Editorial: In a turbulent world, China and Europe can provide more stability

　　On April 1, the 23rd China-EU Summit was held by video.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with European Council President Michel Michel and European Commission President Von der Leyen by video. Premier Li Keqiang co-chaired the meeting with the two presidents.

This is the first official meeting between the leaders of the two sides since June 2020. Both sides believed that the meeting was open, honest, candid and in-depth, which enhanced mutual understanding and reached a lot of consensus. They agreed to continue to strengthen communication and carry out coordination and cooperation.

　　Under the current international situation, it is very important and precious that China and the EU can insist on dialogue and cooperation.

After the Ukrainian crisis broke out, the specter of the "new cold war" hovering over Europe is on the verge of resurrection, and the extreme pressure and sanctions pushed by the United States are creating more divisions and confrontations, and the specter of the "new cold war" is also floating in other parts of the world. possibility.

As two major forces for maintaining world peace, two major markets for promoting common development, and two major civilizations for promoting human progress, China and the EU adhere to dialogue and cooperation, and there will be more hope and guarantee for world peace and stability.

　　We have noticed that before this meeting, some Western public opinion, especially the US side, deliberately "brought a rhythm", exaggerating the "tension" and "twisting" of China-EU relations, and tried to use the Ukraine issue to kidnap China-EU relations.

There is no doubt that this is a carefully crafted sequel to Ukrainian Russia and Russia to Europe.

In fact, China and the EU have broad consensus on safeguarding multilateralism, strengthening global governance, addressing climate change, and jointly fighting the epidemic; not to mention, China has more than 70 consultation and dialogue mechanisms with EU institutions, "all-inclusive. , talk about everything”, it is a kind of strategic narrowness to use individual fields to spy on and define China-EU relations.

　　Even on the Ukraine issue, China and the EU also have many consensuses: neither side wants to see chaos and war; both hope to achieve a ceasefire and stop the war as soon as possible; and there is no disagreement with each other on humanitarian assistance.

It should be noted that the protracted Ukraine issue may lead to serious crises in global economy, trade, refugees, energy, food and finance, and Europe is the first to suffer.

China is not a party to the crisis, but sincerely hopes that Europe can achieve permanent peace. At the same time, it also believes that extreme sanctions will only lead to mutual harm, complicate the situation and intensify conflicts.

For this, Europe actually has a personal feeling.

　　There are no two identical leaves in the world, and it is not surprising that China and Europe are at odds in some areas.

More importantly, there is no fundamental geopolitical conflict between the two sides, and there is no irreconcilable conflict of interests.

On the contrary, there is a great endogenous motivation for cooperation between the two parties.

In 2021, the trade volume of goods between China and the EU will reach US$828.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.5%. China has become the EU's largest trading partner for two consecutive years.

In the first two months of this year, the EU overtook ASEAN and once again became China's largest trading partner.

Under difficult circumstances, the resilience and potential of China-EU relations are highlighted.

　　In addition, firmly upholding multilateralism, jointly responding to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, cooperating to promote the outcome of the Glasgow Climate Change Conference, protecting biodiversity and promoting the settlement of hot issues such as the Iran nuclear talks are all successful cases of China and the EU working together in recent years.

From the broad perspective of the human development process, China and the EU should not be institutional competitors, but all-round strategic partners.

　　The reason for emphasizing this point is that we also see that the complexity of China-EU relations is also rising.

Influenced by Washington's China strategy, some Europeans have solidified their so-called triple positioning of "cooperation, competition and rivalry" towards China, and even frequently interfered in China's internal affairs on issues related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The main reason for this complexity lies in Washington’s political manipulation – Washington is neither willing to see dialogue and reconciliation between Europe and Russia, nor win-win cooperation between China and Europe, because its strategic interests largely require” Sacrifice the EU" to make it happen.

In this regard, Europe urgently needs to clarify its own interests, form independent cognition and pursue independent policies, and cannot easily fall into the quagmire of the "new Cold War".

　　History often gives wisdom and enlightenment.

From the very beginning, the development of Sino-European relations has been marked by breaking away from the confrontation of the Cold War camp.

From France, Italy and other countries taking the lead in breaking through the barriers of the Cold War and establishing diplomatic relations with China, to the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between China and the European Community, the predecessor of the European Union, in 1975, it was against the background of the Cold War and the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that the leaders of China and Europe made decisions. A very far-sighted strategic decision, from which Central Europe and the whole world have benefited to this day.

Today, the world has come to a new crossroads again, and mankind is once again faced with the key choices of progress or regression, unity or division, opening or closing.

　　It is worth emphasizing that although the Ukraine crisis has disrupted the rhythm of many things, it has not changed the fundamentals of China-EU relations.

The more complex and turbulent times are, the more China and the EU should see each other from a strategic perspective, and the more they should maintain an independent, objective and rational cognition, so as to promote the stability and long-term development of China-EU relations. This is the call of the times and the responsibility of history.