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Wang, Yiwei --- "China and the EU in Global Governance: Seeking Harmony in Identities" [2012] ELECD 909; in Wouters, Jan; de Wilde, Tanguy; Defraigne, Pierre; Defraigne, Jean-Christophe (eds), "China, the European Union and Global Governance" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: China, the European Union and Global Governance

Editor(s): Wouters, Jan; de Wilde, Tanguy; Defraigne, Pierre; Defraigne, Jean-Christophe

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781004265

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: China and the EU in Global Governance: Seeking Harmony in Identities

Author(s): Wang, Yiwei

Number of pages: 12

Extract:

2. China and the EU in global
governance: seeking harmony in
identities1
Yiwei Wang

Taking a historical perspective, the current state of China­US relations
could hardly be worse and China­EU relations could not be better since
the former have overlapping geopolitical interests, for instance in the
Taiwan Strait, while the latter have not. But even China and the EU are
not cooperating well in Africa where they have increasingly overlapping
geopolitical interests. This is a reminder that to grasp the true essence of
China­EU relations, it is necessary to go beyond traditional realist or
liberalist perspectives.
As both an old and new country, China shares more similarities with
the EU than with the US. Such a conclusion can be drawn by reference to
the shared diverse cultures, hierarchical traditions and secular societies of
China and the EU, or from American exceptionalism based on
Protestantism and its anti-communism gene. China is an old civilisation
but a new player in world affairs, and so is the EU. China is a cultural
community instead of a nation-state2 and so is the EU. China enjoys
dynamic and diverse identities, as does the EU, which cause both clashes
and collaborations between the two.


CHINA'S DYNAMIC IDENTITIES IN TODAY'S WORLD

Liang Qichao, a great scholar at the end of the Qin Dynasty, has classified
Chinese history as `China's China', `Asia's China' and `the world's China'
which also embodied China's three identities (Liang, 1901: 11­12). ...