Common good calls for closer China-EU partnership

Leaders of China, France and Germany held their second virtual summit in three months on Monday, demonstrating again to the world their shared willingness to enhance dialogue and expand cooperation marked by mutual benefits, as well as their shared sense of responsibility to jointly address global challenges.

The summit was both necessary and important. In recent months, the relationship between China and the European Union (EU) has seen some twists and turns amid an intensifying smearing campaign directed against China by some ill-intentioned Western politicians and media outlets. At the same time, the fast-spreading delta variant of the coronavirus and a weak global economic recovery are demanding stronger global cooperation.

First of all, the video summit testifies to the leaders' joint readiness to properly handle differences between China and Europe at large. Just as Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed during the summit that the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership is where the greatest common denominators converge, it is necessary for the two sides to cherish this partnership by first adhering to the basic principles of mutual respect and mutual understanding.

Without due respect for each other's national sovereignty and core interests, and without candid talks to bridge differences and foster mutual trust, there will be no ground for developing any genuine partnership.

Second, the summit conveyed the positive sign that bilateral cooperation was strengthening, which both sides have every good reason to work on.

For the past years, flourishing cooperation between China and European countries has brought tangible benefits to the two sides, which has proven that cooperation, instead of competition or even rivalry, is the only right way toward common development.

In 2020, China became the EU's largest trading partner, and both sides also completed their seven-year negotiation on a bilateral investment treaty as previously planned.

The China-Europe freight-train service has so far recorded more than 40,000 trips, with the transported goods valued at over 200 billion U.S. dollars. Amid the pandemic, the trains have boosted fragile supply chains in Eurasian countries, saved businesses in both China and Europe, and facilitated joint efforts to combat the disease.

Looking into the future, China and European countries have even bigger room for win-win cooperation, in such areas as economy and trade, as well as in the strategic, cultural, digital and climate sectors.

For example, the two sides can start by joining forces to overcome all kinds of obstacles in the bilateral investment treaty's ratification process. They can also boost personal exchanges in epidemic prevention and control, and advance mutual recognition and protection of products listed in the China-EU agreement on geographical indicators.

Meanwhile, Brussels needs to continue to enhance its strategic autonomy, and stand up to political disruptions from any third party, so as to keep China-EU cooperation right on track.

Third, the summit amplified a unified voice for supporting multilateralism. China and the EU, two major players on the world stage, have shared a firm belief in multilateralism and in their obligations to work together against common challenges facing humanity.

Against the backdrop of grand changes in the global situation, such as rising protectionism and isolationism, it is more important than ever to preserve the international system with the United Nations (UN) at its core, uphold the basic norms governing international relations based on the UN Charter, and deal with global issues via consultations of all parties in a reasonably calm manner.

In the face of a rampant second wave of the pandemic and a still dim global economic outlook, it is more urgent than ever for China and the EU to work together to provide help for vulnerable countries in their anti-pandemic fight, improve global health governance, ease the economic burden of poor countries, and continue to build an open world economy.

In particular, the two sides, both of which have long offered much-needed assistance to Africa, can step up efforts to increase vaccine supplies to countries in the region, and support the vaccine-sharing program co-led by the World Health Organization. They also need to advance coordination on financing and education issues in Africa.

"Tomorrow's post-COVID world needs a strong EU-China relationship, to build forward better," President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen tweeted at the end of last year.

Indeed, joining forces to build a closer China-EU partnership featuring cooperation, reciprocity and trust will be in the vital interests of both sides, and those of the global community at large.