By Wang Zhaohui
With the world entering into the 21st century, the Sino-French
relationship has stepped onto a stage of comprehensive cooperation
and rapid development. The potentials and prospects for future
development are great.
First, China and France have built their cooperative partnership
at a strategic height, and therefore of a solid foundation.
1. Geographically far away from each other and different in
political system though, the two countries enjoy similarities in
terms of value conception, for instance, both countries pursue
“independence,” oppose “power politics” and “hegemony” in
international relations, and hold that all nations are equal. They
pay attention to protecting the characteristics of national culture
as well as cultural diversity of the world, and advocate dialogue
and exchange between different civilizations and cultures to
promote the development of a multicultural world.
The two countries also share similar political conceptions. They
support the central position of the Untied Nations in international
relations, stand for dialogue instead of military means as the
first approach to solve global issues, and stress that a new
balanced and harmonious international political and economic order
should be based on the universal participation of all nations.
2. “Multi-polarization” is the key point in the building of
Sino-French partnership. After the Cold War, the United States has
tried to build an international order under its leadership by
relying on its unique political, economic, technological and
military position. The world seems to move towards singular
polarity. Both China and France have kept a close watch on the
trend.
China holds that it is a general trend for the world to move
toward multi-polarity as such development is conducive to mutual
respect of each country’s sovereignty and rights and the
establishment of a fair and just international order.
Since the administration of Charles de Gaulle, France has
advocated breaking the pattern of bi-polarity to create conditions
for the development of multi-polarization in the world. After
President Jacques Chirac came into power, he paid attention to
developing “multi-polarized” diplomacy.
Such a shared perception of a future multi-polarized world has
helped to draw China and France closer. The joint statement of the
two countries on building an overall partnership points out that
China and France are dedicated to “strengthening cooperation,
promoting the process of multi-polarization… contributing to the
establishment of a fair and balanced international political and
economic order, and opposing any attempt at hegemony in
international affairs.”
Second, the “overall partnership” framework defined between
China and France and the increasingly maturing partnership
relations between China and Europe have set up a road sign for the
future development of Sino-French relations.
The document signed between China and France of building “an
overall partnership” defines the following key points during the
future development of bilateral relations:
In terms of international cooperation, the two sides will give
priority to enhancing multi-polarization endeavors, promoting the
reform of the United Nations and disarmament, paying attention to
environmental protection, cracking down on drugs, crime and
terrorism, supporting multilateral trade and respecting
diversity.
In respect of bilateral relations, the two sides will work to
set up an exchange and consultation mechanism, strengthen economic
and trade cooperation and enhance exchange in fields of culture,
education and science and technology.
What’s more, great progress has also been made in recent years
in the China-European “cooperative partnership” which has been
strongly promoted by European countries including France. The
European Union in its China strategy paper this year points out
that China-European relations have developed into a partnership
moving towards maturity. The EU has also decided to issue a paper
in the near future on the establishment of a Europe-China strategic
partnership so as to define a framework for the cooperation between
European countries and China. Under these frameworks, Sino-French
relations will develop more steadily.
Third, both the countries acknowledge they are mutually
complementary in economy and hope to establish balanced relations
catering to the interests of both sides.
China and France enjoy a great potential in economic
cooperation. Comparing the US$100 million trade value before the
two countries established formal diplomatic ties, the figure has
now grown 120 times. France is very satisfied with the progress,
but on the other side, it considers that its advantages have not
been fully tapped during the trade between the two countries. These
have manifested in the following aspects:
l
China enjoys a trade surplus with France, with French products
occupying only a 1.4-percent share in China;
l
French-Chinese trade relations haven’t reached the level of
political relations;
l
France has world-class technology in express railway and the civil
utilization of nuclear energy. There is room for further
cooperation between the two countries in these fields;
l
Current Sino-French cooperation involves mainly big enterprises,
but there are 2 million small and medium-sized businesses in
France;
l
French-Chinese economic and technological cooperation is not
confined to export of products. France is willing to transfer
technology or set up joint ventures.
Accordingly, France has expressed the hope to enhance its
publicity on the Chinese market and to promote it to be the second
largest trade partner of China next only to Germany within EU.
“Structural imbalance” also exists in cultural exchanges of the
two countries. Actually French people’s knowledge of China is far
less than Chinese people’s knowledge of France. As a result, China
will take the opportunity of “sponsoring the cultural year” in
France to publicize Chinese culture in France and expand
cooperation with the French cultural industry.
The author is a researcher with the Chinese Institute of
International Studies.
(China.org.cn January 26, 2004)