External View

China's relationship with Europe may not be as important as its relations with the United States, or as urgent as its relations with some neighboring countries, but many experts would agree that Sino-EU ties are one of the most important relationships for China in the area of trade and economy. The EU is China's number-one trading partner and the major supplier in both the high tech sector and foreign investment for the past decades.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent trip to Europe (also his first European trip as the President) including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the EU institutions has shown that the new leadership of China is not only eager to strengthen economic links with Europe but also wants to expand the cooperation "going beyond business relations" (quoted from Xi's article published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on March 28).

A few years ago, with the expansion of the debt crisis in southern Europe, people worried about the future of the EU. The survival of the euro has become and still is the great concern for many Europeans. The mainstream of Chinese academic and policy circles, nevertheless, didn't take the view that the euro zone would collapse. The belief was that the disappearance of the euro was against the fundamental interests of Germany, France as well as those of Greece, Spain, etc. Indeed it was with this belief that the Chinese government had continually shown its faith in the euro throughout the crisis.

One should acknowledge the very fact that the EU is at one of the most crucial moments in its history. No one could deny: It is the creation and development of the EU that has secured the prosperity and stability of post-1945 Europe.

It is also preciously the common market (the biggest in the world) and the common currency (the second only to the US dollar) that has strengthened the influence and position of each member state of the EU including Germany in the world. However, the impact of the crisis now is so serious that the future development of the Union is facing unprecedented challenges.

If Europe is to be able to maintain its influence, Germany must be ready to play a bigger role both within and outside the Union. In other words, the German government should fully understand that one of the most important roles Berlin should and could play is to push the integration further and to make the EU successful.

The enormous impact of the 5-year debt and economic crisis on the EU includes a number of aspects. The continuing decline of the popularity of the Union is one of the most serious threats to the Union. Clearly, the EU has become the victim of the sovereign debt crisis. But before the crisis it was already the scapegoat for the wrongdoings in many member states. Rarely, politicians of member states show public support for the EU.

It is hard to tell whether the UK would leave the Union or not in the coming years. But the exit of the UK would be a great blow to the Union. The solidarity among the member states, in particular between the northern and southern countries is threatened.

The populist and extremist forces across Europe are on the rise, and it is believed that one third of the parliamentarians following the European Parliament election could be from the extremist parties and groups. The outcome of the upcoming European parliament election would also affect the appointment of the leadership of major EU institutions including the Council President, Commission President and the High Representative for common foreign and security policy, the three most important Union posts.