Table Of ContentPALGRAVE STUDIES IN
ASIA-PACIFIC POLITICAL ECONOMY
Unpacking EU
Policy-Making towards
China
How Member States,
Bureaucracies, and
Institutions Shape its China
Economic Policy
Bas Hooijmaaijers
Palgrave Studies in Asia-Pacific Political Economy
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Bas Hooijmaaijers
Unpacking EU
Policy-Making
towards China
How Member States, Bureaucracies,
and Institutions Shape its China Economic Policy
Bas Hooijmaaijers
School of Advanced International and Area Studies
East China Normal University
Shanghai, China
Leuven International and European Studies Institute
KU Leuven
Leuven, Belgium
Palgrave Studies in Asia-Pacific Political Economy
ISBN 978-981-15-9366-6 ISBN 978-981-15-9367-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9367-3
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To Liu Fang, for her support and endless patience.
Foreword
China’s economic comeback story is one of the most dramatic events of
the last four decades. After representing more than 30 per cent of global
gross domestic product (GDP) in the centuries up to 1820, China hit
only five per cent in 1975; now, after 40 years of its opening-up, China’s
economy stands at 15 per cent of global GDP. I first came to China in
1982,andhavewitnessedthemanyupsanddownsofthiscontinent-sized
country, living in both Beijing and Shanghai for more than 30 years.
Serving as the president of the European Union (EU) Chamber of
Commerce in China for seven years provided me a ringside seat from
whichtoobservenotonlyChina’schallenges,butalsothesuccessesithas
enjoyed, since acceding to the World Trade Organization in 2001. While
OECD countries’ economies were badly impacted by the global finan-
cial crisis in 2008, China’s took off in spectacular fashion. This created
newopportunitiesandbenefitsforEurope,butithasalsobroughtcritical
newchallenges.ThesechallengesincludetheimpactofChineseindustrial
overcapacity,dumpingandsubsidiesontheEUmarket,butalsotheemer-
genceofstate-controlledChinesecompaniesinthirdmarkets.Meanwhile,
China’sdomesticmarketstilldoesnotofferreciprocitytoEuropeanfirms.
It was against the backdrop of these issues that I met Dr Bas Hooij-
maaijersforthefirsttimeinBeijinginJune2017,todiscusstheEU-China
solar panel dispute, the EU’s trade defence investigation into mobile
telecommunicationsnetworksfromChinaandthechallengesfortheSino-
European trade and investment relationship more generally. His research
vii
viii FOREWORD
ledtothepublicationofhisinsightfulbookUnpackingEUpolicy-making
towards China.
The EU has long been considering how to effectively respond to the
challenge of China’s massive footprint across diverse sectors and loca-
tions.Theanalyticalframeworkdevelopedinthisbookhelpstocontribute
to a better understanding of this challenge and uncovers which tools
best illuminate the EU’s policy-making at various stages of the policy
process. The three case studies on the dispute over Chinese solar panels,
theinvestigationintoHuawei’stelecommunicationnetworks,andChina’s
rise in Africa and the subsequent response of the EU, shed light on the
evolving nature of Sino-European trade relations, the internal workings
ofEUtradedefencepolicy,and,moregenerally,thecurrentchallengesto
globalisation and the international trading order.
Although this book aims to reach a broader audience, it is also very
muchatreasuretroveforacademics,businesspeopleandpolicy-makers.It
willhelpbusinessescarryoutmoreeffectiveriskandbusinessenvironment
assessments, facilitate business plans and develop government and public
relations strategies.
I wish this book had been published many years ago, and I hope that
it will be as thought-provoking to other readers as it was for me.
Beijing, China Jörg Wuttke
summer 2020 President of the European Union Chamber
of Commerce in China
Acknowledgments
I am writing these acknowledgments as we are experiencing unprece-
dented times with the impact of COVID-19 being felt across the world.
However, every disadvantage has its advantage, and I was able to use the
time that I had to stay at home in the Netherlands to finalize this book
project. This book is the result of a long and exciting research journey
that allowed me to broaden my view to discover many different facets of
the rapidly changing global order. During this journey, which started in
fall 2013 at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) as a Ph.D. candidate,
andwasfurtherstrengthenedandimprovedduringmytimeatEastChina
Normal University (ECNU), I encountered a variety of different individ-
uals and institutions in both Europe and China, and I am deeply grateful
for their support.
To start with, I would like to thank my former Ph.D. supervisor,
colleague, friend, and editor of this book series Professor Jean-Marc F.
Blanchard,forhisguidanceandsupport.Hedeservesmywarmestthanks.
This book would not have reached this high level of quality without his
intellectual input. I would like to express my appreciation to ECNU’s
School of Advanced International and Area Studies, particularly Dean
Liu Jun, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Univer-
sities [grant number 2017ECNU-HLYT019] for their financial support
to conduct and improve this research. I am also thankful to Professor
Stephan Keukeleire, my former boss, and master thesis supervisor at KU
Leuven, for his feedback throughout the Ph.D. process, including as an
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
externalreviewer,andtheprocessofwritingthisbook.Ialsowouldliketo
express my appreciation to the other two external reviewers of my Ph.D.
dissertation, Professor Men Jing (College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium),
andProfessorSebastianBersick(Ruhr-UniversitätBochum,Germany)for
theirfeedbackandsuggestions.IwouldliketothanktheChineseProfes-
sors that participated in the various review rounds of the Ph.D. process:
Professor Zhong Yang, Professor Zhang Junhua, Professor Lin Gang, Li
Mingming (all from SJTU), Professor Liu Hongsong (Shanghai Interna-
tional Studies University), and Professor Chen Zhimin (Fudan Univer-
sity). I am also grateful to Dr. Sven Grimm and Dr. Anna Stahl for their
invaluable comments on the EU-China-Africa trilateral cooperation case.
I,too,wouldliketothanktheKULeuvenforprovidingtheopportunity
tostayaffiliatedwiththemasaresearchfellow.Thisallowedmetobenefit
from their infrastructure, and this was and is very much appreciated.
The research project has benefitted from interviews carried out in
Europe and China. Each of the more than 100 interviews, consulta-
tions,andconversationswithEuropean,Chinese,andAfricanofficialsand
experts has contributed to connecting the pieces of the research puzzle.
Writing this book would not have been possible without their invaluable
insights. Many of the interviewees concerned cannot be named in person
for anonymity reasons, but they know who they are, and I am incredibly
gratefulfortheirinput.ThisworkalsobenefitedfromastayatUniversity
CollegeCorkintheERASMUSPlustrainingexchangeframeworkinJune
2019.IwouldliketothankDr.NiallDugganandDr.AndrewCotteyfor
making this stay possible. Parts of this work were presented during the
30th Association of Chinese Political Studies Annual Meeting and Inter-
national Symposium in Tianjin June 2017, the 59th Annual Convention
of the International Studies Association in San Francisco in April 2018,
theEurope-Africa-ChinaCooperationintheNewEra:Opportunitiesand
Challenges conference held in Shanghai in July 2019, and the Develop-
ment Cooperation in a post BAPA+40 world Workshop hosted by Fudan
UniversityinOctober2019.Iwouldliketotaketheopportunitytothank
the organizers and the participants of these events for their feedback.
I am extremely thankful to Jörg Wuttke, President of the European
Union Chamber of Commerce in China and EU Chamber staff Carl
Hayward,JacobGunter,andRachelRapaport,forprovidingtheforeword
to this book. I would also like to thank my friends Caroline Hielegems,
Willem-Pieter de Groen, Yf Reykers, Gert-Jan Put, Jef Smulders, Irina
