Sino-European Relations in the 1980s: Increasing Engagement in the Shadow of the United States

This chapter discusses the development of Europe’s relationship with China from 1978 to 1990. It begins by surveying relations prior to this period, highlighting both the restrictive presence of the United States as well as the economic potential that existed on both sides. It proceeds to review the development of a series of bilateral relationships between European countries (West Germany, France, and the Netherlands) and China and discusses the role played by the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor of the European Union (EU), in supporting these ties. The anticipated developmental pathway of these relations was truncated by the crackdown in Tiananmen Square. The penultimate section of this chapter discusses how the EEC states reacted to this event, drawing conclusions on the state of the relationship circa 1990. Throughout this chapter, it will be apparent that, France’s early opening notwithstanding, during the entire period from 1949 to 1990, the United States acted as a restraining factor setting the bounds to how far European states could go when dealing with China. In the 1980s, however, economic ties started to form between Western Europe and China that would soon introduce a dynamic independent of the United States into the relationship. The effect of these ties was visible in late 1989 and early 1990, when some EEC members tussled with the diplomatic and partial economic freeze that they themselves had imposed on China following 4 June 1989.