China's New Role in The Making of Europe
he redistribution of global power modifies the relations between the great powers and invites them to reconsider their diplomatic priorities. While in the aftermath of the Second World War the future of Europe has been proactively shaped by the U.S., or more precisely, by a group of American “Wise Men”, China is now in a position to have an unprecedented impact on the European integration, and, as Beijing fully develops its immense potential and becomes the world’s biggest economy in the coming decade, its capacity to influence will certainly grow.
In this rapidly changing context, the leaders of the European Union and China should rethink the significance of the trans-Eurasian links and open a new chapter in the relations between two of the world’s most ancient civilizations. The degree as well as the means of the Chinese action in Europe compatible with the internal constraints of the world’s largest developing country and congenial with the Chinese traditional principles of foreign policy will have to be seriously discussed by Beijing’s policymakers. In parallel, the realization and just evaluation of China’s new ability to influence will occupy more and more space in the European public debates and stand as an issue of the political campaigns.
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With a mutual trade in goods and services which already reached 432 billion Euros in 2010 the European Union and China form the second-largest economic cooperation in the world. This level of economic interdependence has been achieved in a very short period of time despite a Great Wall of mistrust separating two societies which have been evolving largely independently for millennia. And, as the speed of quantitative change exceeds the pace of qualitative transformation, time will certainly be needed to reduce the gap between trade and trust.
Obviously, it is the Chinese people’s belief in the Chinese renaissance which conditions its success, and, similarly, the Europeans’ faith in the renewal of Europe will determine its outcome, but while self-confidence remains the most powerful internal force, mutual reassurance has the advantage to strengthen it, and it is in that perspective that both sides should not overlook what mutual trust can bring to the two poles of civilization and, beyond, to the world.
The Chinese renaissance should be seen by Europe as a source of synergies. At the operational level, it is time for the European policymakers to build mechanisms to facilitate Chinese investment within the European Union – China will invest abroad more than $1 trillion by 2020 – , to grant China Market Economy Status – which will be, in any case, accorded to Beijing under the World Trade Organization rules from December 11 2016 –, to lift an inopportune and counterproductive arms embargo, to systematically consult China on security issues – the Middle East, nuclear proliferation – and to implement ambitious Sino-European cooperation in third countries – from Africa to Central Asia.
For decades, the West questioned the Chinese political system and its capacity to bring socio-economic progress to the Chinese people, but, in a striking reversal, while the 2008 financial crisis exposed Western hybris, the Chinese analysts are now trying to assess the nature and the significance of the Occupy Wall Street or the Indignants protests. In 2011, the Chinese media, academia and think-tanks have been especially expressing serious concerns about the viability of the European project and the effectiveness of the EU’s leadership.
Mutual trust will develop as Europe makes the effort to better understand the specificities of China’s governance and as China appreciates the complexity of the interactions between the European Union and its 27 members. The history of the European construction has been a series of collective decisions taken in the face of crises, and, when immediately after WW II Western Europe had to find the path toward reconciliation and to cope with the Cold War’s challenges, it entered the first moment of its political integration. By an agreement on two fundamental treaties – the Paris and Rome Treaties – , which led to the creation of the European Community, France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux began a political experiment without any precedent, the peaceful integration of independent and sovereign nation-states.
In this initial step of the European integration where, Monnet, Schuman, Adenauer, Spaak or De Gasperi, the founding fathers of Europe, demonstrated remarkable vision and courage, the U.S. was the main external support of the European renewal. At a time of devastation, despair and emptiness, “Stunde null” – Zero hour – as the Germans call it, the Marshall Plan contributed to Europe’s economic recovery and encouraged a better coordination among European policies – the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, predecessor of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was created in 1948 to manage the Marshall Plan.
At the birth of the European Community, the young People’s Republic of China was busy with its First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957) and the Korean War illustrated the conflictual relations between the West and Maoist China.
The collapse of the Soviet Union marked the second crisis which forced the redesign of modern Europe. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty which established the European Union and provided the legal framework for the monetary union was Western Europe’s answer to the changes in Moscow and to the German reunification. The French President François Mitterrand conditioned his acceptation of one new Germany to the German adoption of the Euro. At this crucial point of Europe’s history the role played by the German chancellor Helmut Kohl has been decisive, and his capacity to put European interest above what was perceived by a large segment of the German population as their national interest enough to deserve the extraordinary title of Honorary Citizen of Europe – only bestowed before by the European Heads of State to Jean Monnet.
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