Friendship is a two-way street

EU leaders should also heed China's needs when they come with their wish lists to ensure mutually beneficial cooperation

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to pay a formal visit to China in early February, just as China has entered the Year of the Dragon. Soon after that, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will visit China together to attend the postponed 14th China-EU Summit.

As a Chinese saying goes, one does not visit the temple for nothing. Public media home and abroad are speculating profusely on the purposes of these visits by European leaders. Obviously, the European leaders, being the first group of important Western visitors to China in the Year of the Dragon, are not here just to say Happy New Year. In their briefcases, as some predict, there will be a long list of demands which they will present to the Chinese side.