Chapter 4
“Cultural Exchanges”as a Pillar
to the China-EU Relations
Tian Dewen
Abstract In the period 2003–2013, China and the EU have promoted cultural
exchanges in order to improve mutual understanding between the two peoples. In
2003, Chinafirst proposed the idea of enhancing China-EU cultural exchanges.
The EU responded positively after it had extended external competence in 2007.
“People to people”has eventually become the“third pillar”of the“China-EU
comprehensive strategic partnership”, side by side with China-EU trade relations
and the political dialogue. After decades of development, China-EU relations have
established institutionalized cultural exchanges or“people to people dialogue”in
EU’s term which play a positive role in China-EU relations.
Keywords ChinaEUCultural exchanges
The exchanges and cooperation on the cultural level are vital to international
relations. They not only enhance mutual understanding, trust and affective inter-
action among international players and improve the foundation and atmosphere for
developing international relations, but also serve as important platforms for various
“international public relations activities”. Moreover, external cultural activities are
important means for international players to build up their“soft power”. In recent
years, many countries gave priorities to“cultural diplomacy” and developed
international cultural exchanges framework which enhanced cooperation in both
cultural exchange programs and related sectors, generating broad participation of
governmental and non-governmental parties. Similar to other areas of China-EU
relations, the China-EU cultural exchanges are also featured by“dual track system”.
From 2003 to 2005, the cultural relations between China and EU member states
T. Dewen (&)
Institute of European Studies, CASS, Beijing, China
T. Dewen
Division of Social and Cultural Studies, CASS, Beijing, China
T. Dewen
Chinese Association for European Studies, Beijing, 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_4
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