20. Apr 2009
Power audit of EU-China relations
(ECFR) China is exploiting the European Union's divisions and treating the 27-state bloc with "diplomatic contempt" on issues ranging from trade to the Dalai Lama, according to a new policy report by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a European think-tank, in close cooperation with Asia Centre at Science Po. This analysis comes in the 'Power Audit of EU-China Relations', the first ever pan-European study of EU-China relations. The authors argue that a policy of "unconditional engagement", in which the EU grants China economic benefits in the hope that this will lead to democratic reform, has failed to achieve advances since it was introduced in the mid-eighties. And jostling for influence in Beijing between member states - especially France, Germany and the UK- means that they have refused to support each other on contentious issues such as meeting the Dalai Lama.