xinhua

On March 30th local time, President Xi Jinping and King Philippe of Belgium attended the opening ceremony of the panda garden in Pairi Daiza zoo in Belgium. Xi and Philippe jointly shovel new soil for a magnolia tree that symbolizes friendship.

During March 22-April 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first-ever key visit to Europe since taking office. Having paid visits to Nether¬lands, France, Germany and Belgium, he attended the third Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in Hague, Netherland, visited the headquarters of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, and the European Union (EU) headquarters in Brussels. He also de¬livered a keynote speech on EU-China relations at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

President Xi's tour has drawn the spotlight particularly because of the many "first-ever" records set. Xi is the first Chinese President to visit the Netherlands since the two countries established diplomatic re¬lations, and the first to visit Belgium in 27 years. It is also the first time a Chinese President has visited the EU headquarters and proposed China’s view of nuclear safety at a nuclear security summit. Many international media outlets covered Xi’s Europe tour in an optimistic light, suggest¬ing it will raise people’s hopes for China-Europe relations and facilitate mutual understanding and trust.

Define future China-Europe relations
Bi-lateral relations with Europe have always been one of China's for¬eign policy priorities. Signed in 2003, the EU-China Comprehensive Strate¬gic Partnership marked a milestone for cooperation between China and Europe. Nevertheless, given the complexity of the relationships and the number of spheres involved, it is not without difficulties. With the international political and economic situation and new challenge posed in the wake of the financial crisis and economic recession, China-Europe relations are at a new crossroads.

"Xi's speech at the College of Eu¬rope has clearly defined China-Eu¬rope relations for the next decade”, said Ding Chun, director of the Cen¬ter for European Studies at Fudan University. The mutual interaction between the two sides have stayed very active. Particularly with the ef¬forts of China’s new leadership over the past year, China has been keep¬ing close ties with both individual EU members and the EU as a whole.

With the attenuation of sovereign-debt crisis and the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty in the EU, the importance of the EU and EU insti¬tutions will increasingly grow as EU member states transfer more powers to them. President Xi’s visit to the EU headquarters and his talks with European leaders clearly demonstrate the value China places on Europe and its desire to further its relationship with the EU. This may also dispel the misunderstand¬ing that China values its relation to individual EU members rather than the EU as a whole, Ding observed.

Xi’s Europe visit also further clarified China’s foreign policy to¬ward Europe and its vision of China- Europe relations. As Xi has asserted, China and Europe are the two forces that preserve peace, two markets that promote development, and two civilizations that accelerate human progress. The landmark visit will set a tune for China-Europe relations and usher in a new stage of the EU-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

New concept of nuclear safety
Nuclear security has long been a significant topic in international relations, international politics and global governance. China’s view on this issue, proposed by Xi to the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, has attracted significant at¬tention from international media, politicians and scholars. Xia Liping, director of the School of Political Sci¬ence and International Relations at Tongji University, affirmed that while China’s stance on nuclear safety has been consistent, this view is a major development in its explication. It can be summarized as "one system, three propositions and four focuses." There are two components to the first part of Xi's proposal. First, it advocates a nuclear safety system based on fairness, cooperation and mutual benefit. Second, it calls for the construction of a comprehen¬sive and multi-layered network, which is the future framework of international nuclear security. The three propositions represent the principles of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. They stress the prin¬ciple of fairness, or that coun¬tries should be able to develop nuclear energy capabilities, but should also take on obligations consistent with their actual situation and strengthen global nuclear safety. The core of the four focuses is to promote co¬operation through fairness and to pursue a win-win situation through cooperation.

European ideal and Chinese Dream
In the broader tide of global¬ization, Xi's visit to Europe is a new starting point for China- Europe relations in the next decade. While Europe was the initial force behind globaliza¬tion, the hard lessons it learned from the two world wars have shown that hegemony is not a sustainable pattern of geopoliti¬cal development, but rather that multi-polarization is the right direction, said Tian Dewen, a re¬search fellow from the Institute of European Studies at CASS. After the wars, Europe has em¬barked on the path of integra¬tion that transcends the nation state, pursuing a European ideal of peace and prosperity. From this perspective, the European people may better understand the Chinese Dream, which is consistent with the global trend of seeking peace and develop¬ment. This common ground between the European ideal and the Chinese Dream enables Chi¬na-Europe relations to develop more fully.

Zheng Chunrong, director of the Institute of EU-Studies at Tongji University, expressed that the visit delivers a mes¬sage to the world that China is not just a huge market; China is a responsible actor in inter-national security, a conveyer of human civilization and a force promoting exchange between various civilizations. Xi's visit to the EU headquar¬ters demonstrates China’s support for the European integration, its hope that Eu¬rope can address the crisis and gain more cohesion, and its confidence that China-Eu¬rope relations will be further enhanced in the future.

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No.577, Mar 28.
 

Translated by Jiang Hong
Revised by Charles Horne