China-European Union (EU) relations experienced ups and downs in the past year, with the number of frictions and disputes increasing. Economic and trade cooperation, a key factor driving relations between the two, suffered a setback. An ever-increasing competition from China's products in recent years is believed to have posed a challenge to the manufacturing sector in Europe.

Also, as bilateral trade further deepens, exports by European countries to China are insufficient to offset their imports from China, pushing up a widening trade deficit on the European side. Under these circumstances, the fallacy of "China's economic threat" has once again been trumpeted in Europe, creating an unfavorable environment for a smooth relationship.

In recent years, European countries have made tangible changes in their past strategy toward the United States in an attempt to rebuild closer ties with the world's superpower and alienate themselves from China. Unilateralist acts by the US, and particularly its unauthorized war in Iraq in 2003, plunged its ties with European allies to a historical low.