On May 6, 1975, China and the European Economic Community (EEC) officially established diplomatic relations. Over the ensuing five decades of global transformations, China and the European Union (EU) have emerged as indispensable strategic partners, playing a pivotal role in shaping the evolution of the multipolar world order.

The peaceful rise of China and European integration have inspired one another. Two decades of a comprehensive strategic partnership have enabled the two sides to establish an institutional multi-dimensional, multi-tiered and wide-ranging framework for in-depth cooperation. At present, Europeans are facing historic strategic choices. Strategic independence, comprehensive strength and Europe's strategic awakening have become their frequently mentioned key words. In this context, the contemporary value and strategic importance of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership have become increasingly apparent.

Europe's challenges 

Over many centuries, Europe took the lead in industrialization and modernization, emerging as a global political, economic and cultural center. Its successful experience once served as a model for emulation by many late-developing countries and less-developed regions. However, since the beginning of the 21st century, the global political and economic power shift has accelerated, leading to a relative decline in Europe's comprehensive strength and international influence. At present, amid profound and rapid changes in the external environment, Europe is at a "crossroads in history," facing multiple grave challenges.

In the realm of international politics, major-power competition continues to intensify. After Donald Trump's return to the White House, his administration fundamentally redefined strategic perceptions of and diplomatic engagement with the U.S.' traditional European allies. This unpredictable policy shift significantly destabilized European economic and security interests, while growing coordination between populist movements in the U.S. and Europe is eroding their shared political foundations. This dual pressure has exposed critical vulnerabilities in Europe's alliance-dependent strategic framework.

Within the regional security architecture, the U.S. has been progressively implementing strategic retrenchment across Europe. Europe's hollowed-out defense capacities now stand fully exposed, revealing critical vulnerabilities. On one hand, the protracted Ukraine crisis has left Europe struggling to address the biggest security challenge on its soil after World War II. There are growing concerns that Europe risks becoming a pawn in the geopolitical maneuvering between the U.S. and Russia, harming its security interest. On the other hand, the U.S. has threatened to provide security guarantees only to allies meeting defense spending targets while planning to reduce U.S. military deployments across Europe. Europe's security architecture now faces heightened uncertainty.

In the economic and technological spheres, Europe is contending not only with medium-to-long-term challenges such as intensifying global technological competition, green economic transitions and digital transformation, but also immediate pressures including contraction of the manufacturing sector, sluggish domestic and external demand, and energy supply chain realignments. The eurozone economic growth stagnated in the fourth quarter of last year, with its two leading economies, Germany and France, both registering negative growth. Notably, Germany has now experienced economic contraction for two consecutive years.

In the social sphere, European nations face the complex task of preserving traditional social values while advancing structural reforms to address contemporary realities. A persistent disconnect between citizens' expectations and political elites' reform agendas has become increasingly evident. In addition, mass refugee inflows are deepening societal fault lines across Europe, compounding local integration pressures and undermining social stability dynamics, fueling the rise of far-right and populist forces across European nations, and accelerating a broader conservative shift within European societies.

Pursuit of strategic autonomy 

The terms "strength" and "awakening" have become recurrent themes in European policy discourse. Josep Borrell, former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, underscored "Europe's geopolitical awakening" in 2022. Since the start of this year, calls for "European awakening" have been rising in the security and defense sector. Germany's current Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently stressed that Europe's absolute priority is to "bolster its strength" as soon as possible and truly achieve "independence from the United States." Under pressure from the Trump administration's disruptive policies, Europe is rethinking its dependency on the U.S. in geopolitics, military-security and other domains, abandoning illusions and retaking strategic autonomy.

In the political sphere, the reelection of Trump has prompted European countries to band together for mutual support, with France, Germany, the United Kingdom and others growing increasingly closer. They seek to strengthen coordination of external positions, enhance their collective capacity for external action, raise Europe's international standing and voice, avoid marginalization in regional and global affairs, and continue to pursue diversified foreign policy strategies.

In the security and defense domain, Europe has maintained its supportive stance toward Ukraine, explicitly committed to providing long-term security guarantees for the country, and taken the lead in proposing a European solution to resolve the Ukraine crisis. Meanwhile, the European Council has approved the ReArm Europe Plan, which plans to add 800 billion euros ($922 billion) in defense spending over the next four years. The initiative aims to build a more independent European security architecture in the medium to long term by boosting defense investment, advancing military research and development collaboration, optimizing joint arms procurement, and other practical measures.

In the economic and trade domain, the EU is reassessing its strategy toward the U.S., planning to utilize all available tools to safeguard its economic interests. The EU has swiftly enacted retaliatory measures in response to U.S. tariff policies and is preparing additional countermeasures, such as formulating contingency plans targeting the EU-U.S. services trade deficit and sectors like digital services and intellectual property rights, to enhance its negotiating leverage.

Admittedly, enhancing geopolitical standing and strengthening Europe's strategic autonomy prove more challenging in practice. Europe continues to face path dependency in its alliance with the U.S., while strategic autonomy heavily tests the unity of European nations, requiring greater reliance on a "coalition of the willing" led by countries like Germany and France to take the lead in driving progress.

Prospects for China-EU relations 

Throughout this process, sustained strengthening of cooperation with China should serve as a rational choice for Europe to enhance its international influence and hedge against trade war risks. Europe needs to pursue a "rebalance" in its relations with China and the U.S., particularly by adopting a more moderate stance toward China in the economic and trade domain to stabilize the fundamentals of China-Europe economic ties. This would serve as a robust counter to the new U.S. administration's trade protectionism while hedging against the negative impacts of Trumpism on the global economic and financial landscape as well as the so-called "rules-based" international order.

This new dynamic will inject fresh cooperative momentum and provide opportunities for China and Europe to consolidate and expand bilateral relations, building on their five-decade diplomatic foundation. Amid U.S. tariff war threats, rational voices toward China have grown within Europe recently, with the EU signaling intentions to recalibrate its China policy.

At this new starting point of the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, China-EU cooperation faces new challenges and also welcomes new opportunities. China and Europe can, through consultation, negotiation and dialogue, steadily reduce trust deficits, consolidate consensus on principles such as multilateralism, mutual benefit and reciprocity, and free trade, and deepen practical cooperation in areas including green transition, digital transformation, energy transition, regional conflict resolution and global governance. These efforts will jointly inject stability and certainty into a volatile global landscape. BR

The author is a professor at and deputy director of the German Studies Center at Tongji University. This article was first published in China Today magazine 

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson 

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