issues such as geopolitics and historical issues. The two share no fundamental conflicts on security or key national interests.

Since the international situation in the wake of September 11, China has attached more importance to co-operating with the EU in non-traditional security fields and in some regional hot spots with the expansion of common ground between the two on some major issues like anti-terrorism.

This has provided more opportunities for further development of booming ties.

As the largest developing country in the world and a permanent member of the United Nations (UN) Security Council with an increasing international clout, China is playing an increasingly important role in international affairs as a responsible power. While the EU, backed by its enormous economic muscle and its traditional influences, continues to serve as an important actor on the international stage.

To raise their international standing and influence, the two sides still need to strengthen co-operation on a series of issues.

Both sides share the same or similar stances on security, anti-terrorism and global environmental protection.

They both say the UN should play a leading role in international affairs, and the world's civilizations should remain distinct.

All this shared common ground has made it possible for the two players to come closer and has also provided a solid foundation for full economic and political co-operation.

The prospering relations have also been attributed to both sides' domestic conditions and their own policy orientation.

While terrorist violence has expanded to almost every corner of the world, China and the EU, however, have maintained relatively stable political and economic environments and strengthened their efforts to gain a larger role in the international arena.

The EU's aspirations to play a greater role in the world have become particularly stronger since the community has achieved key breakthroughs in its membership expansion and integration.

The common wish has pushed both sides to attach more importance to the other.

Since September 11, the EU has reflected on its own past foreign policy and has shown an intention to distance itself from the United States.

To showcase its image of peace and justice, it has strengthened its relations with developing countries, which agrees with China's consistent policy of attaching importance to them.

The fact that China and the EU share a simultaneous increase in their international status and an expansion of their common ground has made it natural and also necessary for both sides to value ties with each other.

US unilateralism has become more rampant in the wake of September 11, seriously undermining established international multilateral frameworks with the UN as the centre.

To resist this negative trend and maintain their fundamental interests, China and the EU have no choice but to work together to push forward co-operation on a series of issues.

China-EU relations are yet to be tested by some negative elements developed or to be developed.

The different social systems, historical and cultural backgrounds, and varying codes of conduct between China and EU members will not always make co-operation a smooth process.

At the moment, some conservative forces among EU members are still firmly clinging to a Cold War mentality in developing ties with China, and try to intervene in China's internal affairs by playing human rights, Tibet and Taiwan as cards. Because of this unchanged perception of China as a potential competitor, the EU has so far not recognized China as a full market economic power, leaving unresolved factors which could lead to economic friction.

The EU has, for example, been one of the leading regions to file anti-dumping cases and intellectual property rights (IPR) violations against China. It has always set numerous high technological standards and barriers for imports of China's products.

All these disagreements have produced negative effects on otherwise booming relations, especially in an economic dimension. But the negative factors have not overpowered the positive.

The two should speed up their expansion of channels for mutual co-operation and communication.

They should continue to strengthen co-operation in the international context to expand their common ground.

Economically, they should try to remove some unnecessary and outdated measures to create a more ideal domestic environment for bilateral economic collaboration in some concrete fields, such as the realms of banking, accounting and finance.