Europe has an important economic and political interest in supporting China’s sustainable development and successful transition to a stable, prosperous and open country. EU relations with China have developed from a relationship based mainly on trade issues to a partnership based on political dialogue and economic, trade and sectoral relations. The co-operation programme is an important element of this relationship.
China is, however, moving away from the status of a traditional ODA recipient towards that of a strategic partner with whom the EU engages on a wide range of policy issues, and one that is becoming an increasingly important source of ODA to other developing countries.
The response strategy for the future EC co-operation programme therefore needs to take account of the contradiction in China’s nature: that of a developing country in terms of certain traditional indicators on the one hand, and that of a significant player on the world stage in economic and political terms on the other.
http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/china/csp/2007_sp_en.pdf
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