Chapter 10
The Chinese Perception of the EU
Liu Zuokui
Abstract The Chinese people’s Perception of the EU can be roughly divided into
two groups: that of the general public and that of the elite, which has been surveyed
from three perspectives including their degree of favorability towards the EU, their
evaluation of the EU’s international influence and their opinions concerning the
status quo and the prospects for China-EU relations. Both the elite and the general
public view the EU relatively optimistically and positively in general terms;
however, in the last two years the percentage of those being positive has increas-
ingly decreased. The elite’s perception of the EU is more rational than that of the
general public. The general public is more positive than the elite with regards to the
status quo of China-EU relations, and vice versa with regards to the degree of
favorability towards the EU and the future development of the bilateral relations. As
a conclusion, the Chinese people’s perception of the EU has been influenced by the
general atmosphere of China-EU relations, China’s strategy towards the EU and the
changing mentality of the Chinese people in the context of globalization.
Keywords The chinese general publicThe chinese elitePerception of the EU
Opinion survey
10.1 Notes on Studies of Chinese Perceptions of the EU
“Chinese”in this survey report mainly refers to the Chinese common people and
Chinese élites, while “Chinese élites” mainly includes government officials,
entrepreneurs, scholars, nongovernmental organization heads, etc. involved in
European affairs.“Perceptions of the EU”mainly involves the degree of favorability
on the part of the Chinese common people towards the EU, evaluation of the EU’s
international influence, views about the current situation, the prospect of the rela-
tionship between China and EU, etc.
L. Zuokui (&)
Department of Central and Eastern European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,
Beijing, People’s Republic of China
©Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017
H. Zhou (ed.),China-EU Relations, Research Series on the Chinese Dream
and China’s Development Path, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1145-0_10
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