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de Wilde d’Estmael, Tanguy --- "The EU vis-à-vis China: A Question of Power and Coercion?" [2012] ELECD 925; 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 18

Section Title: The EU vis-à-vis China: A Question of Power and Coercion?

Author(s): de Wilde d’Estmael, Tanguy

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

18. The EU vis-a-vis China: a question
of power and coercion?
Tanguy de Wilde d'Estmael1

INTRODUCTION

The European Union (EU) and China share at least two common points in
international relations: in the latter part of the twentieth century, they
embodied, each in their own very different way, a kind of third way in the
then bipolar world; and in the twentieth-first century, they leave some
doubt about the kind of power they are developing. It is this unique facet
of these two atypical powers that this paper intends to clarify before
moving on to a more controversial aspect of their relationship: coercion by
the EU through the continuing 1989 arms embargo against Beijing. This
latter situation is quite paradoxical: this use of coercion remains a stain on
the otherwise carefully woven fabric of multifaceted cooperation.


THE EUROPEAN UNION ­ A `MODEL' WORLD POWER?

The relationship of the European Union to the rest of the world opens a
debate about its identity and the `clout' it exerts on the international stage.
This is not new. As soon as the presence of the European Communities
was clear in the global arena, questions were raised. In the twentieth
century, throughout the 1970s and 1980s the question was to find either a
third way or at least `another way' that would provide some direction for
European integration in a bipolar world. For the last two decades, the
relevance of the EU's role in a globalised but insecure world has ...