EU jointly announced the establishment of the“comprehensive strategic partner-
ship”, realizing a step-by-step development in China-EU relations.
1.1 Year 2003: Opening of the China-EU Comprehensive
Strategic Partnership
The EU officially released thefifth policy paper on China in October 2003. China,
with tacit agreement, also released itsfirst policy paper on the EU in October 2003.
“Comparing them”, the two policy papers were commensurate with each other in
policy-making, which made policies and public opinion ready to accept the
announcement of the China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership at the end of
October 2003.
On October 30, 2003, the leaders of China and the EU jointly announced the
establishment of the China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the
Sixth Summit Meeting held in Beijing, signifying the beginning of a new period in
which to foster the all-dimensional, wide-ranging and multi-tiered relations between
China and the EU. The Joint Press Statement released at this summit meeting
between the leaders listed the existing cooperative relations between China and the
EU in various areas, proposed the direction for further development of China-EU
relations, and involved some discussions concerning the differing views and
standpoints held by the two sides.
Firstly, in the Joint Press Statement China and the EU together defined
China-EU relations as“maturing”and“more strategic”. The cooperative agree-
ments signed or renewed between the two sides, like the GALILEO Satellite
Navigation Cooperation Agreement, the Memorandum of Understanding on
Approved Destination Status, the Joint Declaration on Non-proliferation and Arms
Control, the EU-China Agreement on Customs Cooperation, and the EC-China
Science and Technology Agreement, as listed in the Joint Press Statement, which
congratulated the mechanism of dialogue on industrial policies between China and
the EU. The strategic nature of China-EU cooperation can be clearly seen through
these agreements and cooperation initiatives.^2
Secondly, the policy papers on China-EU relations released by China and the EU
respectively received welcome in the Joint Press Statement, which underlined its
support of the planning of future development in China-EU relations as contained in
the two Policy Papers. China’s Policy Paper on the EU released on October 3, 2003,
thefirst and also the only one of its kind ever, explains the Chinese government’s
judgment of the important role of the EU in domestic and international affairs, and
reaffirms the fact that the Chinese government is supportive of European integration
and optimistic about its development. The Chinese government praised the
development of China-EU relations, acknowledging that“China and the EU have
(^2) As to the strategic connotation of China-EU relations, see, Zhou ( 2011 ).
1 An Overview of the China-EU Strategic Partnership (2003–2013) 5