shall coordinate in selected events such as the Shanghai International Film Festival,
etc.”Meanwhile, the EU’s policy paper recalled the China-EU cultural exchanges
over previous years that“people engagement and the exchanges in the education
and culture areas between the two sides are also reinforced, and the“Visit the EU”
program was one of the important means for Chinese policymakers and think tanks
to directly study the EU in Brussels”.
The EU played a key role in actively guiding member states to engage in cultural
exchanges with China. On October 27, 2003, in an interview by Chinese journalists
to, at the EU Headquarters in Brussels, Romano Prodi, the President of the
European Commission, indicated that the EU was keen to strengthen cooperation
with China in political, economic, educational, scientific and technological, cultural
and other areas. On December 18, Viviane Reding, member of the European
Commission in charge of the education and cultural affairs, reiterated that the
communication between eastern and western cultures should be achieved through
intensified dialogues and exchanges while cultural exchanges between the EU and
China should be positioned on the present with the future in mind. These stances
basically recalled China’s Policy Paper on the EU, indicating that two sides had
reached a basic consensus on this issue.
There were very close cultural exchanges between China and EU member states
at the time. In 2003, the“Chinese Culture Year”, the“Chinese Culture Festival”
and the“Chinese Culture Week”were carried out in France, Germany and Finland
respectively. China signed a memorandum on setting up cultural centers in each
other with Italy and a cultural exchange execution plan with Austria, while the
“Chinese Culture Center”was completed in Malta. In addition, in 2003, Chinese
artists attended the Copenhagen“Asia Image”culture festival and the Aarhus Art
Festival; the China Central Television’s“Hand in Hand”artists visited Spain; the
UK launched the“Think UK”activity in China; Spain’s“Real Madrid”football
team visited China; the Finnish Chamber Orchestra gave a performance in China.
From January 26–29 in 2004, President Hu Jintao visited France, during which the
Eiffel Tower was decorated with the“Chinese red”color, indicating the atmosphere
of friendship and trust created by this kind of cultural exchanges.
Enhancing cultural exchanges amid rapid development of China-EU economic
and trade cooperation is something inherent in improving China-EU relations in an
all-round way. The EU’s policy on China has clarified the objectives and methods
for developing China-EU relations:“both the EU and China should be dedicated to
establishing equivalent, strong, sustainable, mutually beneficial and comprehensive
relations in the future...in order to actions and move towards more comprehensive
objectives, it is necessary for the EU and China to be fully involved. The EU side
must coordinate the policies of its member states towards China to the greatest
extent and speak with one voice on all substantive issues about China”.^1 In other
(^1) The Council of the European Union:The EU Policy towards China: A Maturing Partnership-
Shared Interests and Challenges in EU-China Relations,http://www.chinalawedu.com/falvfagui/
fg23155/172361.shtml.
4 “Cultural Exchanges”as a Pillar to the China-EU Relations 95