competence for developing external cultural relations were granted to the EU in the
Treaty of Lisbon, it was barrier-free for establishing the China-EU high-level
people-to-people dialogue mechanism. However, to what extent the EU as a global
player could integrate its external cultural relations of member states is yet to be
observed. As for the contents of cultural exchanges, the role of EU limits its main
objective to promoting European values and cultural diversity, establishing a dia-
logue among cultures, while China intends to deepen the Europeans’understanding
of Chinese culture and history, to publicize the great achievements since the reform
and the opening up and to reduce the negative impact from the“China threat
theory”. These differences in objectives limit the depth of the China-EU cultural
dialogue and exchange activities, even led to“lost in communications”. Such a
dilemma originated from the great imbalance between the two sides in the dis-
cursive power since the end of the Cold War, and it is highly difficult to change this
situation in a short period of time.
In conclusion, there should be reasonable expectations for the future develop-
ment of China-EU cultural exchanges from a long-term perspective, while
long-term dialogues are necessary for enhancing mutual understandings and trust
and compassionate connections. Reputedly, the Father of Europe, Jean Monnet,
once said after setbacks in the integration process that“if I could start again, I
would start from the cultural aspect”. The implication might be he was already
aware the cultural fusion and construction might facilitate the European integration.
However, starting from culture to encourage integration certainly takes more time
and entails more patience and tolerance. The China-EU relations also feature in
closer economic ties yet to develop cultural exchanges. With the rapid development
of Chinese economy, some people in the EU changed their attitudes towards China
from“condescending”to“hostility”. Both sides might have to make changes before
cultural exchanges can really become“the third pillar”of China-EU relations.
The EU side will have to stop being overbearing and change its attitude from
“educate” to “respect”, while the Chinese side will have to boost its
“Self-confidence of Road, Theory and System”, and switch from“propaganda”to
“dialogue”. In the post-cold war era, healthy China-EU relations will lay an
important foundation for world peace and development, and both sides can hardly
be separated from each other. While reconciliation benefits both, conflicts cause
harm. Given this, China-EU cultural exchanges should be mainly designed to foster
an atmosphere of mutual respect and equal dialogue so as to contribute more to the
healthy development of China-EU relations.
102 T. Dewen