Foreign Economic and Trade Relations (China and Major Trading Partners)

Author: Lin Jue, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Opening the history of Europe, we see a history of human civilization, but also a history filled with religious conflicts, ethnic conflicts, and national conflicts. Almost every major war in history has nearly destroyed the achievements of European civilization. After World War II, the wise people and political elites of Europe became more clearly aware that a Europe composed of individual smaller economies could not achieve optimal resource allocation; a Europe with divided will could not form strong strength. Therefore, driven by the desire for post-World War II reconstruction of Europe and the wish to prevent Europe from falling back into the quagmire of war, the Common Market (Common Market, originally the European Coal and Steel Community) was established, which later became the European Community (European Community), and ultimately formed the European Union (European Union, abbreviated as EU), transforming from a trade entity into an economic and political union. The current EU of 25 countries covers a total area of 3,973,000 square kilometers and has a population of 456 million. In 2003, its gross domestic product (GDP) was 10.9 trillion US dollars (calculated based on the prices and exchange rates of that time). China and Europe are both located on the Eurasian continent, with a long history of economic and trade exchanges. Especially after China's reform and opening-up, its economic and trade relations with Europe have developed rapidly. This chapter studies the economic and trade relations between China and Europe. With the intensification of economic globalization, the trade policies and systems of various countries are increasingly unified under the framework of the World Trade Organization. However, at the current stage, in order to maximize trade benefits, the individual differences in trade policies and systems formulated by countries still exist widely. Although China's foreign economic and trade partners have now expanded to over 220, the European Union, the United States, Japan, ASEAN, South Korea, Russia, as well as China's Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions, have been China's main economic and trade partners for many years. The vast majority of China's foreign trade, investment, and economic and technological cooperation activities are carried out with these regions and countries. Therefore, it is highly beneficial for students to learn and master the economic and trade knowledge of China's main economic and trade partners in a targeted manner, including their respective economic and trade advantages and disadvantages, economic and trade policies and organizational systems, as well as the basis, motivations, and trends of developing economic and trade cooperation with China, in order to improve their practical working ability. The teaching objective of the World Economy Special Topic Research course is to enable students to gain a general understanding of hot issues in the world economy and learn to think about the development of China's economy in the context of the global economy.