ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the situation in China and the crisis that triggered the imposition of sanctions. It aims to place sanctions in the broader context of the European Union (EU) policy towards China. It then classifies the restrictive measures according to their logic and assesses the impact, effects and effectiveness of the measures, and runs a counterfactual test to evaluate the comparative utility of sanctions. The chapter highlights the lessons learned from this sanctions episode, and set out the implications that derive from them. China's Cultural Revolution launched by Mao Zedong in 1949 had closed the country to the external world, and the conflict with the government of Chiang Kai-shek contributed to this isolation. China and the EU have been on collision course a number of times, especially in economic and political terms. In economic terms, tensions were raised by discussions about textile agreements and alleged violations of WTO regulations.
