The cultural aspect of EU-China relations: the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative

• Main Authors: Miriam Traverso, 甜蜜蜜
• Other Authors: Leng, Tse-Kang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/6dbv37

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 國際研究英語碩士學位學程 (IMPIS) === 105 === By recalling the idea of the Silk Road as a place of peaceful encounter of civilizations, China is promoting its new, major diplomatic outreach system called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a network of roads, infrastructures, investments, policy connections and people to people exchanges with the final objective of connecting the PRC to Europe. Indeed, in view of the current international geopolitical circumstances, the Chinese and European leaders are recently emphasizing the importance of the Brussels-Beijing relationships. Nonetheless, many experts complain that this partnership has not yet developed as fast and deeply as the two sides originally hoped. This leads to the first research question addressed in the thesis:"which are the obstacles to a deeper EU-China partnership and how to overcome them and improve the overall relations?". By borrowing the constructivist theories, this thesis argues that the real obstacle to deepening the China-EU partnership are the differences in identities, values and culture, and that the improvement of the people to people and cultural interactions will enhance the general bilateral relations. Consequently, the second research question is "which role does BRI play in the China-EU cultural relations?". BRI has the potential to have a positive impact on their relations by providing a new framework and incentives for the collaboration on cultural projects and people to people interactions. The last two research questions are related to each other: "what are the risks and benefits that BRI will bring to the EU?" and "how should the European Union respond to BRI?". By analyzing the risks and benefits that will derive from the implementation of BRI, the author provides some policy suggestions to both sides on how to efficiently implement BRI, and especially to EU leaders on how to cooperate with their Chinese counterparts: the EU should definitely cooperate in the Chinese initiative, to ensure a win-win outcome for all, to guarantee the respect of the international norms and to help the PRC maintain the stability in the areas crossed by the BRI network.