Taiwan’s accession to the World Health Organization and issuance of a visa to
Chen Shui-bian et al. for visiting Europe. In July 2005, the European Parliament
passed theResolution on Relations between the EU, China and Taiwan and
Security in the Far Eastin opposition to China’sAnti-Secession Law. In April
2006, the European Parliament passed theResolution of the European Parliament
on the European Commission’s Strategy Paper for Chinaand“refused to accept
China’s reservation of its right to use force”on issues regarding Taiwan.
Besides the above areas, the European Parliament has expanded increasingly its
focuses on China in recent years, with such issues as market access, trade deficit,
the RMB exchange rate, intellectual property rights, etc. in China-EU economic and
trade relations having caused its attention. A resolution adopted in February 2009
emphasized that China-EU trade relations had rapidly expanded, but that this was
the most serious challenge for the EU’s trade relations.^41 Another resolution
adopted in May 2012 called for establishing balanced trade relations with China to
safeguard the interests of European industries.
Apart from the above specific areas, the European Parliament has passed some
resolutions concerning overall China-EU relations, such as those published in
September 2006 and March 2013.^42 Though in these resolutions, the European
Parliament recognized that the China-EU Strategic Partnership was of paramount
importance for addressing not only China-EU relations but also the many global
issues including security, economic crisis, energy, and etc., and that considerable
progresses had been made in China-EU relations, it still lodged a number of crit-
icisms inconsistent with objective facts with respect to China’s human rights sit-
uation, religion, justice, etc., inevitably producing negative effects on China-EU
relations.
2.3.3.2 Exchanges Among Legislative Institutions and Among Political
Parties
Exchanges among legislative institutions and among political parties constitute an
important platform and channel for exchanges between the European Parliament
and China, and for enhancing understanding between the two sides, dispelling
suspicion and mistrust and stimulating the steady development of China-EU
relations.
- Exchanges among legislative institutions
The Delegation for Relations with China is one of the European Parliament’s
relatively large-scale delegations. It has held meetings with China’s National
(^41) European Parliament Resolution of February 5, 2009 on Trade and Economic Relations with
China.
(^42) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+20130314+ITEMS
+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN#sdocta10.
2 China-EU Political Relations 51