EU and China are two players, residing at opposite ends of the Eurasian super-continent. One of them occupies the geographical zone where the industrial revolution was initiated, while the other represents the new centre of global economic gravity. The EU is China's largest trading partner. In addition, China is the EU's second largest trading partner after the US.
As Global Times writes in an article China-EU Summit aims to raise global growth, as the world enters what Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, calls the "Fourth Industrial Revolution," ensuring that Europeans and Asians work together to mitigate the impacts of trade on the biosphere is key to development. Innovative technologies and modern infrastructure are needed to transform the lives of those billions who are still languishing in relative poverty and under-development. Images of sustainable growth and enhanced trade networks are at the heart of both the Chinese and European visions of the future.The 19th EU-China Summit in Brussels on June 1-2 therefore represents a historic opportunity for leaders to come together and work out precisely what form collaboration should take. However, there are also some major sticking points which need to be addressed before the discussion can progress. There is therefore plenty for Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to address in his meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Many problems were revealed during the previous China-EU Summit
The question of how to facilitate access to each other's markets is one which has festered for too long. The EU continues to deny Market Economy Status to China, on the basis that China is not yet a proper free market. European companies complain that they cannot easily penetrate the Chinese marketplace. Europe does not want to let relatively cheaper Chinese goods flood European markets at a higher rate than at present either, for fear of undermining local economies. At the recent Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, EU representatives refused to sign a joint statement on trade issued by the Chinese side. They stated that they were concerned that questions of transparency and sustainability were not addressed in the document. It is, however, not entirely clear how the Europeans are suggesting progress be made. Hopefully some constructive steps toward an understanding will be taken in Brussels.
At the same time, as already stated, trade is not everything. The issue of how best to direct investment capital into the right places to benefit both sides is also critical. As momentum steadily builds behind China's monumental Belt and Road initiative, which ultimately aims to transform the Eurasian land mass into a gigantic integrated trade zone, it is vital to channel funds to where they are most likely to do some good. This includes finding ways to generate a meeting of minds on investment in renewable energy and other environmentally-friendly technologies. China, given the perilous state of its own environment, has the will to find green solutions, and deep pockets to match. Meanwhile, the EU has been emphasizing the need to switch from polluting fossil fuels to renewables for decades already. Together the EU and China account for about one third of total global energy consumption. It also called for "safe, secure, sustainable and affordable energy" for "the well-being of our people, industry and economy." In the end, it is only by working together that the vision of a sustainable and interconnected human future based on innovative technology, laid out so vividly in the goals of the Belt and Road initiative, can be turned into reality.
