Europe in U.S.–China Relations: Past and Present

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ABSTRACT

On February 17, 1972 when President Richard Nixon departed for China, his brief speech on the White House South Lawn voiced the hope that the difficult negotiations awaiting him in the People’s Republic of China would allow succeeding generations to grow up in a world of peace. “We came in peace for all mankind,” President Nixon echoed the inscription left on the moon by American astronauts. However, as the generation of the early 1970s began to grey in the late 2010s, they found themselves locked in fierce competition with China on all fronts, while angry words were hurled from both sides of the Pacific against the backdrop of a major pandemic ravaging the world. 

How has the geopolitical orientation of U.S.–China relations impacted Europe in the past and at present? Within the context of the shifting roles of the United States and China in domestic, regional and global affairs, what will determine Europe’s strategic choices in the areas of trade, technologies, military affairs, and geo-culture? Can carbon neutrality, technological development, reciprocal conditions for investment and markets, and transparent regulatory collaboration reduce the risks produced by geopolitical maneuvering and divergent ideologies?

PROGRAM

Opening Remarks: Olivier BOUIN (Director of RFIEA and Member of the Executive Committe of Eurics)  

Chair: Kerry BROWN (Professor, King’s College London) and Dong WANG (EURICS Fellow, Professor and Director of the Wellington Koo Institute, Shanghai University) 

Speakers:  

Kerry BROWN (Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute, King’s College London)

Carla FREEMAN (Associate Research Professor and Director of the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University) 

Adeline HINDERER (Unit Head, Far East, European Commission, DG Trade)

Friis Arne PETERSEN (Partner, Rud Pedersen Public Affairs; former Danish Ambassador to China, the United States, and Germany)    

Wrap-up: Dong WANG and Sébastien COLIN (Scientific Coordinator, EURICS)    

Registration contacts: please email your full name, e-mail address, affiliation, position, and telephone numbers to both Professor Dong WANG at exchange@wanghistory.org and Ms. Fabiana Di PAOLA at fabiana.dipaola@eurics.eu.

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Short bios

Kerry Brown is professor of Chinese studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London. He is currently working on a study of the Communist Party of China as a cultural movement. From 2012 to 2015, he was professor of Chinese politics and director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. Prior to this, he worked at Chatham House (2006 to 2012) as senior Fellow and then head of the Asia Programme. Concurrently, from 2011 to 2014, he directed the Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN), giving policy advice to the European External Action Service. He is the author of over ten books on modern Chinese politics, history and language, including: The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China (2014); What’s Wrong with Diplomacy: The Case of the UK and China (2015); Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography (2014-2015); and China’s World: What Does China Want (2017).

Carla Freeman directs the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute and is concurrently associate research professor in China studies. She conducts research on Chinese foreign and domestic policy with a current focus on regional dynamics, including China and its periphery, nontraditional security, and China’s role in international organizations. Professor Freeman received a PhD in international relations and Asian studies from Johns Hopkins SAIS, where she also completed a Master’s in international economics and China studies. She completed her BA in history and Southeast Asian studies with honors at Yale University and earned a certificate in political studies with honors from Sciences Po in Paris, and certificates in Chinese from Beijing Foreign Languages University and the Taipei Language Institute. She is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Asian Perspective, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Adeline Hinderer leads the European Commission team in charge of trade relations with China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and Mongolia. Her role includes implementing trade agreements with Japan and Korea, setting priorities, managing high-level economic dialogues and generally overseeing all aspects of trade policy with the region. Prior to that, she managed DG Trade’s communications and relations with stakeholders, handling relationships with the media including social media, as well as public diplomacy and internal communications. Before 2016, Ms. Hinderer was a trade counsellor for the European Union Delegation in Washington, DC, dealing with trade and business issues, including the negotiation of a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). 

Friis Arne Petersen is a partner at Rud Pedersen Public Affairs. He was permanent secretary of state in the Danish Foreign Ministry for eight years (1997-2005) before serving as Danish ambassador to the United States (2005-2010), China (2010-2015) and Germany (2015-2020). He has promoted Danish trade, business and environmental interests and standards abroad. Petersen’s experience in economics, government, politics, and international affairs helps his clients gain insight into geopolitical developments and navigate markets constructively.  

Dong WANG, EURICS fellow, is distinguished professor of history, U.S.–China relations, and China and the world at Shanghai University (since 2016), research associate at the Fairbank Center of Harvard University (since 2002), a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and an elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Her singled-authored books in English are Longmen’s Stone Buddhas and Cultural Heritage: When Antiquity Met Modernity in China (2020); The United States and China: A History from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (2013, winner of The American Library Association “Top 25 Outstanding Academic Titles”; 2nd and rev. ed., 2021); Managing God’s Higher Learning: U.S.-China Cultural Encounter and Canton Christian College (Lingnan University), 1888-1952 (2007); and China’s Unequal Treaties: Narrating National History(2005).  


Registration contact: please email your full name, e-mail address, affiliation, position, and telephone numbers to both Professor Dong WANG at exchange@wanghistory.org and Ms. Fabiana Di PAOLA at fabiana.dipaola@eurics.eu.