From “strategic partner” to “systemic rival”: towards a worsening EU-China relationship (2003-2019)?
Mémoire
| Résumé : | The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the study on Sino-European relations. This study focuses on two pivotal moments in the relationship: 2003, which is an important turning point following the announcement of their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and 2019, when the strategic partnership is rebalanced with a change of position of the European Union due to many transformations of China. China’s political and economical influence makes it an unavoidable partner, but the European Union is aware of China’s lack of effort and the imbalance that it creates in their relationship. This thesis will be built upon a corpus of reports and articles with the aim of identifying the factors responsible for the evolution in their bilateral relationship. It would seem that by the re-qualification of their relations in 2019 describing now China as a “systemic rival”, the European Union wants to show its new position towards its partner. This can be seen as a deterioration in the dialogue between the two actors. |
