How Far is China from Europe?

During the centuries, the Europeans were trying for getting to China. Nowadays, we can see practically the same picture. But unlike the Middle Ages, the Europe has strong rivals in the face of Russia and the USA. All of this political actors are trying to become a main trade partner of China, perhaps, the most favorable market in the world. The resources of China are great, and investments into them could provide also great profit in future. Also we should mention that China is developing country and if the European Union wants to get a strong cooperation with Beijing, it has to help China to become a “European” country. But as we know, China is very far from Europe. How could the EU help to China to become a “part” of Europe? The XXIst century is a century of technology and information and if the Europeans will build modern society in this Asian state, and if modern technologies of communication will play their role, perhaps, someday, we could say that China is “European” country. In this paper author will try to define how far is China from Europe. To achieve this goal we should investigate EU-China’s relationships and some variants of further cooperation.
In author’s opinion, the main problem of EU-China’s relations is China’s socialist traditions. Because of them, Beijing’s domestic policy is very different from European ideals of democracy and liberal society. That is why one of the most important directions of EU-China’s cooperation is social sphere. But it is necessary to say that social direction is not the only one – the economic cooperation is also very important direction of EU-China’s relationships. On the 15th of May 2002, the EU adopted a new strategy towards China: implementation of the 1998 Communication and future steps for a more effective EU policy1
This communication recalls and confirms in a comprehensive and coherent manner the objectives of the EU policy regarding China defined in 1998. In its 1998 Communication entitled "Building a comprehensive partnership with China", the Commission set out the following objectives:…