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　　The Sino-European partnership should be constantly deepened and enriched 　　In a joint statement issued at the ninth China-EU Forum on September 9 in Helsinki, Finland, both sides agreed to launch talks on a framework agreement for a new partnership. The commitment fully reflects the breadth and depth of the Sino-EU strategic partnership. Consequently, relations between China and the EU have once again drawn global attention.
　　Sino-EU ties have demonstrated two salient hallmarks in recent years.
　　First, bilateral ties have become increasingly institutionalized with expanded channels for dialogue and more frequent high-level contacts and exchanges of visits, apart from 13 mechanisms for regular dialogue involving political, economic, scientific and technological and cultural spheres of both sides, such as the vice ministerial routine strategic dialogue. The Sino-EU partnership framework agreement, now being drafted, will cover all spheres of bilateral ties, including strengthening cooperation in political affairs. Meanwhile, the biennial Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), which opened on September 10 this year, has also provided a larger space for their mutual reaction and accommodation.
　　Second, bilateral ties are expanding and multidimensional. Sino-EU trade reached $120.9 billion in the first half of 2006, an increase of 20.8 percent over the same period of 2005. And remarkable achievements were made in the fields of politics, science and technology and personnel exchanges. China and the EU officially started the international thermonuclear experimental reactor in May this year, and the Sino-EU science and technology year is expected to begin in October.
　　China and the EU will also step up their strategic dialogue in the fields of energy and transport and communications. Since EU member nations have become tourist destinations for Chinese citizens, the nongovernmental basis for Sino-EU ties has been greatly reinforced.
　　Moreover, as Sino-EU ties are built on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, they conform to the needs of the present era with broader prospects. For the EU, relations with China constitute a foundation of its external policy, which concerns whether or not it can formulate a “common foreign and security policy” and whether or not it can be guaranteed to attain “development dividends” from the rise of China and maintain its competitiveness in the Chinese market. As for China, relations with the EU constitute a key link in its diplomacy as a major power. As a matter of fact, there is no fundamental clash of interests between China and the EU, but rather a huge potential for bilateral cooperation as both sides adhere to multilateralism in their handling of international affairs.
　　However, how to keep enriching and substantiating the Sino-EU strategic partnership remains a topic that deserves meticulous consideration from both sides. There has been a reappraisal inside the EU of the possible impacts of China’s rise. It is learned that the EU will again release a number of new policy documents this year, including a China trade policy paper and a China policy paper.
　　A new trend of concern is that the EU has also attempted to pursue a “hedging” strategy toward China, namely working hard to keep a close eye on China while maintaining its contacts and developing its ties with the country. In recent years, the EU has set up an East Asia coordination mechanism with the United States and a strategic dialogue mechanism with Japan, and it will, for the first time, launch a “security dialogue” with India. All these mechanisms are said to target China, more or less.
　　In the past year, the EU has encountered numerous difficulties in the course of advancing its integration process, which could turn into dark clouds affecting Sino-EU ties. For example, the EU’s constitutional crisis will give rise to a possible emergence of trade protectionism inside the bloc.
　　Reviewing the road China and the EU have taken in the past 31 years from their estrangement or misunderstanding to interdependence and from unfamiliarity to mutual acquaintance, an important inspiration is that “Sino-EU ties should be elevated further for better distant prospects” by eliminating outside interference. At present, since Sino-EU relations are at a higher starting point, both sides should make joint efforts from a long-term point of view to dispel the dark clouds overhead and move toward a still splendid tomorrow.

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