In this rapidly changing context, the leaders of the European Union and China should rethink the significance of the trans-Eurasian links and open a new chapter in the relations between two of the world’s most ancient civilizations
The redistribution of global power modifies the relations between the great powers and invites them to reconsider their diplomatic priorities. While in the aftermath of the Second World War the future of Europe has been proactively shaped by the U.S., or more precisely, by a group of American “Wise Men”, China is now in a position to have an unprecedented impact on the European integration, and, as Beijing fully develops its immense potential and becomes the world’s biggest economy in the coming decade, its capacity to influence will certainly grow.
If it undermined Soviet statesman Mikhail Gorbachev’s grand strategy of the “Common European Home” which had, among others, François Mitterrand’s blessing, Washington did not oppose the creation of the European Union. However, long before the existence of the Euro, the Anglo-Saxon narrative on the impossibility to implement this major political decision was already very common, for some could not even contemplate the idea of this truly post national enterprise, the transfer to a supranational institution of one of the main pillars of the modern State, its currency ; since January 1 2002 the Euro circulates, it has been by now adopted by 17 members of the EU, it is the second largest reserve currency in the world as well as the second most traded, and continental Europe shaped a global system in which genuine financial multipolarity could be a reality.
[Reprinted with permission from The China Europe International Business School.]