“Politicians come and go but culture lives on” said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, when opening the “EU-China High Level Cultural Forum”, which was held in Brussels on 6-7 October.  The successful development of EU-China relations needs increased mutual understanding.  A first step towards mutual understanding is cultural engagement (culture in its broadest sense).  Within this [...]

The following article was published in New Europe on 12 July: China is rightly proud of its achievements – particularly the way it came through the global and financial crisis – and also in its successful organizing of the Olympic Games and Shanghai Expo.  But China faces the danger of the growth of protectionism.  Protectionism [...]

BICCS (Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies invited 30 participants from 15 European institutes to participate in an intensive workshop, on 17-19 May, about China’s response to security challenges in Africa. The aim of this meeting was to examine the new security threats with which China has been confronted, the way China perceives these challenges [...]

This is a good time to review the state of the EU-China relationship, after the postponed summit which took place in Prague on 20 May and the High Level Economic & Trade dialogue which met in Brussels on 7-8 May (see post of 14 May). The official reports and communiqués, following both meetings, are full [...]