far more agreement than differences” and pointing out that China would“be
committed to building a long-term and steady comprehensive partnership between
China and the EU.”^3 Meanwhile, the meeting of the EU foreign ministers adopted
the policy paper on China which was submitted to the European Commission on
September 10:“A Maturing Partnership—Shared Interests and Challenges in
EU-China Relations.”This treats the changes of Europe and China,^4 and even the
whole world as an important variable in China-EU relations, proposing that“the EU
and China have an ever-greater interest in working together as strategic partners to
safeguard and promote sustainable development, peace and stability...the impor-
tance both attach to the role of the UN in physical and environmental security...[to
gain from] further trade liberalization...”.^5
Thirdly, the Joint Press Statement of 2003 also envisaged a series of prospects
for the development of China-EU relations, and pointed out the common focuses of
work for both sides, including jointly enhancing the United Nations’role in pro-
moting world peace, security and sustainable development, reinforcing cooperation
on human rights, coping with transnational challenges of justice and domestic
affairs, cooperating on China’s reform progress, having dialogues in thefields of
energy, environment, regulatory and industrial policy, social information, compe-
tition, intellectual property, macro economy, health, employment and education,
etc. All in all, China-EU relations in 2003 were not only bathed in the atmosphere
of friendly cooperation, but also covered the areas of the economy, politics, society
and culture of China and the EU, reflecting a strategic vision and cooperative spirit,
and a possibility for orientation towards development and mutual benefit, in an
all-dimensional, multi-tiered, and wide-ranging manner.
Interestingly, it is also pointed out in the Joint Press Statement that“there will be
discussions on the feasibility of adopting a new bilateral treaty to replace the
obsolete trade and cooperation treaty of 1985”, and such disputable issues as“the
EU raising an arms embargo against China”and “the position of the market
economy in China under the anti-dumping investigation”were included in the
agenda for thefirst time, which acknowledged that China and the EU were divided
on some important areas and hence made some impending issues in China-EU
(^3) See Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC ( 2003 ).
(^4) The important changes to Europe mentioned in the document include: the appearance of the Euro,
the EU’s common diplomatic and the security policies and security and defense development of
Europe after 9/11, the EU’s large-scale enlargement in 2004, etc.; the changes to China include:
rapid economic growth, social reform and opening up, the new generation of leaders coming into
power, etc.
(^5) The European Commission’s policy paper: “A maturing partnership—shared interests and
challenges in EU-China relations”(September 10, 2003), fromThe European Union and China
(1948–2008): Basic Documents and Commentary(Part I), written and edited by Francis Snyder,
the Chinese edition translated by Li Kun et al., Social Sciences Academic Press (China), 2013,
pp. 342–370.
6 H. Zhou