The Political Constraints Of China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

Since the establishment of the formal diplomatic relation, China and the European Union have deepened the interaction and cooperation in political, economic and cultural aspects, developing a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. During the past 40 years, China has stunned the world with its rapid economic take-off, while the EU has grown from a community of nations into the largest regional union with the highest level of integration in the world, which covers 28 countries and more than 500 million populations. Globally speaking, China-EU relation has become one of the most important bilateral relations, and a major force in the trend towards multi-polarization. However, it cannot be ignored that China-EU relations is hindered by the asymmetric phenomenon of “cold politics and warm economy”, meaning political constrains have impeded the building of mutual trust and the deepening of economic, trade and cultural cooperation. Although there is no danger of geopolitics conflicts between the two sides, frictions were inevitably caused by their opposed ideologies and different understandings of human rights. Adding that EU’s arms embargo against China has lasted for more than 20 years, and the immaturity of EU’s decision-making mechanism compromises its efficiency, coherence and consistency, it is fair to say that the political constraints have become the great obstacle in China-EU bilateral relation.This article gives a general review of the historical evolution of China-EU relation, analyses four major political constraints—the problems of ideology, human rights, arms embargo, and decision-making mechanism—and proposes several advices combined with China’s national condition, hoping to make contribution to the long-term, stable and healthy development of China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.