The 'China honeymoon' is over

By David Shambaugh | International Herald Tribune
November 26, 2007

For Europe, the "China honeymoon" is over. As the 10th European Union-China summit meeting convenes in Beijing this week, and after 15 years of rapidly and dramatically developing ties, there are numerous indications of new strains emerging in the relationship.

Tensions have grown over the past year, for a number of reasons. In particular, there has been a changed mood in Europe about China. This is evident on a number of levels - public, corporate and governmental.

Positive public perceptions of China have dropped dramatically over the past year, dipping 15 to 20 percent in public surveys in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain. This is primarily the result of job outsourcing and the ballooning EU trade deficit with China, which is growing at €15 million per hour and likely to rise from €128 billion in 2006 to more than €170 billion in 2007.

Europe's mood has also been affected by publicized incidents of Chinese industrial espionage and attempted hacking into the computer networks of the German chancellor's office and the British Foreign Office (and the Pentagon), as well as concerns over human rights in China, particularly Tibet.

Criticism of China's human rights record has always been harsher among new EU member states in Eastern Europe - particularly the Czech Republic, Poland and Baltic states - which tend to view Beijing through the prism of their Communist past.

European corporations are also increasingly voicing their frustrations with China. A variety of discriminatory trade and investment practices plague European and other businesses in China, particularly the widespread theft of intellectual property and market-access barriers to China's financial services industries, distribution networks and protected industries.

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