China and EU enhance relationship with Premier Wen’s visit to Europe

　　Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s 11-day Europe tour may be over, but the positive ripple effects for Sino-EU relations are still being felt in the international community.

　　“It is safe to say that we have reached a pinnacle in Sino-EU relations,” President of China Foreign Affairs University Wu Jianmin said in an exclusive interview with Beijing Review. Wu has been an ambassador to European countries for nine years and is brimming with enthusiasm at the success of Wen’s visits to five major European countries.

　　Earlier this year, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited France. This May, Chinese Premier Wen visited Germany, Britain, Italy, Ireland and Belgium. And this autumn, French President Jacques Chirac will visit China. Diplomacy with European countries accounts for the greater part of China’s diplomacy efforts this year, Wu pointed out.

　　This year, the U.S. Government is busy handling Iraq as well as the presidential election. Two countries neighboring China, Russia and India, have also had presidential elections. And its political relations with Japan seem trapped in a predicament due to Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to the Yasukuni Shrine. This provided the time and resources for both China and the EU to develop their relations, Wu noted.

　　Fundamentally, the opportunity to enhance bilateral relations is based on the political consensus and economic complementariness, Wu said. Both China and the EU advocate multilateralism and oppose unilateralism, which is the basic ground for the development of bilateral relations, said Wu, adding while a country’s development requires democracy and a sound legal system, the development of the world also calls for democracy and a sound legal system. “Moreover, both China and the EU agree on civilization diversity of the world and this consensus has contributed to increasing dialogues between the two sides,” he said.

　　China’s broad market is attractive to the EU investors and the EU’s high technology and their advanced business management expertise can give a boost to China’s economic growth.

TRIP IN GERMANY: Visiting Premier Wen talks with citizens of Bavaria, Germany

　　During Wen’s Europe tour, he participated in a total of 97 meetings, talks and different gatherings concerning predominantly bilateral and international issues. China and EU nations signed 15 bilateral cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding, 56 trade contracts, 26 joint-venture deals and a batch of cooperation intent letters, of which the total funds involved would reach billions of U.S. dollars.

　　Wen visited several enterprises, universities and hi-tech parks in EU countries, meeting people from all walks of life, especially in economic circles. Wen pointed out that China and the EU should enlarge economic and trade cooperation through enhancing hi-tech cooperation and promoting partnerships between small and medium-sized firms.

　　He also encouraged entrepreneurs from the two sides to carry forward the pioneering spirit of Marco Polo in initiating their business and set up a dialogue mechanism to deal with trade and economic friction. According to Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, who accompanied Wen, all the nations Wen visited have promised to push the EU to give China complete market economic status.

　　Regarding the arms sales ban on China, Wu said Wen’s visit to EU countries would promote the formation of the consensus that the sanction is out of date. Fifteen years has passed since the EU decided to carry out the arms sales ban on China, and the world has undergone profound changes. More and more European countries have realized that the sanction is really outdated.

　　Wen’s visits to the five EU countries were well planned, Wu said. Britain, Germany and Italy are major powers in the EU, Ireland currently holds the rotating presidency and Belgium is the EU’s headquarters. On May 1, the EU realized its greatest enlargement in its history and the next day Wen began his Europe tour. Although this is just a coincidence, Wu pointed out, it reflects that the Chinese Government supports the enlargement of the EU.

　　The Central and East European countries that have accessed, or will join the EU, all welcome increasing cooperation with China. Their integration into the EU actually facilitates China’s trade and economic cooperation with them, via a free flow of capital, commodities and personnel in a wider region.

　　Various departments in China involved in foreign affairs have traditionally divided the European affairs into East and West European affairs and thus have two different divisions to respectively deal with the affairs of “old” Europe and “new” Europe, Wu noted.

　　With an increasingly integrated Europe, restructuring of those departments might be realized one day in the future, he said. Of course, there exist some differences and contradictions between China and European countries, such as different views on human rights issues and some trade conflicts. This is “normal,” said Wu. With the development of Sino-European relations, more problems will emerge.

　　As the Chinese people are learning to be rational in dealing with contradictions and conflicts with other countries, those problems will not constitute insurmountable barriers to the development of Sino-European relations, Wu concluded.(By KUANG JI)