Overview
China stands as the world's second-largest economy and second most populous country, home to 1.4 billion people. Given its immense size and demographic weight, China occupies a pivotal position in addressing global challenges.
Our engagement
Following a “multifaceted approach”, the EU pursues constructive and stable relations with China, anchored in respect for the rules-based international order, balanced engagement and reciprocity.
In the area of international development cooperation, China has transitioned from being a recipient to a provider of development assistance lender and donor. Therefore, engaging China as a cooperation partner is critical for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The EU engages Chinese counterparts on enhancing mutual understanding of international development policies, and promoting the exchange of information on best practices and international sustainability standards.
Engagement with China on global challenges, including climate change and biodiversity conservation, global health and pandemic preparedness, development financing, and debt sustainability also remains crucial.
EU-Chinese key policy engagement documents can be found in the 'Related documents' section below.
Our key initiatives
- Promoting EU trade and economic interests
China is the EU’s third largest trading partner and EU-China engagement must lead to a level-playing field and a balanced, reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship.
The EU seeks to promote its economic interests by advancing reciprocity, a level-playing field and fair competition between European and Chinese companies and exporters and by promoting European standards.
Specific actions include:
- An observatory on China’s overseas investments in critical raw materials to assess patterns and anticipate Chinese actions globally.
- Improving Europe’s understanding of China’s tech sector developments within China and abroad to mitigate adverse impacts on Europe.
- Analysing the effect of China’s legal reforms to help the EU’s advocacy and compliance for trade and investments.
- Raising awareness of EU standards and practices within the Chinese private sector.
- Improving market access for EU agri-food products while promoting their quality and authenticity to Chinese consumers.
- Improving China’s social protection standards to level the playing field with the EU on labour rights.
- Promoting greater transparency and fairer implementation of intellectual property rights
- Supporting the clean energy transition, clean energy markets and governance while promoting reciprocal business opportunities.
- Facilitating market access for EU aviation while promoting EU safety and sustainability standards.
- Facilitating regulatory convergence between China and EU competition law and best international practices.
- Engaging China on climate change and environment protection
The EU and China have a mutual interest in supporting the green transition and promoting alternative pathways for development and prosperity that do not contribute to the depletion of the environment. In the field of green transition, the EU and China have a solid foundation and broad space for cooperation, including on issues such as emissions trading, water management and circular economy. Specific EU actions include:
- Developing China’s Emissions Trading System to better monitor, report, and verify emissions.
- Supporting the China-EU water platform to address policy and regulations around water management and ecological security.
- Preparing best practices and projects on biodiversity protection to feed into national strategies.
- Promoting the transition to a circular economy in China by engaging in a number of areas, including Extended Producers Responsibility – recognised as one of the most effective management tools to achieve long-term circularity –and eco-design for sustainable products.
- Helping protect endangered species against demand for illegal wildlife products in China.
- Engaging China on global challenges
The EU is engaging China on a range of global issues, including multilateralism, sustainable development, migration and health. Specific actions include:
- Bolstering the rules-based multilateral order and the United Nations.
- Dialogue on migration and mobility trends.
- International cooperation on sustainable urban development and territorial innovation.
- Promoting EU values
The EU engages with China to promote its core values in the domains of human rights, civil society empowerment and gender equality. Specific actions by the EU include:
- Fostering gender equality and women’s access to decent and safe working conditions.
- Strengthening a child-centred domestic violence intervention system for migrant children and those at risk of domestic violence.
- Strengthening Chinese civil society’s ability to promote climate and gender equality issues as well as protect children from harm and neglect.