Time to embrace a shared vision

The world's largest developing country and biggest bloc of developed countries need to deepen their strategic partnership

Many Europeans believe that China, one of the European Union's 10 so-called strategic partners, behaves more like a competitor. And many Chinese, for whom the EU is just one of more than 70 strategic partners, complain that the EU's policy toward China is more commercial than strategic.

Such grievances are rooted in different interpretations of the nature and purpose of strategic partnerships. Where China sees an enduring, comprehensive, and stable relationship that extends beyond everyday issues, Europe sees market access and better global governance, but lacks a clear long-term vision for the partnership. Unresolved issues - for example, the EU's embargo on arms sales to China, its unwillingness to grant it market-economy status, and the recent anti-dumping and countervailing-duties cases it has brought against the Chinese - have aggravated these divergent perspectives.