CHINA / Background
China-Europe relations in recent years
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-09-10 09:02
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is to attend the ninth China-EU summit during
his visit to Finland, Britain, Germany and Tajikistan on Sept. 9-16.
Over the three decades after China established formal ties in 1975 with
the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the EU, China-Europe
ties have witnessed substantial development, having entered a new stage
of comprehensive cooperation covering wide areas and multiple levels.
In 1994, China and Europe signed a political dialogue agreement. In
January 1998, China and the EU decided to establish a mechanism for
annual meetings between leaders of the two sides.
Since then, exchanges of high-level visits have been frequent and mutual
political trust has continuously deepened between China and Europe.
In 2001, China and Europe decided to establish a comprehensive
partnership. In October 2003, after the sixth China-EU summit, the two
sides agreed to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership.
In 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao visited
Europe in October and December respectively. Eight high-ranking European
officials also visited China.
The sound development of political relations has given a big boost to the
development of China-Europe trade, leading to a rapid increase in the
trade volume between the two sides.
In 2003, China-EU trade for the first time broke the 100 billion U.S.
dollars mark to reach 125.2 billion dollars. The figure went up further
to 177.3 billion in 2004.
In 2005, bilateral trade broke the 200 billion mark to reach 217.3
billion dollars, about 74 times the figure registered when the two sides
established formal relations.
Currently, China is the EU's second largest trading partner and the EU is
China's biggest supplier of technologies and equipment. In the first
eight months last year, China imported 1,615 new technologies from the
EU, with a contracted value of 4.9 billion U.S. dollars.
Moreover, the two sides have been stepping up cooperation in science and
technology, education, finance, social security and other fields. They
also have strengthened exchanges and cooperation in areas such as disease
prevention, energy and climate change.
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