Soon after Chinese Vice-Premier Ma Kai took part in a high-level economic dialogue with European Union officials three years ago, Beijing and Brussels reached an amicable solution to end their dispute over China's solar panel exports to Europe that had almost frozen bilateral relations for a year.

With that obstacle removed, they entered into talks on opening their markets to investments by the other. Soon after the dispute was settled, Xi Jinping made the first visit ever by a Chinese president to the European Union's Brussels headquarters. These developments established a solid foundation for Beijing and the EU to forge closer ties.

But when Ma returned to Brussels to attend a new round of high-level economic dialogue between the EU and China in Brussels on Tuesday, he faced the challenge that the problem-plagued EU is once again getting tough on access to its market. And this despite the fact that bilateral trade now stands at $1 billion dollars a day. As much trade is now done in seven hours with one EU country - Belgium - as it took a whole year to achieve 45 years ago.