Introduction

The multidimensional partnership between the European Union (EU) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is gaining new relevance as a stabilising factor in the context of an increasingly unstable world order. Of course, we are aware of the many oscillations that have occurred since the first arrangement of 1975 and the first ‘honeymoon’ period, China’s World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 and, notably, the signature of the Strategic Partnership agreement of 2003, with the second honeymoon period, and the recent trade conflicts. Lucid and without any reticence about the many ups and downs of the EU–China relationship, this book brings fresh research and evidence that this dialogue is deepening towards intense institutionalisation of both bilateral and multilateral cooperation, becoming a framework for the multiple challenges, differences and obstacles that exist in many policy fields.