Despite a troubling buildup of both policy and operational difficulties and tensions, European and Chinese leaders seemed to make some modest further inroads in developing their increasingly complex relationship when they met for the 8th EU-China Summit in Beijing September 5.

The meetings came following emergence of some episodes and periods of frustration and upheaval in the relations which had otherwise developed rapidly and broadly in recent years. Late 2004 and early 2005 were marked by controversies and some indecision, especially by the EU, on a number of high-profile political and trade issues. But the Summit final joint declaration touched only briefly on these and sought to limit the damage from such disturbances as the debates over the EU arms embargo, granting of market economy status to China and the more recent flurry on textile trade. An accord in Beijing on Chinese textiles blocked in EU ports and airports served to lift some of the atmosphere and doubts about the Summit and relations.

The meetings, however, did not lead to a formal launching of bilateral negotiations on a new generation framework treaty between the two sides to replace and update a decades-old treaty now considered outdated. This objective had been cited as one of the main British ambitions for its EU Presidency a few months earlier. The final Beijing declaration wording on the subject was limited to promising an early start to the negotiations. The delay might reflect in part the slowness of internal EU deliberations which did not produce an legal negotiating mandate in time and also the lack of urgency on the Chinese side in view of recent disillusionment with EU policy and reversals in issues ranging from the unwillingness to lift the EU embargo on arms sales to Beijing as anticipated or to officially accept China as a full-fledged market economy, as well as the EU embarrassing need to reopen negotiations to cope with a wave of unexpected Chinese textile goods clogging EU ports and warehouses.

The events in China also served to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of formal relations between the European Community and China in 1975, in the last phases of the era of Mao Tse Tung. Following a period of some stagnation in the first years, the pace of the relations and activities accelerated at a higher rate since the late 1990s and in the most recent two or three years to encompass virtually all areas of public policy and activity in what the leaders decided was a Strategic Partnership. The next Summit would normally take place in late 2006 in Finland.

This meeting, however, led one analyst to comment that it had given the impression of being more of a protocol visit than a working visit. It led to the concern that the momentum in improvement and expansion of relations which had been evident in more recent year had reached a plateau in 2005 because of the surfacing of more troublesome issues during the year. The question was whether political and strategic relations would now resume their previous upward trajectory or slump downward into routine and perfunctory exercises.

But it seemed evident that the honeymoon period of what was described in a cover article in the former Far Eastern Economic Review in early 2004 as a marriage made in heaven, and similarly in other publications was now past and gave the appearance, at least politically, as a marriage of convenience. President Hu was reported as saying during the week that the relationship was now a mature one.

But this could not dispel the dismay of some of the Chinese Europeanists who were puzzled by the apparent reversals by the EU leadership on what seemed like a promise to lift the arms embargo at the 2004 meeting and on textile trade, as well as the inability to decide to grant China market economy status. Some attributed this as continued EU subordination to harder-line US pressure.

One Beijing-based European analyst remarked after the meeting that the Europeanists in Chinas intellectual elite who had urged the Government to press for giving priority to building relations with Europe had lost face and credibility which could hamper future advances or initiatives in the future.

But as if to underline the fact that the business-driven part of the relationships remained on an upward curve regardless of occasional or even persistent political strains, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told the Europeans he expected overall trade between the two sides to grow to $200 billion this year, from the $177 billion registered in 2004, since the figure for the first half already exceeded $100 billion. In 2004 alone, EU-China trade had increased 19%, making the EU China's largest trading partner. Overall, EU-China trade has increased more than 30-fold since relations were established in 1975.

The following day during a subsequent UK-China Summit, European planemaker Airbus and Britains Standard Chartered Bank signed major contracts. In the other direction, Britain also reported a major increase of 37 Mainland China businesses setting up operations in the UK in 2004, a 61% increase to a total of 181 now established there. Blair and Alan Johnson the Secretary for Trade and Industry were also accompanied by a delegation of some 500 British executives.

The meeting at the Great Hall of the Peoples on Tienanmen Square in Beijing between the EU and Chinese leaders was also followed by a similar bilateral Anglo-Chinese Summit and by a summit two days later with another key Asian partner in New Delhi when they met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Indian Government there.

After a more than one-hour meeting between the EU leaders and Wen the two sides signed six separate agreements and witnessed the signing of a 500 million loan from the European Investment Bank to China for the expansion of Beijing airport in time for the 2008 Olympic Games in the city.

They also agreed to start talks before the end of the year on a China-EU aviation agreement aimed at resolving outstanding issues on bilateral air services. Another agreement foreseen in a related sector would cover technical cooperation in civil aviation.

The follow-up press conference by the Summit participants covered a wide range of issues from illegal immigration to the countrys system of government. The issue stressed the most by the leadership during this public session was their bilateral agreement to cooperate on issues related to climate change since, it was stressed, China has a major role to play in this international challenge.

The climate change-clean technology agreement was pointed to as one of the major outcomes of the Summit. It had been highlighted as one of the main objectives of the British EU presidency for this summit months earlier. And it also follows in a more concrete way the declarations of the July G-8 Summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, where the British hosts had also made climate change mitigation a fundamental part of the agenda of that meeting of leading industrialised nations, with China and India and others.

While the operational part of the climate change agreement involves the development of so-called clean-coal technology demonstration projects in China and the EU, it also contains the intention to cooperate in reaching both the EU and Chinese objectives of reducing the energy intensity of their economies and on the associated Clean Development Mechanism project. China is a major coal-mining country and the fuel still accounts for about half of Chinas energy needs.The country is also the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world after the US and its energy consumption and production are expected to grow dramatically in the coming years as it continues to develop.

An MOU signed at the Summit also binds the two to conduct regular exchanges on social and employment issues such as social protection, social cohesion, labour legislation, employment, labour relations and social dialogue. China was said to have been especially interested in the EU experience in social security. A first seminar was held in Beijing the following day on vocational training and human resources.

Solana and Mandelson also delivered speeches before key Chinese institutes in Beijing on foreign and security and trade and globalisation, respectively. Addressing the Europe-China Business School, Solana briefly referred to the Summit itself, remarking that It would be too much perhaps to say we saw eye to eye on every issue; But even on the few issues we disagreed, we had frank and open exchanges. This is exactly as it should among close partners. He then concentrated on broad global issues, such as proliferation, terrorism, UN reform and peacekeeping, generally suggesting the value of consultations and cooperation between the EU, China and other major actors. Mandelson spoke to the Central Party Business School where he focused on the issue of textile trade which had marked the few days leading up to the Summit itself and on the broader process of globalisation.