Details

This Venue was first initiated by the Graduate School of Global Politics of Free University Berlin and the Chinese counterpart Renmin University Beijing. KAS/Beijing supported this genuine effort for a transnational dialogue between the new academic generations. The Workshop is the first of its kind gathering young academics from China and Europe to discuss the topic of possible future prospects for the relationship between China and Europe in the 21st century.

The Workshop was opened to participants of science, society and politics. On the first day Prof. Klaus Segbers, Free University Berlin, Prof. Chen Yue, Renmin University, and Clemens Smolders, Head of the EU-China Science and Technology Fellowship Programme, were holding opening speeches to welcome the diverse field of participants and were eager to know what the new generation of academics would have to offer. The following Expert panel discussion which consisted of the well known participants Prof. Pang Zhongying, Renmin University, Prof. Zhou Hong, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Frank Hartmann, Germany Embassy/Beijing, shared under Prof. Segbers moderation their thoughts on the workshops topic and their personal opinions about the future outlook of EU-China Relations.

Overall there was a certain consent between the participants that the situation is really positive right now and argued that a Co-Evolution takes place, in which both – Partnership and Competition – are basic elements of the relationship but also shape future challenges. The Expert panel’s insight was well received by the younger academics, who in the following time of the workshop tried to add the originated perspectives of the experts to their own reason.

The second day focused in panel discussions on a debate about four major topics: High Politics and Diplomacy, Socio-Economic Transition, Energy and Environmental Issues, The Role of Culture. The following intense debate featured many policy suggestions with a transnational scope and a development outlook for the future tendencies of Europe and China Relations. The presented working papers gave an important impulse and motivated the young academics to engage further in the debate. The participants reached in the end a mutual understanding that the relationship between Europe and China is not only defined by the foreign-policy goals, but especially by the challenges for domestic policymakers. Thus there is first a need for a deeper understanding of the counterpart’s challenges on the domestic level to understand the logic of the Europe and China relationship and to be able to enhance the relationship between these two regions.