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WTO trade negotiations are not brisk endeavors. However even by the WTO’s own lethargic standards, the progress of the current Doha round has been disappointingly slow. As a new paper by Aaditya Mattoo, Francis Ng, and Arvind Subramani explains, the main reason for this is the “elephant in the green room” – China. According to… » read more
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China, Conor Griffin, English, EU Priorities, EU WTO, External Relations |
January 11, 2011
Portugal is a small European country as China likes them. Chinese President Hu Jintao offered generous help over the week-end on the occasion of a state visit to Lisbon, in a moment when Germany, France and other eurozone countries are pushing Portugal to seek an EU-IMF assistance programme, following Greece and Ireland. In the sixties… » read more
November 21, 2010
Dear Friends and Colleagues, It is with sadness that we write informing you of the death of Stanley Crossick on Saturday 20th November. Stanley, in spite of his serious medical condition, recently managed to travel to China. He was able to continue working right to the end on the project he was devoted to –… » read more
November 16, 2010
This is just a short note on behalf of Stanley to apologise for the break in blogging service. I have just been informed that he has been quite unwell recently and is currently in hospital. Doubtless Stanley will be back in the blogging hotseat very soon. Until then, everyone involved with Blogactiv wishes him a… » read more
October 23, 2010
Max Kohnstamm, Honorary President of EPC and one of it’s founding fathers, died peacefully on 20 October, aged 96, survived by his wife Kathleen and five children. Max was the last survivor of the nine EU Founding Fathers, and his death marks the end of an era. He believed deeply in vision, method and action,… » read more
The following interview with the Global Times took place on 15 0ctober, bit was not published: 1. Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo this year. What’s your comment on the decision of Nobel committee? Can the award be interpreted as the pressure of the Western countries on China to accelerate its… » read more
October 11, 2010
Personal note I never blog about myself but Blogactiv have asked me to make an exception this time and tell an anecdote. I received an unexpected letter from the French Minister for Europe in 200? announcing that I had been awarded by President Chirac the Ordre Nationale du Mérite for “services to Europe”. Some weeks… » read more
Three years on: state of EU-China relations When I posted my first blog exactly three years ago on 11 October 2007, not for one moment did I anticipate 500. But I confess that I enjoy it – I hope a pleasure I share with you. Watching the US, in particular during the Obama election, it… » read more
October 9, 2010
It now looks unlikely that the current Sino-Japanese dispute will be resolved next week in Brussels on the sidelines of the ASEM Asia-Europe Summit, when Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan will both be there. Whatever the true facts of the collision between a Chinese trawler and two Japanese coastguard ships in… » read more
The following article appeared in Global Times on 29 September: It now looks unlikely that the current Sino-Japanese dispute will be resolved next week in Brussels on the sidelines of the ASEM Asia-Europe Summit, when Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan will both be there. Whatever the true facts of the collision… » read more
October 8, 2010
“Politicians come and go but culture lives on” said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, when opening the “EU-China High Level Cultural Forum”, which was held in Brussels on 6-7 October. The successful development of EU-China relations needs increased mutual understanding. A first step towards mutual understanding is cultural engagement (culture in its broadest sense). Within this… » read more
Wen Jiabao and Nato Kan, the prime ministers of China and Japan, discussed, in the wings of the ASEM Summit in Brussels, the tensions following the 7 September maritime incident near the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands. They will have further opportunities to talk when they meet later this month in Hanoi for the East Asia Summit,… » read more
September 27, 2010
It is a poor reflection on the EU’s China activities if the latest available organigrarmme is nearly five years old and there is no agreement as to how many Dialogues, Working Groups (WG) etc there are. It indicates a serious lack of coordination. The structure of EU-China relations according to the Commission in December 2005… » read more
September 19, 2010
The EU Summit has come and gone, but was hijacked over the Roma dispute. This meant that little time was spent on discussing strategies towards third countries, including China. There was an inconclusive discussion at the recent informal foreign ministers’ meeting. We do know how the EU High Representative for Foreign & Security Policy/Commission Vice… » read more
September 16, 2010
• Many fewer Poles than other EU respondents approve of Obama’s handling of international policies. • Given the choice between accepting a nuclear Iran and taking military action, 64% of Americans and 43% of Europeans favour military action. • Fewer than 20% of EU and US citizens believe that China plays a positive role internationally.… » read more
September 14, 2010
What is the SCO? The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has, to the surprise of many, emerged as a force to be reckoned with in Central Asia. The ‘Shanghai Five’, founded in 1996, became the SCO in 2001. Its members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan are Observers. Belarus… » read more
September 10, 2010
The World Commerce Review of September 2010 contained the following article: US-China relations: storm clouds gathering Stanley Crossick President Hu Jintao’s long-planned visit to the United States is not likely to take place soon, as Beijing has postponed the preparatory talks as tensions mount between the two countries. Their relationship has global reach and influences… » read more
August 23, 2010
Academic papers and books on democracy continue to proliferate. Mainstream western opinion supports views such as: • Rapid economic development quickens democratisation. • The liberal democratic path is the only sustainable route to modernity. • Non-democratic regimes are necessarily ridden with corruption and cronyism. Two questions which require far more attention than they receive are:… » read more
August 21, 2010
Problems relating to the South China Sea have been bubbling below the surface for a long time. However, the public entry of the United States into the arena has brought these problems to the surface. The South China Sea is now being spoken about in China as a “core interest” of its sovereignty: hitherto the… » read more
July 31, 2010
The Chinese Mission to the EU organized a workshop on China-EU relations on 17 June 2010. The following recommendations are supported by the Europeans present at the worshop, in the light of the discussions between them and representatives of the Mission, led by HE Song Zhe: Long-term 1. Mutual understanding 2. Jean Monnet methodology 3.… » read more
