The latest in a regular series of Chinese summit visits to Europe by President Hu Jintao in November were filled with ceremonies, lucrative contracts and protests in three major countries, but underlined that the relationships with China were expanding despite a catalogue of trade and other difficulties.

The latest in a regular series of Chinese summit visits to Europe by President Hu Jintao in November were filled with ceremonies, lucrative contracts and protests in three major countries, but underlined that the relationships with China were expanding despite a catalogue of trade and other difficulties.

In recent years both Hu and his predecessor Jiang Zemin have made at least one visit annually to Europe, often mixing contacts with major and smaller countries or the EU institutions. The determination to include and underline relations with Europe as well as those with other major partners is a priority despite some official or commercial difficulties. The visit to the UK was, however, the first by a Chinese President since 1999, although Premier Wen Jiabao went there in 2004 and Tony Blair travelled to China in September 2005.

Relations with the countries chosen for the November visit are generally considered to be among those enjoying a priority for China in Europe. There are generally regular exchanges of such visit involving Germany, Britain, along with France, with Spain involved for the first time this summer when Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodrigues Zapettero visited China along with the Real Madrid football team.

In the contacts, the accent on the Chinese side appeared to be predominantly on economic, trade, financial and business relations, with apparently much less emphasis on foreign policy issues, including those that were seen as ultimately divisive, such as human rights, political liberalisation, the arms embargo or market economy status. On the European side, despite a steady emphasis by the press and media on the human rights protests, the host governments, although not excluding those difficult issues, also seemed to concentrate on commercial and economic relations.

In general, the Chinese side seemed to display a moderate confidence that time and the weight of the economic influence of the country were on its side and that problem areas could and would be downplayed by both sides.

The European visit came just before Hu was to travel to South Korea for a summit meeting of APEC and return home to host US President George W. Bush.

In Germany and France the timing of the visits proved to be awkward since German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who had been strongly committed to developing relations with China, was scheduled to be replaced by Angela Merkel, who appeared to be somewhat less engaged, and French President; another backer in the past, had seen his authority undermined in recent month, including severe urban riots taking place at the time of the Hu visit. Even in the UK, Blair, who had won a resounding re-election victory just a few months earlier, suffered a stunning defeat in the House of Commons over a proposed anti-terrorist law that found his own political standing and future under a cloud of uncertainty.

It was widely regarded that the discomfiture of these figures could have a serious impact on the ability to make any headway on some of the major difficulties in EU-China relations.

Between these summit visits, other contacts involving ministers or officials and experts seeking to advance on all fronts whether difficult or advantageous continue at a hectic pace.

In Europe, Hu obtained the full state visit treatment refused to him in the US last September, when hurricane Katrina provided justification for cancellation of the bilateral portion of his visit to attend a special UN Summit. In the UK this included a visit to Queen Elizabeth and Buckingham Palace.

But this did not provide complete immunity from the traditional wave of protests from unofficial and even official hosts concerning the countrys human rights and governance practices. From London onward, protestors clamoured about the death penalty, repression of free speech, press and internet as well as religious persecution including the Falung Gong movement and in Tibet or Xinjian. This was accompanied by a running debate in Europe over the wisdom of conducting quiet, polite and long-term diplomacy in the search for progress or to engage in noisy, visible public protests. This time protestors in London were allowed carry placards to be visible to the Chinese visitor as opposed to the past when they were not.

The political content of the visit, as distinguished from the more direct and evident economic and business portions, also seemed mixed, ambiguous and sometimes confused in the details, in contrast to the general intention of stressing good relations and seeking to stimulate even more improvements.

In preparation for the trip, Chinese and Western reports seemed to stress Beijings desire to advance in the stalled questions of the arms embargo cancellation or the recognition of China as a market economy, with putting undue pressure that could increase tension. In the face of continued European reticence, indecision or opposition, the point seemed to have been made that China was dropping at least the arms embargo from the agenda. The Foreign Minister mentioned it in pre-trip declarations but it did not figure prominently in public again.

The futility of the multilateral debate on this issue seemed obvious as long as Europe cannot decide to carry out its 2004 promise to lift the embargo in the face of endless US opposition, or even Chinas own unwillingness or inability to make any significant gesture on the human rights front. In Germany, where the outgoing Chancellor had been a leading exponent of cancelling the embargo, a foreign policy spokesman for the new Chancellor said the question was not on the agenda. Outgoing Chancellor Schroeder, however, said that the EU would come to a sensible conclusion of the issue after meeting Hu in Berlin.

The apparent dissonance in the transitional German leadership is but a continuation of the tensions inside the outgoing Government, where Chancellor Schroeder, although not completely alone in his demand the embargo be lifted, was strongly opposed by his Green Party coalition allies and ultimately twice rebuffed by a majority of the Bundestag.

Even while Hu was visiting Germany, the two main political parties agreed to their joint platform to create a new government coalition that included separate but related statements on Germanys relations towards China and the US. The draft coalition pact agreed that the new team would pursue a long-term strategy of partnership with China and that their bilateral dialogue on democracy and human rights would be intensified. During the election campaign the Christian Democrat candidate Angela Merkel who would lead the new government had criticised Schroeder for placing too much emphasis on economic and business relations with China.

The new coalition also seemed to agree to place a high priority on improving relations with the US which has a more severe attitude toward links with China.

British Government officials and statements during the summer after the country assumed the presidency of the EU, suggested that while no evolution was foreseen concerning the arms embargo and the related issue of the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Sales, the country appeared to be urging that the EU grant China the status of a market economy.

Hu said China was "ready to work with the UK to strengthen mutual trust". He said: "We are working hard to build, in the first 20 years of this century, a moderately prosperous society, featuring a more developed economy, improved democracy. . . greater social harmony and higher living standards for the entire 1.3 billion people." During his speech in London before some 700 persons he insisted on the peaceful development of his country.

The Queen spoke of the necessity for co-operation to tackle global warming. "It matters to all of us what kind of country China's people will build, what role they will play in the world of the 21st century and how this will be received," she said.

Hu and Blair also agreed to push their bilateral strategic partnership to new higher levels and Blair declared he did not regard the rise of China as a threat, a clear distinction from the views of some in the US Administration.

But a major portion of any such visit, especially in the case of China or any other major import customer, is the final sum of contracts or other business transactions concluded after months or even years of preparatory negotiations. This visit proved to be no exception and results continued to display impressive amounts designed to offset the politically troubling image of significant trade deficits in most countries with China

It was noted that the UK had become the largest European investor and third largest trading partner in China. Bilateral trade has reached nearly $20 billion in 2004, a more than 37% increase. During the same year some 400,000 persons had visited China from the UK and some 200, 000 Chinese had visited the UK. In the field of education, there were said to be 90,000 Chinese students in the UK and 1000 Britons studying in China.

The balance-sheet in the British part of was reported by the Chinese Embassy in London as amounting to $1.3 billion or 747 million worth of business deals. Beijing was also reported to have granted Lloyds of London to establish a reinsurance operation in China, considered of extremely high importance by Lloyds Chairman Lord Levene. Competitors Swiss Re and Munich Re already have such Chinese operations. The other contracts included one for $800 million for Rolls Royce for Trent 700 aircraft engines for Air China Airbus A-330s. and Chinese manufacturer to produce Airbus A-320 wing-boxes for some $500 million. Another was with consulting engineers Arup for masterplans for three new cities in China, including Dongtan near Shanghai meant to be an ecological city.

There were also talks on world trade issues and global warming and a meeting of the Joint Sino-British Trade and Investment Council.

In Berlin, Hu and German President Horst Khoeler presided over the installation of a new Sino-German Dialogue Forum aimed at becoming a permanent sounding board on relations.

The Chinese leader oversaw the signing of a deal for German Siemens AG to supply 60 high-speed ICE trains to China from which Siemens will earn 700 million from a total package of 1.3 billion.

Germany is China's biggest trade partner in Europe, with German exports rising 12.7% in the first half of 2005 to 9.48 billion.

In Spain some contradictory trends and possible faux pas both countries seemed to provide a strange prelude to the visit. In the strongly Catholic country, the press was filled with news dispatches and commentaries on a recent official crackdown on leaders and clergy of the unofficial catholic church there. And just a few days before the visit, Taiwan opened a trade office in Barcelona, the countrys dynamic commercial centre.

Nevertheless, a number of agreements including investment and extradition accords were signed between the two countries which were believed by the Spanish leader to mark a turning point between them. While in the past the amount of trade and investment between them was limited, there was considerable interest by Spain in attracting more Chinese tourists and on cooperating with Beijing in Latin America.

During the Spanish visit it was also tentatively agreed that the Spanish firm Telefonica would double its stake in China Netcom, the countrys second largest fixed-line operator to 9.9% for total of more than 1 billion and make Telefonica the second largest foreign investor in Chinas state-controlled telecommunicatins sector after Vodafone. Netcom was also permitted a board seat on Telefonicas Latin American subsidiary.

Spanish media reported that in the first five months of 2005, more than 30 Spanish companies set up offices and factories in Chinese cities of Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing, to bring the total number of Spanish companies in China to nearly 300. Meanwhile, Chinese companies have also set up offices or joint ventures in Spain. Spanish companies have quickened their march toward Chinese market. For instance the Spanish oil company CEPSA and several other big companies have set up offices or factories very lately in China. Spain has now invested $600 million US dollars in China, accounting for only one percent of China's total foreign investment.

A Chinese diplomat in Spain said the annual trade volume between China and Spain has increased rapidly from $12 million in 1973 to $7.2 billion in 2004 and is hoped to reach $10 billion in 2005.

Spain claims to be the world's second most popular tourist destination and believes Chinese tourists in Spain will reach 100 million by 2020 and plans to receive 150,000 to 200,000 Chinese tourists in the coming three to five years.