I. European studies in China

There have been four phases in China for European Studies since the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949.

The first phase was in the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, China had no formal diplomatic relations with most of the Western European countries and had direct military confrontation with many of them in Asia (with UK, France, The Netherlands, Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg in Korea and with France in Indochina). Because of the East-West confrontation in the 1950s and 1960s, Western European countries were regarded as part of the Imperialist Camp led by the US and the little brother or even the hatchet dogs of the US. There was no serious research on Western Europe and European integration. The ECSA and EEC were simply defined as the institutionalisation of the state monopoly capitalism and the result or the contradiction between Western Europe and the US.Footnote ²

The second phase was in the 1970s and 1980s. After President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972, the relationship between China and the Western world (the US, Western Europe and Japan) changed tremendously. Guided by the ‘Three Worlds’ theory of Mao Zedong, Western Europe was regarded as the Second World and part of the United Front against the Soviet Social-Imperialism. Chinese universities and research institutes started to pay attention to the European Communities and the European integration process. Fudan University in Shanghai established the first research institution for European Studies in 1977.

After the Cultural Revolution, China started to re-establish its international studies in the 1980s. European Studies was one of the reconstructions. But in the 1980s, European Studies in China was not focused on European integration, but mainly on country studies such as British, French, German, Nordic studies and the studies on European International Relations, especially US-European relationship. For many Chinese scholars, European integration was the main effective tool for Europeans to counter-balance the US. The major objective of the European economic integration was to deal with the economic crisis in the capitalist world.

Although there was institutional build-up for European Studies in China in the 1980s such as the Institute of Western European Studies at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the European Documentation Centre at Fudan University in Shanghai, China Association for Western European Studies, etc., most of the studies concentrated on Western European countries and there were very few researches on European integration. At the same time many Chinese scholars paid special attention to the social and economic model in Nordic countries, especially Sweden. The so-called ‘Swedish Model’ was very popular in the 1980s due to the efforts for Chinese intellectuals to promote social and political reform in China.Footnote ³

The third phase was in the 1990s. The 1990s was the key period for EU-China relations and European Studies in China. There were several very important events that stimulate the European Studies in China: (1) After the 1989 Tiananmen event the European Commission froze its relations with China and imposed a number of sanctions, including an arms embargo. It was the first time for the EC member states to act collectively towards China. China started to realise that it should not only deal with the major powers in Western Europe such as Great Britain, France, Germany, but also the European Communities. The EC studies had more policy relevance than ever before. (2) The European integration developed rapidly and relatively smoothly due to the Maastricht Treaty and Amsterdam Treaty. The EU replaced the European Communities. The common foreign and security policy (CFSP) became the second pillar and European Economic and Monetary Union had been on the agenda. Chinese scholars started to have more academic interests in European Studies. (3) Following the New Asian Strategy in 1994Footnote ⁴ the European Commission set out its first China strategy in the 1995 Communication ‘A Long Term Policy for China Europe Relations’.Footnote ⁵ EU-China relationship began to walk out of the shadow of 1989 event and improved persistently in the second half of the 1990s. It was also in this period of time, the EU and Chinese government launched the first EU-China Higher Education Cooperation Programme (1997–2001). One of the major objectives of the Programme was to promote European Studies in China. More than 100 Chinese and European universities and research institutions, as well as 1000 Chinese and European scholars took part in the Programme.

In the 1990s, especially the second half of the decade, European Studies in China presented a picture of rapid development and flourish. About 20 centres of European Studies were established in Chinese universities and governmental research institutes. Chinese scholars looked into European integration from different perspectives such as politics, economics, law, International Relations, sociology and history. As the beginning European Studies in China could be characterised as more introductory and knowledgeable rather than theoretical and multi and/or inter-disciplinary.

The fourth phase is in the 2000s. Entering into the 21st Century, European Studies in China does not always follow the evolution of the EU-China relations, but wider and deeper concern about the European experiences and its implication to China. Another feature is the effort to study European integration from more theoretical, methodological and multi-disciplinary approaches.

According to many Chinese scholars, European integration is a process for independent sovereign states to become a single sovereign entity (not necessarily a new sovereign state). As the main actors in the process are sovereign states, it is a new kind of inter-state or International Relations. As a process for different sovereign states to become a single sovereign or legal entity, it is inevitable to touch upon the transfer or share of the national sovereignties. It is also a process of comprehensive political, economic and social interaction at different levels. There is no simple or pure economic and political integration in the process. Economic integration concludes political integration, and political integration promotes the economic integration. In the process of integration, politics and economics always go along with each other. Political process needs the economic foundation, and economic process needs the political and legal institutions as the guarantee. The EU is regarded as an entity of regional cooperation and a supranational institution.Footnote ⁶

Comparative regional integration studies is a very new field of research in China. Many Chinese did find comparison between EU and APEC without any clear definition of ‘integration’ in 1990s. Currently there is more attention drawn to the comparative studies between Europe and East Asia.Footnote ⁷ Some people argued that it was incomparable because of the total different political, economic, cultural conditions. Others argued that the European experience had its universal value. Carrying out comparative regional integration studies did not mean to copy the European model but to learn the relevant examples. Some Chinese are more interested in finding comparison between Europe and China. EU is a community of 27 member states with a population of 493 million and a 4.2 million square kilometre territory. China has 30 provinces and autonomy regions with more population and larger territory than the EU. EU is a semi-supranational and semi-intergovernmental institution and China is an authoritarian one-party state. Is there any relevance to carry out comparative studies? The answer may be no. But more interestingly is the Chinese view of European models and their implications to China's domestic development and external relations. When Chinese discusses European ‘models’, it means that there is not only one, but different kinds of European model which are relevant to China.

II. European models for China's domestic development

After a 30-year economic reform and opening-up to the outside world since 1978, China has had great economic achievements. At the same time, the political, social and economic problems, especially the political legitimacy of the Communist Party of China became more challengeable. From the 1980s, Chinese scholars tried to introduce the Nordic model, especially the Swedish model to China. The Nordic and Swedish model mainly referred to two aspects. The first was the ruling position of Social Democratic Party. What Chinese scholars were more interested in was the reason why the Swedish Social Democratic Party could keep its ruling power for such a long period of time. The possible answer was the Functional or Fund Socialism.Footnote ⁸ The second hot point was the social security system. It was regarded as the perfect combination of socialist social policy and capitalist market economy. But in the later 1980s, the discussion of democratic socialism was stopped because of the official campaign against ‘spirit pollution’ and ‘bourgeois liberalization’. The Nordic social security model was not implemental due to lack of financial capacity of the Chinese government.

Since the late 1990s, Chinese scholars and governmental officials have started again to look at the European models systematically and tried to learn lessons from the European experiences which are relevant to China's domestic political and social development.

III. The European party politics and Democratic Socialism

As a state with a one-party system, all political and social problems in China can be regarded as the success or failure of the Chinese Communist Party. Since 1978 when Mr. Deng Xiaoping started the reform and opening-up policy, economic reform has always been the first priority. After the 1989 Tiananmen event, especially after 1992 when Mr. Deng Xiaoping travelled to Southern China and re-speeded up the economic reform, at the same time the political reform had not been on the agenda. In later 1990s and early 2000s, many intellectuals started to talk about the political reform. The main stream opinions were focusing on political reform within the Communist Party instead of reform at the state level. One of the representative slogans is ‘to enhancement the ruling ability of the Communist Party of China’.

From the late 1990s, many Chinese scholars researched the Western European party system, especially the European Labour or Social Democratic parties. Professor Zhang Xiaojin from Tsinghua University analysed three party models in Europe, that is, the Mass Party model, Cartel Party model and Catch-out Party model. He found out that the new tendency of the Catch-all Party model in Western Europe was more successful than others because it enlarged the basis of the political party from working class to the middle classes and played a more active role as the bridge between the state and society. It was also the major reason why so many Social Democratic parties and Labour parties came into power in Europe after the World War II.Footnote ⁹ Chinese scholars also paid special attention to the reform of the British Labour Party, especially the so-called ‘The Third Way’ and revision of the Labour Party Constitution. Most Chinese believed that one of the most important reasons that the Labour Party won the 1997 election was the internal reform within the Labour Party and giving up the Article 4 of the Labour Party Constitution.Footnote ¹⁰

In 2000, Mr. Jiang Zemin, Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party put forward the ‘Three Represents’. Accordingly, ‘the Party must always represent the requirements of the development of China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of the development of China's advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in China.’ The concept was strongly criticised by left-wing people as changing the nature of the Communist Party to the social democratic party because one of the debatable issues was whether or not the Party accepted the private entrepreneurs to be a Party member. In 2002, the 16th Party Congress of CPC adopted the revised Party Constitution. According to the new Party Constitution, Communist Party had never been a party of a single class, that is, the working class, but the pioneer of the working class, the Chinese people, as well as the Chinese nation (zhonghua minzu).Footnote ¹¹ As scholars argued, the major transition of the Social Democratic parties in Western Europe was transferred from the working-class party to the people's party. With the enlargement of the mass foundation they could compete with other left-wing and right-wing parties. The problem of the Communist parties in Western Europe was the limitation of the mass base. China faced the same problem. On the one hand, the Communist Party of China had to rely on the basic mass such as workers and farmers. On the other hand it had to extend its social base to other social classes who achieved bigger benefits and power from the market economy.Footnote ¹²

Between 2004 and 2007, there were more research projects and publications in China related to the experiences of Labour parties and Social Democratic parties in Europe. The studies focused on three subjects: First, how European political parties, especially the Labour and Social Democratic parties enlarged their class base, that is, from working class to middle classes, especially how the left-wing parties worked with the business communities.Footnote ¹³ Second, how the European left-wing parties changed the function of the party from power struggles to striving for electorates and serving the society.Footnote ¹⁴ Third, how the European ideology of Democratic Socialism is relevant to China.

European Democratic Socialism is very debatable in China. In the 1980s and 1990s, Democratic Socialism was regarded as the ‘bourgeois liberalization’. Scholars started to discuss it again from 2000 and many of them focused on democratic socialism as a reality and successful story in Europe. Before the 17th Party Congress of CPC in 2007, there were more discussions on the relevance of European Democratic Socialism to China. In February 2007 Yanhuang Chunqiu, a very influential Chinese journal published an article written by Mr. Xie Tao, formal Vice Present of Renmin University of China, entitled, ‘The Model of Democratic Socialism and the future of China’. According to Mr. Xie, the Democratic Socialism is not the opposition of Marxism but the development of the classical Marxism. The Democratic Socialism eliminated the element of escapism and changed the Marxism from Utopia into the reality. Democratic Socialism is the representative of either working class or the whole society with broad class and mass foundation. The Democratic Socialism composes four major elements: democratic constitutional system, mixed private ownership, social market economy, social security system, and with democracy as the core. According to Mr. Xie, the Democratic Socialism in Sweden is the best successful example in practice. ‘Although Sweden is a small country and Swedish Social Democratic Party is a small party, it is the apotheosis of the Democratic Socialism. Its experience has the universal values […] It provides successful examples for us to persist in Socialism, to follow the path of Socialism in the process of reform and opening-up.’ As the conclusion, Mr. Xie strongly argued that the only way to solve the problems of corruption within the Communist Party was democratic constitutional system, and the only way to rescue China was Democratic Socialism.Footnote ¹⁵

After the publication of Mr. Xie Tao in 2007, public debates on Democratic Socialism were extremely active. There are both supportive and opposing opinion on the role of European Democratic Socialism, especially its implication to China and Chinese Communist Party.Footnote ¹⁶ On 10 May 2007, the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, published an article in form of a question and answer, entitled ‘How to look at the Democratic Socialism’. It differentiated the Socialism with Chinese characteristics and Democratic Socialism, with the conclusion that, ‘even though the Democratic Socialism could be used for reference in certain aspects, it was a total different ideology system and way of development. From both the historical and realistic point of views, the Democratic Socialism was inconformity with the Chinese situation’.Footnote ¹⁷ The Leadership of Chinese government and Communist Party kept thier silence on the debates and many people regarded it as the big change of the ideology control in China.

VI. The European social policy and social security systems

Establishment of the social security system has been one of the priorities of the Chinese government since the 1980s. The Chinese started to do research on Western social welfare and social security systems from the early 1980s. The first period was to introduce different kinds of social security systems in the US, Japan and Western European countries, as well as the Soviet and Eastern European countries. From the middle of the 1980s, the focus was gradually moved to Western Europe because it seemed to most Chinese scholars that the European experiences were more relevant to China than any others.

There were three groups of scholars working on European social policies and social security studies. The first group was scholars working on European affairs or European integration studies. Their focus was the social policy and social security reform at the European level. The second group consisted of scholars working on individual Western European countries. They did lots of research on social policies and social security systems in different European countries, especially Great Britain, Germany, France and Nordic countries. The third group included the scholars of Sociology and social studies who did research on social policies and social security studies and used Western European experiences as the most important reference. There have been hundreds of textbooks and academic works on social policy and social security systems in China. Almost every publication had certain chapters on European experiences or models. The scholars working in the field came from different disciplines, especially political science, economics, sociology, law, public finance, public policy and history.Footnote ¹⁸

The main purpose of the studies in the 1980s was to introduce the different European models of social security systems, such as the British, French, German, Swedish or Nordic models, etc.Footnote ¹⁹ In the 1990s, Chinese scholars were not fully satisfied with the general introduction. They started to do four things: (1) Comparative studies on different social security models between Europe and others, especially the American system, as well as different European systems; (2) looking at the problems and challenges the European countries were faced and how they reform European social security system; (3) more focuses on certain policy areas such as medical care, employment, labour market, aging issue, pension system,Footnote ²⁰ etc., and (4) the implication of the European social security system to China, that is, what China could learn from European experiences.Footnote ²¹ In October 1993, a Chinese delegation headed by the Vice President of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences paid a three-week visit to Germany, Great Britain and Sweden. The main purpose of the trip was to look into the role of the European social security system in macro social adjustment, the experience and problem of the European system for China's economic and social reform. After the visit the group provided a report and outlined six proposals for the Chinese government.Footnote ²²

Later 1990s and early 2000s were the booming period of European social policies and social security system studies due to the EU-China Higher Education Cooperation Programme (1997–2001). Under the Programme, 143 collaborative research projects were funded and 27 of them related to the EU social policies (social security system, welfare state, public health, aging, employment policy, environmental policy, etc.), about 19 per cent of the total. Among the 440 Chinese visiting scholars supported by the Programme, 117 of them (26.6 per cent) did research projects in EU member states on the European social policies and social security system.Footnote ²³ According to research by the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Science, more than one thousand publications, including books, journal articles and policy reports, were published in Chinese on European social policies and social security system by the end of 2002.Footnote ²⁴

After 2002 when the Communist Party of China held its 16th Party Congress and Mr. Hu Jintao became the Secretary General of the Party and President of the state, the social security issues were more important than before because the Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao government put forward a new strategy for the development of China. According to the new strategy, the main target of the future 20-year development would be ‘a well-off society of a higher standard in an all-round way to the benefit of well over one billion people’. As the main content of the objective, the Communist Party emphasised six items: economic development, socialist democracy, science and education, culture, social harmony and texture of life for the people. In order to realise these goals, the Communist Party paid special attention to the social justice and social security system. As the Political Report stated, establishing and improving a social security system compatible with the level of economic development constituted an important guarantee for social stability and long-term peace and order in the country.

After 2004, the Chinese Communist Party put forward another two new concepts, that is, ‘scientific concept of development’ and ‘harmonious society’. The main proposal of the new concepts or new strategy is to solve the two major challenges China is facing. First, the imbalance between human being and nature, that is, China needing a new form of the development for sustainability. Second, the imbalance in Chinese society, that is, the gaps between rich and poor, city and rural areas, coast and inner regions, etc. Along with the new development of Chinese domestic politics and conceptual change, the studies on European social policies and social security system had new political dynamics.

In recent years, there have been more and more research projects and publications bearing such subtitles as, ‘the implication to China’. According to many Chinese scholars, one of the characteristics of the European systems that is unlike the American system is to bring social justice and harmony into the capitalist market economy, which is a good example for China to follow. The Centre for Economic Security at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, one of the leading governmental think-tanks in China, published a 440-page report on International Experiences and Revelation of Maintaining Social Harmony in 2005. It characterised the major challenges for China's strategy to build up a harmonious society such as social polarisation between the rich and poor, unemployment, aging and demography, environment, medical care, and lack of social security system. The report summarised the successful and unsuccessful cases in the US, Western Europe, Japan, Latin America and formal Soviet Union. Their conclusion was that in terms of the social policies and social security system, European experiences provided more successful stories than China.Footnote ²⁵ Many scholars as well as governmental officials – especially those working on social security issues – strongly argued that without effective social security system, it is impossible to build up a harmonious society in China.Footnote ²⁶

Different from the relationship with other developed countries, the EU and China have begun to work very closely in the field of social policies and social security. In September 2005 during the 8th EU-China Summit in Beijing, The European Commission and Chinese Ministry of Labour and Social Security signed a Memorandum of Understanding on EU-China cooperation on Labour, Employment and Social Affairs. This MoU provides the framework for EU-China dialogue on areas such as social protection, social cohesion, labour legislation, employment, labour relations and social dialogue. Each side will visit the other at least once a year in Brussels and Beijing alternatively. The first China-EU-China seminar on ‘Employment Promotion and Vocational Training’ took place the day after the signing of the MoU. The second event took place in Brussels in November 2006 with the theme of ‘Labour Mobility in the EU and China’. The EU also assists China in the modernisation of its social protection systems through a five-year EU-China Social Security Reform Cooperation Project which started on 1 April 2006.

V. The European regional policies

Another major challenge for China is the imbalance in development of different regions, that being, the enlarging gap between coastal areas and inner-land areas. In the 1980s the regional economic gap between Eastern and Central-Western China was not very obvious. It was after 1990 that the development gap enlarged rapidly. From 1990 to 1993, and 2000 to 2003, the increased distance grew 15.18 per cent and 7.15 per cent annually. In 2003, the GDP in the Eastern China was 2.38 times more than the Central region and 3.48 times more than the Western regions.Footnote ²⁷

The Chinese scholars in European Studies tried to introduce the European regional policy to China from the late 1980s.Footnote ²⁸ After 2000, there were more and more research projects and publications which came into existence. There was also governmental funding from both Chinese and European institutions to do research and field visits in European countries on regional policy. The European regional policy study in China is also in two levels, that is, in the member state level and in the European level. The first level concentrates on the regional policies in Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, etc. The second one is more important and focusing on three aspects: (1) European regional policy and European integration. According to the Chinese understanding the European regional policy is one of the most important measures for the EU member states to reduce economic disparity and realise the economic convergence. It is also in favour of boosting up social coherence in Europe so as to promote the political integration.Footnote ²⁹ (2) European regional policy and the regional development in Europe. The European regional policy is the most successful policy to promote economic development in those member states and regions that were economically less developed. The good examples are Spain and Portugal. After the EU enlargement, the regional policy plays a more important role in helping new members from Central and Eastern Europe develop their economy and become close to the Union.Footnote ³⁰ (3) The implication of European regional policy to China.

The basic feature of European regional policy studies in China before 2000 was introductory. Since 2000, the regional development strategy has become one of the priorities of China's economic and social development. Chinese scholars pay more attention to the implication of European experiences in regional development to China's regional development strategy. In 2001, a group of Chinese governmental officials headed by Dr. Chen Xiwen, Deputy Director of the Centre for Development Studies of the State Council of China, paid a two-week visit to Spain and Portugal focusing on implementation of the European regional policy in the two countries. They gave a very positive evaluation on the European regional policy and provided detailed policy recommendations of how China should learn from the European experiences.Footnote ³¹ In 2005, another delegation funded by European Commission with 10 governmental officials and scholars came to Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark for a two-week visit mainly focusing on ‘The Correspondent Mechanism of the EU Regional Cooperation and Its Reference to China’. They looked into the new changes in European regional policy after the enlargement and the implementation of the EU 2000–2006 Structural Policy. According to their policy report, the EU regional policy was very successful. The difference between China and EU was that there had been no regional policy in China and it was the major reason that China could not solve the problem of the enlarging regional gaps. They also provided an 8-point policy recommendation according to their understanding of the European experience.Footnote ³²

Chinese scholars in European studies and regional development studies all looked at the EU regional policy as the most important reference for China's regional development policy. Some scholars pay attention to the macro or national level and many others pay special attention to the regional level. There are hundreds of research papers, policy reports and MA and PhD dissertations on how European regional policy can be the reference for China's regional development strategies such as the Western Development, Northeast Prevail, Yangtse Delta Regional Cooperation, Pearl Delta Regional Cooperation, etc.Footnote ³³ Some scholars argued very strongly the necessity to establish same kind of structural fund or regional development fund in China to support the regional development.Footnote ³⁴

It was in December 2004 during the 7th EU-China Summit in The Hague that the balanced development, regional policies and rural development were on the agenda of EU-China dialogue and cooperation.Footnote ³⁵ In May 2006, the European Commission and China National Development and Reform Commission signed the memorandum of understanding on EU-China regional policy cooperation in Beijing. The European Commission and Chinese government jointly sponsored the first high level ‘EU-China Regional Development Policy Seminar’ in May 2006 in Beijing and the second one during October 2007 in Brussels.

According to the European Commission, ‘China is facing considerable regional development disparities between the booming coastal regions, the underdeveloped Western parts of the country and the North East with its declining traditional heavy industry. There is a more general issue of income disparities, in particular the urban/rural divide. The dialogue on regional policy provides a basis for sharing EU experiences in developing and implementing its regional policy, governance and partnership issues and other related topics of mutual interest. In addition, the role of EU regional policy in areas like competition policy and state aid rules, public procurement, transport and environment contributes to cooperation with China in these policy areas.’Footnote ³⁶

According to the Chinese side, ‘It is very important for China to learn from the international experience during the process of changing the economic growth pattern and perfecting the Socialist market economy in China. The EU has maturated and successful theories and policy implementation are in regional development. The EU-China cooperation on regional policies will provide great benefits for each others’.Footnote ³⁷

VI. European models for China's foreign policy and external relations

Chinese officials always emphasised that there were more commonalities between China and the EU in global affairs:

For many Chinese scholars, the EU-China relationship is the best in terms of bilateral political and economic ties. In addition, China and EU have more common approaches to deal with the global and regional issues and China can learn lots from the European experiences in International Relations.

VII. Bilateral plus regional approach to deal with the neighbouring countries

The EU external relations and neighbourhood policy is one of the major interests for Chinese scholars in both IR studies and European studies. When Chinese scholars looked at the experiences of European integration and EU neighbouring policy, their conclusion was that Europe became the most stable and secure region in the world basically because of the European integration. It was the regional integration that made it impossible for the Europeans to go to war again. Because of the European single market and single currency, the European countries were never so interdependent in both economics and politics. After the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, the external relations of the EU with its neighbours went through two different steps. First, using the EU membership as the bait to attract and reform its Central and Eastern European neighbours. It was an approach with bilateral and regional characters. The main objective was to integrate those neighbours into one family; the EU. The EU is still carrying on with this approach to other candidate countries. The second step is its real European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) after the EU enlargement in 2004.

As the Chinese understanding, the main objective of the European Neighbourhood Policy is to promote reform, the rule of law, stable democracies and prosperity – prosperity, security and stability – throughout the neighbourhood of the enlarged EU.Footnote ³⁹ It is also the same as its policy towards Central and Eastern European countries before 2004. The European Neighbourhood Policy represents a new approach in the EU relations with its neighbours although the objective is the same. The new approach includes three key factors: (1) Closer cooperation without membership. ‘The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is not about membership of the EU. It is a response to long-standing requests from many of these countries for closer relations, founded on partnership and joint ownership. If an accession perspective were to be offered at some point in the future to any of the countries covered by the ENP, this would be a separate process’.Footnote ⁴⁰ (2) While building on the traditional cooperation-based approach, the ENP brings added value by bringing together main policy instruments in a more focused way, covers a wider range of issues, with greater intensity, and throughout all fields of governance, than our existing relationships.Footnote ⁴¹ (3) The European Neighbourhood Policy reinforces existing forms of regional and sub-regional cooperation and provides a framework for their further development.Footnote ⁴²

The European Neighbourhood Policy is also a bilateral plus regional approach like the first step. The EU has bilateral arrangement with all its neighbours (membership negotiation or partnership agreement). The difference is the regional one. The first step was to reform the neighbours so that they could be qualified to be the new members of the EU. The second step is to reform the neighbours so that they can be the good neighbours outside the EU. In order to make the neighbours as good as possible and the neighbourhood environment more stable and secure to the EU, the regional arrangement is necessary. The most important regional arrangement is to reinforce the existing regional and sub-regional cooperation among those neighbours. Another arrangement is the inter-regional cooperation between the EU and the neighbours, such as the newly established Mediterranean Union. According to the assessment of Chinese scholars, the European Neighbourhood policy is very successful. What is the implication of the European approach to China's neighbouring policy? It is very much debatable in China and there is almost no public debate. Many scholars argued that the neighbourhood environment of China is totally different from the EU. Some scholars pay more attention to the European approach, that is, bilateral plus regional, instead of policy or policy instrument. According to latter arguments, the bilateral plus regional approach is very much relevant to China's neighbouring policy.

China has the most complicated surrounding environment in the world. It has 29 neighbours and has a 22, 000 kilometre land border with 15 countries and an 18,000 kilometre coastline. Neighbouring policy has always been the core of China's foreign relations. Traditionally, the main approach for China to deal with the neighbours was bilateralism. The major concern was to solve or lay aside any historical and current bilateral problems. After the Cold War, there has been little possibility for China to have military confrontation with the neighbours. The security threat for China has never been just bilateral with its neighbours. The political and economic instability within certain neighbouring countries as well as in Asia became the new threat to China.Footnote ⁴³

The reason why China persisted in the traditional bilateral approach to deal with its neighbours was that China worried about the regional and multilateral arrangement being the tool of others to constrain China. From the early 1990s, China started to become involved in the regional arrangement in Asia Pacific such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 1991 and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1994. But the main strategy of the Chinese involvement was to use the regional platform to deal with the bilateral issues. A good example was the importance of the bilateral meetings with the major counterparts in the region, especially the US and Japan, during the annual APEC informal Summit. Those meetings were more important for China than any regional agenda within the AEPC framework.Footnote ⁴⁴

China started its ‘Good Neighbourhood Policy’ from the early 1990s. The main content of the policy was ‘to be apt to the neighbours and to be partner with the neighbours’. Since the second half of the 1990s, the Asian regional cooperation has developed smoothly on the one hand, and the emotion of ‘China Threats’ from China's neighbours increased on the other hand. China's economic and military capabilities were regarded as the major resource of the China Threats. The traditional way to deal with the neighbours faced great challenges. It is more difficult for China to deal with all its neighbours separately. It is easy for China ‘to be apt to’ the neighbours. But it is very difficult for China ‘to be partner with’ every neighbour separately. The better way is to have partnership with all neighbours through certain regional mechanisms. The new strategy is to change from the traditional ‘bilateral plus regional’ approach, that is, using regional platform to deal with bilateral relations to a new ‘regional-multilateral’ approach, that is, to engage in more regional cooperation and work with neighbours together within the regional arrangement. In other words, the major purpose to engage in the regional cooperation is not just for dealing with the bilateral relations but promoting regional cooperation. The bilateral issues, especially the border issues with different neighbours can be easily solved at the same time. In practice, China solved the border issues with Russia and Central Asian countries within the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organizations (SCO). China is trying to deal with the South China Sea issue through the ASEAN plus one scheme. Some people argued that lack of regional arrangement was one of the main difficulties for China to solve the border issue with India. India's involvement in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization may provide new opportunities.

In October 2003, the Chinese government brought forward a new neighbourhood policy concept to replace the ‘to be amicable, and to be partner with the neighbours’ approach, which is ‘mu-lin, an-lin, fu-lin’, meanings of ‘an amicable, tranquil and prosperous neighbourhood’ in the region.Footnote ⁴⁵ In order to provide security and prosperity to its neighbours, China needs not only to have good bilateral relationship with each of them, but also more regional cooperation with the all of, or at least most of them. But the great difference between the European and Chinese approach is that China prefers the ASEAN instead of either China or Japan to be the lead in the process of regional cooperation.

VIII. Multilateralist approach to deal with global and regional security

Before 2000, what China always emphasised was multipolarity which has been the official discourse for many years, instead of multilateralism. Some Chinese scholars started to challenge the concept of multipolarity in later 1990s, advocated pluralism as the replacement, and argued that the tendency in the post-Cold War era was non-polarity instead of multipolarity.Footnote ⁴⁶ In July 2001, Chinese scholars discussed the multilateralism and multilateral diplomacy during a workshop and 8 papers were published by World Economics and Politics, a very influential journal on international studies in China in October 2001.Footnote ⁴⁷ It was the first time for the Chinese scholars to look at the multilateralism from both theoretical and policy perspectives. The main Chinese understanding of the multilateralism in early 2000s was very much the same as balance of powers and multipolarity. As some of them argued, the multilateral diplomacy was the important approach to the multi-polar world.Footnote ⁴⁸

The Chinese government started to change the discourse from multipolarity to multilateralism in later 2003. Several very important events that may have the influence on the change include: (1) China accessed into the WTO which was regarded as one the most important global multilateral institutions; (2) The UN reform started to be on the Agenda of the major powers in the world and in the region; (3) The contestation of ‘Effective Multilateralis’ by the EU through the Solana Report in which the EU also defined China as the strategic partner of the EU, and (4) The international debates on unilateralism and multilateralism after the War in Iraq in 2003.

In December 2003, when Mr. Wen Jiabao held talks with visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Wen said that in the international affairs, both countries advocated for the demoralisation of International Relations and multilateralism, as well as increasingly closer consultation and cooperation.Footnote ⁴⁹ In March 2004 when Wen Jiabao met with visiting Secretary General of the Council of the EU and High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, he said there are a number of common grounds between China and the EU. Both sides are committed to safeguarding world peace, security and stability. Both insist on strengthening the role of the UN and multilateralism.Footnote ⁵⁰ Before the meeting with Wen Jiabao, Javier Solona told Mr. Tang Jiaxuan, the State Councillor in charge of the foreign affairs, that ‘The EU and China share the same view on further development of bilateral relations and major international and regional issues. The EU-China strategic partnership should not remain only words, but holds tangible content. The EU side stands ready to deepen consultation and cooperation with China in a joint effort to promote effective multilateralism.’Footnote ⁵¹ From 2004, Chinese governmental officials (such as Chinese Foreign Minster Li Zhaoxing and Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi) started to use the concept of ‘effective multilateralism’ officially in various occasions.Footnote ⁵²

Many Europeans argued that the fundamental difference between the European effective multilateralism and Chinese concept is the attitude towards the international intervention. The European approach is more favourable to the international interference in each other's domestic affairs if necessary. The Chinese approach is still sovereignty-centralism and persisting in the principle of non-interference in domestic affairs.Footnote ⁵³ Actually, the European approach and Chinese approach is not so different. The European approach can be defined as ‘institutional multilateralism’ and the Chinese approach can be defined as ‘selective multilateralism’. China has never regarded the national sovereignty as an absolute one. International intervention of the domestic affairs can be accepted if necessary. The pre-condition is the international authorisation. It should be authorised by the international community, and the legitimate body is UN or regional organisations.Footnote ⁵⁴

VIIII. Europe as an example of peaceful rise

‘Peaceful rise’ has been a very controversial concept in China. It was put forward by Mr. Zheng Bijian who was influential in foreign affairs in 2003. Most Chinese top leaders used the concept in their speeches in 2003 and 2004, although it was officially abandoned in favour of ‘peaceful development’ in later 2004. The main debates on China's peaceful rise within China were around five themes: (1) If China starts to rise, or in the process of rising, or has risen; (2) If China's peaceful rise is a historical exception; (3) If it is possible for china to rise peacefully, or if the outside world allows China to rise peacefully; (4) How China rises peacefully, and (5) If China's rise is a threat or opportunity for the outside world.Footnote ⁵⁵

Some Chinese look at the European experiences and argue that China's peaceful rise would not be a historical exception. EU is a good example of peaceful rise. After World War II, Europe, the European Community, and later the EU developed as an economic superpower and gradually an important political power in world affairs through a peaceful process. If China would like to be peaceful rising and accepted as an opportunity instead of a threat by the outside world, there is something that China should learn from the European experiences:

1. 1. European integration as a process to bring European countries, Western European countries during the Cold War and Central and Eastern European countries after the Cold War into one family, that is, the EU so as to make Europe the most secure and prosperity continent. The EU membership is a powerful instrument to attract neighbours and other regional arrangement such as the Mediterranean Union to provide bigger space for the EU to play a more important role in the region. One of the major challenges to China's peaceful rise is the attitude of its neighbours, especially in Asia. Engaging in the East Asian regional cooperation will be the better way for China to realise the good neighbourhood policy. More active engagement in Shanghai Cooperation Organization will also help China to have a better surrounding environment.

2. 2. Western European countries as the political and military alliance of the US have had good relations with the US for more than 60 years. The Europeans worked with Americans through different mechanisms and institutions such as NATO, OSCE, OECD, IMF and World Bank, and G7 (and later the G8). Although the EU and its member states had different approaches to deal with the global and regional affairs from the US, the EU and the US have more commonalities than the differences strategically. The EU's peaceful rise has been well accepted and supported by the US. And the EU actually shares leadership with the US as part of the ‘Western Collective Hegemony’.Footnote ⁵⁶ The US as the only hegemonic power in the post-Cold War Era will always be the key factor for China's role in the world. Learning from the European experiences, China should not only work with the US in global and regional affairs, but also needs to pay more attention to the common interests with the US, instead of contradictions between the US and others.

3. 3. Although both the EU and China are in favour of multilateralism, China is a new comer of the international community. The European countries were not only the tree-rider of the international institutions of which most were established by the efforts of the US, but also the active participants and the co-decision-makers and rule-makers together with the US. The EU plays a more important role in certain aspects of the global and regional affairs than the US such as the North-South cooperation, global environmental issues and climate change through its effective multilateralism approach and development policy. As one of the major powers in world economics and politics, China has not been fully accepted by the Western world mainly due to the ideological differences. China is trying and learning to engage itself more broadly and deeply into the world system. The new approach of China to the world order is not to establish a new one but to work with the major players and make it more effective and farer.Footnote ⁵⁷

For Chinese scholars, wisely and successfully handling the three major relationships – the relationship with neighbouring countries, the relationship with the dominant power and the relationship with the international institutions is the pre-condition to promote the peaceful rise of the EU. It provided a good example to China.Footnote ⁵⁸

X. Functionalism as the way to East Asian regional integration

When Chinese scholars carried out comparative regional integration studies on Europe and East Asia, many people focused on the big difference of the two regions and argued that the European regional integration cannot be the model for East Asia. Other scholars paid more attention to the relevance of the EU model for China to involve in East Asian regionalisation processes, especially the functionalist approach to regional integration. According to many Chinese IR and European Studies scholars, one of the most successful experiences in European integration process is functionalist cooperation as the starting point. Although the Franco-German reconciliation was a political decision, it had to go through functional cooperation in the coal and steel industry. The European integration through customs union, common agricultural policy, single market, and then single currency showed the road map of the political motivation, institutional building, economic cooperation and regional integration. Although the situation in East Asia is more complicated, the European integration process provides a good example for China to participate the regional cooperation (if not integration) process.