A liberal institutionalist perspective on China-EU relations

The People’s Republic of China and the European Union (EU)’ are fairly recent arrivals to the international system, both having been established in the aftermath of the Second World War, and both having taken some time before rising to global prominence. However, since 2015 China and the EU have become the top two economies in the world, and they also are each other’s biggest trading partners. The year 2015 marked the fortieth anniversary of the launch of diplomatic relations between the two sides, and since 2003, China and the EU have also recognized each other as “strategic partners” (Reiterer 2013).