“The difference in the way China and the EU present their policies towards one another – with the EU emphasising differences and conflicts, and China emphasising similarities and cooperation – reflects diametrically opposed ways of thinking about their bilateral relations: China hopes to reduce the risk of conflict by looking for space for cooperation through a search for common ground while retaining differences; whereas the European side hopes that by facing problems squarely, it will find opportunities for their resolution, which will then lay the groundwork for potential cooperation.” – Jian Junbo (简军波)
The 24th EU-China summit will be held in Beijing on Thursday. Expectations are low on both sides for this first in-person summit in four years. “I think we need to be slightly realistic that there’s not a kind of single outstanding deliverable which will be crowning the summit”, commented one senior EU official to Politico.
To understand how Beijing may be assessing its relationship …