Dr Pradeep Taneja

Dr Pradeep Taneja
University of Melbourne, Australia

EU-China Relations: A Strategic Partnership?

Abstract:

The EU-China relationship has grown rapidly over the past thirty years, particularly in the commercial and economic fields, with the EU replacing the United States as China’s largest trading partner in 2005. Chinese scholars often compare China’s own modernization drive and the EU’s push for greater integration as rational responses based on strategic judgements. The EU also maintains that in a number of areas China and the EU face very similar problems and the EU experience can be useful for China. China and the EU also share a number of common strategic interests and positions and both tend to emphasise the importance of multilateralism and the role of the United Nations in resolving international disputes.

However, despite common positions and interests on a number of issues, the relationship is also marred by some serious differences in ideas and values, including on issues such as human rights, religious freedoms and death penalty. While China seeks accommodation and understanding on these issues, it complains of a lack of trust on the part of the EU in its political relationship with China. This paper argues that while these differences constitute a serious obstacle to the realisation of a genuine strategic partnership, the growing importance of trade and investment relations between China and the EU will cushion the impact of these differences, thus allowing each side more leverage over the other in dealing with complex bilateral and international issues.

Biographical notes:

The geographical focus of Dr Pradeep Taneja’s work is on China and India. Pradeep lectures in Chinese politics, political economy and international relations in the Asia-Pacific region. He lived and worked in China for more than six years and is a fluent Mandarin speaker. He also worked in Thailand for nearly two years and was earlier with La Trobe University in Melbourne. His current research interests focus on the political implications of China’s energy security policy and the rise of China as a regional and global power. He is also interested in government-business relations in China. Pradeep earned his PhD in Chinese political economy at Griffith University, Brisbane and his MA at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His books and monographs include China Since 1978 (with Colin Mackerras and Graham Young) and Hong Kong and Australia: Towards 1997 and Beyond.

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