ABSTRACT
The Tiananmen Incident had a profound impact on the EC–China political relationship, which was immediately felt on the trade front. This period (1989–1992) witnessed two distinctive phases. The first was the European Communities' economic sanctions from 1989 to 1990, where we see the Community exercising a strategy linking economic sanctions with the human rights issue. The second phase (1991–1992) witnessed a de-linkage process, in which economic considerations forced the Community and its Member States to lift the economic sanctions and bring back economic considerations to the mainstream of the EC–China relations.
