POLH1025 EUROPE AND THE OTHER EUROPE AND CHINA - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Title: POLH1025 EUROPE AND THE OTHER EUROPE AND CHINA


1
POLH1025 EUROPE AND THE OTHEREUROPE AND CHINA

• The lecture outlines Sino-European relations from
  pre-modern times to the present
• History of changing global balances with certain
  discernible phases
• Pre-modern times Chinese dominance, Chinese
  terms
• Colonial period Europe humiliates / civilizes
  China
• Cold war hostility and disengagement
• After 1992 China re-emerges

2
PRE-MODERN TIMES

• - 1800 Europe shaped by China
• Since Qin dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) China a
  centralized empire with only relatively short
  breaks in between (changing dynasties)
• Created around the same time as the Roman Empire,
  of these two, only China remains
• Since Qin dynasty China was one of the largest,
  populous, and technically advanced empires in the
  world until the end of the 18th century

3
PRE-MODERN TIMES

• European relation to China dictated by two
  factors distance and trade
• Relations trade driven
• In distance both were geopolitically unimportant
  to other until the late 19th century
• In trade until opium trade, China was always on
  surplus
• Even the Romans were hard up to pay for their
  silk
• The pattern of trade deficit re-emerged
  constantly shaping European policies with China

4
PRE-MODERN TIMES

• Chinese inventions, such as the magnet, printing,
  and gunpowder were appropriated by the West
• Europeans did not necessarily know their origin
• Until the beginning of the modern era with great
  discoveries no direct contacts between the two
• Middle men (Arabs) dealt with trade, facilitating
  cultural flows from China to the West

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PRE-MODERN TIMES

• First more systematic direct contacts were made
  by traders and Catholic missionaries in the 16th
  century
• in 1557, the Portuguese established a trade
  settlement in Macau
• Jesuits since 1582, also Dominicans present
• The British came to trade in Canton in 1637

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PRE-MODERN TIMES

• In Chinese world order all Europeans were
  designated as waiyi, outer barbarians, and waiguo
  emo (foreign devil
• Chinese response to the West was conditioned by
  many factors
• Sinocentricism View of China as the Middle
  Kingdom (Zhongguo,??)

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PRE-MODERN TIMES

• No Westfalian notion of equality between
  sovereign states
• Only tributary relations to foreign (barbaric)
  states allowed
• No permanent embassies allowed in Beijing
• Trade secondary, even inferior activity, in
  Confucian world order
• The Canton factory the only legal outlet for
  foreign trade

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Picture 1) Shamiandao colonial buildings in
Guangzhou 2006
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PRE-MODERN TIMES

• For the Europeans before the Napoleonic Wars
  China was a source of admiration and inspiration
• Enlightenment thinkers generally favourable for
  China
• The Cult of China used in European politics as
  a positive or negative example
• Voltaire The emperor seen as the ideal
  enlightened philosopher-ruler, prosperity and
  order instead of European class society and
  feudal privileges
• Montesquieu and Rousseau critical
• Chinoiserie en vogue in the mid 18th century

10
Picture 2) Chinoiserie in the Royal Garden in
Potsdam (a Chinese villa)
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PRE-MODERN TIMES

• After the overthrow of the French Ancient Regime,
  the new democratic ideals, and industrial society
  in making made China appear anachronistic and
  backward
• Generational change in perceptions in the early
  19th century
• It was Europe that had changed, not China

12
PRE-MODERN TIMES

• European thinkers lost interest in China as a
  model and began to construct it as a backward
  other
• The later part of the 19th century with rising
  nationalism, imperialist rivalry, social
  Darwinism
• However, Chinese merchandise (tea, porcelain,
  silk) even more popular than before

13
MODERN TIMES

• The century of imperialism on China (c. mid 19th
  20th centuries)
• The century of shame and humiliation in Chinese
  historiography
• Began by the Opium War in 1839-42
• Opium used as the only Western merchandise that
  the Chinese demanded
• Chinese took action to limit drug trafficking by
  the Westerners, which led to conflict

14
MODERN TIMES

• The British defeated the Qing dynasty, war ended
  in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanjing
• Ceded Hong Kong to the UK
• Extraterritoriality for foreigners
• 4 more treaty ports opened
• Paradoxically, the Opium War was not about opium

15
MODERN TIMES

• It was about Western access, on its own
  conditions, to Chinese markets and forcing the
  Qing Empire to accept Western international
  practises
• Regarded as the beginning of modern Chinese
  history and the era of semi-colonialism
• Opened a road to other powers, too

16
MODERN TIMES

• After the Opium War, Qing-China became gradually
  subjected to increasing foreign intrusion
• Europeans present in foreign concessions, Western
  ruled enclaves in Chinese cities
• After the II Opium War in 1860 the Qing had to
  concede to Western diplomatic practises
• In late 19th century designs of partitioning
  China between powers (now including Japan)
  appeared
• In 1895-1900 China divided into spheres of
  influence

17
Map 1) Foreign concession areas in Eastern China
around 1900 (source Suuri Maailmanhistoria 12,
193)
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MODERN TIMES

• European presence not very large in numbers in
  1906, treaty ports had a foreign population of
  38,597 persons (mainly Europeans)
• Traders, administrators, soldiers, sailors,
  family members, adventurers, foreign experts,
  etc.
• Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou most important big
  cities open to foreign influence
• Foreign presence acted as a catalyst of social
  and intellectual change
• Important was not the their numbers, but the
  position as the new elite not willing to be
  Sinified, but to Westernize China

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MODERN TIMES

• Concessions became entreports of modern ideas,
  modern industry and industrial organisation,
  hideouts for dissidents and revolutionaries
• At the same time they were an affront to Chinese
  sensibilities
• No dogs or Chinese

20
MODERN TIMES

• Colonialism came with its legitimating discourse
  Orientalism
• Spreading Civilization against Barbarism served
  as the justification of colonialism and
  imperialism
• The progressive West vs. the stagnated and
  irrational Orient

21
Picture 3) Colonial Ad depicting the Chinese as
Mokeys
22
MODERN TIMES

• Chinese responses complicated defiance,
  indifference and adaptation
• First efforts at self-strengthening, then reform
  Confucianism, then national revolution 1911-1912
• After the national revolution, the new Republic
  soon collapsed into feuding warlordism
• National Party (Kuomintang) emerged as the victor
  in the fighting in late 20s

23
MODERN TIMES

• During this period the West maintained its
  concessions in China, prevented the change of
  status quo that the KMT sought
• Only the WW II changed the situation
• The Republic of China (ROC) one of the Allied
  nations
• The end of unequal treaties in 1943 during the
  war against Japan

24
COLD WAR

• China was at the state of war since 1937 to 1949
  when the Communist Party defeated the KMT in the
  civil war
• The new Peoples Republic rejected all Western
  treaties and concessions
• Leaning to one side i.e. the Soviet Union as
  the policy

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COLD WAR

• NATO Europe PRC relations frosty until 1971
• The US did not recognise the PRC, held on to the
  ROC, many other West European Countries followed
  its lead
• Socialist Block followed USSR (except Albania,
  Yugoslavia and Romania)
• The neutrals had more leeway
• Finland, Sweden Denmark and others recognised the
  PRC in 1951-1952,
• The UK in 1951, France in 1964

26
COLD WAR

• The American trade embargo not followed by West
  European countries after the Korean War 1950
• Trade not very substantial, but symbolically
  significant
• 90 of Chinese trade was with the Soviet Block

27
COLD WAR

• In other aspects Western European countries
  followed the US especially the Taiwan issue
• West Germany did not recognise either state
  because of the division of Germany (however, the
  DDR did recognize the PRC)
• In geopolitical terms the withdrawal of European
  colonial presence from East Asia led to the US
  dominance in the regions politics
• Europe became much less significant for the PRC

28
COLD WAR

• From Chinese side the Cultural Revolution
  (1966-1969 / 1976) led to the disruption of
  working ties with the Western countries
• Cold hostility towards the West
• The PRC broke relations with the USSR as well in
  mid 60s
• At one point Albania was the only foreign friend
  the PRC had in Europe

29
COLD WAR

• Sino-American rapprochement that began in 1971
  led to tri-polar geopolitical situation where the
  PRC and the US were allied against the USSR until
  1989
• Now West European relations with the PRC also got
  better
• However, as they did not want to spoil the
  détente with the USSR the relation did not become
  too close
• The Chinese interested to get the Europeans
  against the USSR

30
COLD WAR

• The US established full diplomatic relations with
  the PRC in 1979
• West European Diplomatic relations had
  bandwagoned this even before
• EEC-PRC trade eight folded in the 70 (low base
  due to the Cultural Revolution)
• The reform and opening up policies under Deng
  Xiaoping since 1978 created new commercial and
  development interests in China for the EEC

31
COLD WAR

• Formal EEC China relations established in 1975
• The first trade agreement between EEC and PRC
  signed in 1978
• In 1985 Agreement on Trade and Economic
  Co-operation signed
• Since 1978 A Joint Committee supervises the
  agreements, alternating chairmanship

32
COLD WAR

• In 1984 UK and PRC came to agreement on handing
  back the HK in 1997 (50 years autonomy) and later
  Macau in 1999
• -gt The end of colonial era in China
• The growing ties halted 1989 by Tiananmen
  massacre, the EC imposed trade sanctions and the
  PRC politics went through a hardliner period
  until 1992

33
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Also Europe changed at this time
• The EU became to being in the Treaty of Maastrich
  1992, whereby the EU also was given Common
  Foreign and Security Policy (CSFP)
• First Asia strategy (mainly on China) by the EU
  in 1993
• Promoting trade and commerce, connecting
  development aid to good governance, rule of law,
  environmental issues, poverty alleviation, tech
  transfer and education co-operation
• Promoting democracy, human rights and civil
  society

34
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Strategies have been re-worked regularly after
  this (at the moment 2006 version in force)
• The EUs geopolitical goal is to promote Chinas
  integration to international community as a
  responsible stake holder
• Engagement, not cordoning off
• Tying the PRC to multilateral organisations and
  agreements
• China and EU countries keen to develop
  country-to-country ties, as well

35
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• In 2004 the relation became to be called
  strategic partnership
• At moment the EU is the biggest trading partner
  with China (for EU PRC 2. after US)
• The EU engages China through political dialogue
  concerning international and bilateral issues

36
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• EU organizations engaged in issues related with
  China
• European Commission
• DG External Relations / DGA-3Asia and Latin
  America Directorate H/ 2 China, and DGA-1,
  CFSP, (Multilateral relations including East
  Asia)
• DG Trade
• DG Humanitarian Relations
• The European Aid Cooperation Office
• The European Parliament

37
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Also in China relations the complexity of EU
  decision making evident
• Many actors involver from grass-roots lobbyists
  to the European Council
• Dialogue began in 1984 as a meeting between EC
  presidency state and Chinese ambassadors
• Framework of political dialogue established in
  1994, include annual summits since 1998
• The European Council and Commission most
  important actors

38
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Fragmenting forces National interests in trade,
  Chinese interest in fragmenting human rights
  criticism
• For China the EU most important in trade policy
• EU negotiates terms of trade for all its members
• In other foreign policy areas weaker, but eager
  to assume powers from member states

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AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Issues of disagreement in relations
• Commercial interest fibres, shoes, intellectual
  property protection, etc.
• Trade imbalance also politically flammable
• How to handle globalization and China
  syndrome?
• Competition over resources in Africa, Latin
  America?
• Human rights violations
• Arms embargo is the single most flammable issue
  in the relations

40
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Human rights and China
• The EU is supposedly based on the shared values
  of respecting universal human rights, rule of
  law, and democracy
• Has the mandate to act on these matters in
  external relations in the Maastricht Treaty on
  the European Union
• In the European Security Strategy human rights
  are also seen to be related to international
  security in creating stability

41
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Events in 1989 led to the imposition of the EU
  trade sanctions on China
• Apart from arms embargo these were lifted soon as
  many member states demanded it
• At the moment the EU is not consistent in its
  human rights stance towards China
• The EU ended condemning China human rights
  situation in the UN already in 1998
• Compare the PRC to Burma a deliberate unequal
  treatment

42
Pictures 4 and 5) Beijing 1989 demonstrations and
unrest
43
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Arms embargo
• Related to human rights and the Taiwan issue
• A hot topic in in 2003-2004, now cooler, but
  still remains
• France and Germany (under Chirac and Schröder)
  for lifting (France the biggest arms exporter in
  EU), others against
• This is a matter where national governments must
  first find a common tone or until there is a
  noticeable improvement of human rights in China
  otherwise EU inertia will help to uphold the
  decision

44
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• How does China view the EU?
• China seeks form the EU certain things
• Non-hegemony
• Multi-polarity
• Economic growth through free trade
• International stability
• Respect for non-interference and sovereignty
• Acceptance of relativist standards concerning
  human rights

45
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• China sees that the emergence of the EU as a
  separate and actually functioning body from the
  mono-polar dominance of the US is welcome
• Idea of tri-polar geopolitical balance between
  the US EU PRC
• Accordingly, the Chinese regard EU as a rather
  united player, an integrated community to take
  seriously
• The EU (Brussels) is a focus of Chinese
  activities on its own right, not only member
  states

46
AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Chinese emphasis is also on multilateralism
  (acting through and international organisations
  and conventions)
• China is pro-EU enlargement and deepening its
  integration
• At the same time China also tries to divide EU
  countries by favouring bilateral talks on the
  matter and through them to manipulate common
  European standings also in the UN bodies

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AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Problems as seen from the Chinese side
• In the early 90s the EU was seen to be engaged
  in promoting peaceful evolution and pressure
  tactics towards China i.e. promoting democracy
  and waiting for the CCP to collapse
• Resistance to EU human rights stance and arms
  embargo partly based on this view

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AFTER THE COLD WAR CHINA RE-EMERGES

• Other problem spots
• Market Economy Status (MES) denied to China by
  the EU as yet
• Arms embargo
• Trade issues Over 100 dumping cases
• There is a growing awareness of the need to
  improve Chinas image in Europe (compare to
  Japan!)

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CONCLUSION

• Conclusion
• At the moment there are no major problems between
  the two parties
• There are no direct geographic security interest
  in either region for the other
• Re-emerging China China has become the one of the
  most important countries to deal with for the EU,
  and this importance is growing
• Much of what follows depends on the European
  ability to pull its act together and
  sustainability of Chinas growth