to engage China further, both bilaterally and on the world stage, through an upgraded political dialogue.
to support China's transition to an open society based upon the rule of law and respect for human rights.
to encourage the integration of China in the world economy through bringing it fully into the world trading system, and supporting the process of economic and social reform that is continuing in China.
to raise the EU's profile in China.
Current EU policy towards China is based on the policy paper of the Commission entitled “A maturing partnership : shared interests and challenges in EU-China relations” The Commission first set out its long-term strategy for EU-China relations in the 1995 Communication "A Long Term Policy for China Europe Relations" The 2003 policy paper charts a course for further development of EU-China relations and defines concrete and practical action points for implementation of EU policy towards China for the ensuing 2 to 3 years. In particular, enhancement of political dialogue through better focusing of the existing mechanisms and systematic inclusion of global and regional governance and security issues; EU-China dialogue on illegal immigration should be more results-oriented, and negotiations to sign a readmission agreement should be launched as soon as possible; and ways of improving the efficiency and impact of the human rights dialogue (see below) are also specified. In the economic and trade field, priority is be given to cooperation on the Doha Development agenda in WTO and to the monitoring of, and support for China’s compliance with its WTO commitments. Furthermore, the EC aims to strengthen cooperation through the launch and further deepening of sectoral dialogues and agreements. China released on 13 October 2003 its first ever policy paper on the EU, and a major seminar was held in February 2004 to identify common action stemming from the Commission’s and the Chinese policy papers. By April 2005 close to 80% of actions foreseen in the policy paper and agreed in the seminar had been carried out. which was endorsed by the European Council on 13 October 2003. This document updates the strategy set out in the 2001 comunication "
and the 1998 Communication "Building a Comprehensive Partnership with China" .
(see also 'Report on the Implementation of the (1998) Communication "Building a Comprehensive Partnership with China" of September 2000). Ever since, relations have been pursued under three main headings: political dialogue, including a specific dialogue on human rights; economic and trade relations and lastly, the EU-China co-operation programme. A fourth area has emerged in recent years, namely sectoral dialogues and agreements (hyperlink to dialogue page) in over 20 different areas, ranging from environmental protection to science & technology and from industrial policy to education and culture.
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