From Brussels with Four Disappointments （Jiang Shixue）

There is a 007 James Bond (Not Euro Bond) film called “From Russia with Love”. You can see that the title of this article of mine is quite similar to that of the film. So I wonder whether I run the risk of being accused of breaching intellectual property rights (IPR).

The fear is reasonable as Chinese are frequently criticized for violating IPR by Europeans. In English there is a proverb: “A burnt child dreads the fire”. In Chinese we say, “Once you were bitten by a snake, in the next ten years you will be fearful of the rope for fetching water from a well.”

I spent almost three months from early January to the end of March, 2013, conducting academic research in Brussels. I even celebrated the Spring Festival here without the deafening fire-works.

I took along two boxes of my business cards from Beijing to Brussels, 200 altogether, and by the end of my stay, they were gone, in exchange of a similar amount of others’ cards. So I have made many friends.

My disappointments in Brussels are not about the weather, because, as the jokes goes, if you don’t like snow, rain, sleet or drizzle, just wait for five minutes.

My disappointments in Brussels are neither about language, despite the fact that sometimes I feel like an illiterate or uneducated professor here. I am too stupid to learn French or Dutch although their importance seems much greater than English in this “Capital of Europe”.

I am neither disappointed with the fact that almost no one clears the snow on the side-walks, even in the downtown areas. In Beijing, however, many people would go out to sweep away the snow.

As a matter of fact my four disappointments are related to the China-EU relations:

1. Disappointment number one: lack of gratitude

I am sure to say, from former Premier Wen Jiabao and the current Premier Li Keqiang to a small potato like me, every Chinese believe that Europeans should be grateful to China as it has offered four kinds of help to the EU in dealing with the debt crisis: 1) purchasing bonds of Greece, Spain, Italy, etc.; 2) making direct investment in the EU so that jobs can be created to reduce the pain of austerity in these countries; 3) importing more from the EU, for the same purpose; and 4) making more contributions to the IMF, which is an important part of the “troika” saving Greece, Ireland and Portugal. I myself wrote an English working paper on this issue.  You can take a look at the following link: http://ies.cass.cn/en/{$UploadDir}/201210/2012103012384296.pdf.

But most people I talked to in Brussels about the Chinese help were not prepared to thank China. Some of them claim that China’s help consists solely of lip service, i.e., only words and no deeds; others point out that China’s help was not intended to “save” the EU, but to pursue its own interests such as raising its share in the IMF; still others told me that the EU does not need China’s help as its current account is in surplus, meaning that capital is not in shortage in the EU.

2. Disappointment number 2: No automatic access to the market economy status in 2016

When China joined the WTO, it was agreed that there would be a grace period of 15 years for China to gain automatically market economy status (MES) in 2016. Every Chinese, including Wen Jiabao and Li Keqiang, believes that this will definitely happen.

It was reported that Wen Jiabao regrets greatly that his decade long effort to persuade the EU to recognize China’s MES before 2016 has not been successful. I am quite sure that, if the EU could be generous enough to grant Chinese the MES before 2016, a friendly and positive gesture to China, Europeans would be invited to enjoy the delicious Peking Duck, spicy Mapo Tofu or tasty Gongbao Jiding (kung pao chicken).

To my disappointment, from my conversations with a wide range of people in Brussels, it is unlikely that the EU will grant China the MES before 2016. Even worse, the EU will not automatically recognize the MES of China even in 2016. “Don’t expect that when you wake up in the morning in 2016 and China has the MES,” a European friend told me.

Why? That is because the EU needs to gain the permission from 28 (or more by 2016) member states as well as from the European Parliament.

In Brussels I even read a web article which says that China has misunderstood the meaning of the WTO agreement signed in 2001. According to the author of this article, the WTO rules do not guarantee that China would automatically get the MES in 2016.

That is why I strongly suggested at a seminar on China-EU relations in Brussels, at which I was invited to speak, that Chinese, particularly those who work for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, must master the language of English. Otherwise, matters of national importance would be ruined.

Disappointment number 3: Poor understanding of China

Before I came to Brussels I know that many Europeans have deep-rooted misconception, misunderstanding and misjudgment about China. My three-month stay in Brussels has confirmed and deepened this conviction of mine. Some people I met in Brussels do not know that China has nine political parties. They do not understand that the nature of its political system is not one-party rule, but multi-party cooperation under the leadership the Communist Party of China.

People here always question about Tibet, but fail to understand that, for more than 700 years, the central government of China has continuously exercised sovereignty over Tibet, and Tibet has never been an independent state. I am pretty sure that they have not seen the cruel instruments used for gouging out the Tibetan serfs’ eyes or cutting their tongues in the old days.

Many people here criticize China’s policy towards its neighbors, but refuse to acknowledge that Japan is a country which has failed to recognize its war crimes against many Asian nations. I can also say that they do not know much about the history of the Diaoyu Islands either.

But I must add that many of the Europeans I have met are really concerned about the future of China in a friendly way. They suggest that the new leadership of China must pay more attention to environmental pollution, corruption, social problems, etc. They say that a better China is in the EU’s interests.

Disappointment number 4: No strategic partnership at present

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU. Indeed, bilateral relations between the two sides have made progress rapidly. It is said that there are 88 different areas of cooperation between the two sides. Every day the two-way trade accounts for $1.5 billion. Is this not a gigantic number?

Whenever you go to the Grand Place (in French) or Grote Markt (in Dutch) in the center of Brussels or the nearby Manneken Pis, you will see lots of Chinese tourists. Their next destinations would be shops to purchase European products from baby milk powder to Burberry bag, from olive oil to Omega watch, or from Gucci to Giorgio Armani. Without good relations between China and the EU, I am very confident, Chinese tourists would not be so easy to visit Europe and purchase European goods.

In China, although many people are upset by the EU’s frequent use of anti-dumping against Chinese products, the refusal to recognize the MES and the long-standing arms embargo, they sincerely believe that the China-EU relations represent a real strategic partnership. If I may use a metaphor, this kind of strategic partnership is akin to a political marriage certificate and many Chinese value it wholeheartedly.

However, many Europeans I met in Brussels, including some very good scholars, tend to downplay the importance of this partnership. They say that this partnership does not reflect the current reality but is rather a long-term objective. Some even hint that only the U.S., Canada and Japan can be the EU’s genuine strategic partners.

Life is not perfect and the same is true for any bilateral relationship. But China and the EU really need to render the strategic partnership more seriously, more meaningful and fruitful, despite long-standing problems and obstacles.

When I was a child, my little friends and I often killed time by looking at the clouds high in the sky. When we said that a particular piece of cloud looked like a monster, then it became a monster; if we said that another cloud resembled a smiling face, then it became smiling face. This is the magic of imagination.

I wish more Europeans would say that China looks like a smiling face. In other words, I sincerely hope that Europeans care to develop a balanced and objective image of China. So next time I come to Brussels in the near future, I will be able to write another article, inspired by affection rather than by disappointments, using this title: “From Brussels with Love”.

（Contact Jiang Shixue：jiangsx@cass.org.cn）