1st Edition

China and the European Union

Edited By Lisheng Dong, Zhengxu Wang, Henk Dekker Copyright 2013
    280 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    280 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The European Union is China’s largest trading partner, and Chinese views of the EU are of crucial importance in shaping how the relationship will develop in the future, especially as the new Chinese leadership takes power. This book presents the findings of an extensive research project into the views of both elite groups, in government, business, academia, media and social activists, and the Chinese public towards Europe and the European Union. It considers attitudes on a wide range of subjects, and reaches a number of interesting, encouraging conclusions. These include the fact that as Chinese people’s knowledge of, and travel to, Europe becomes more extensive, Chinese attitudes towards Europe become more positive; that Chinese people have a high regard for European culture and a high degree of trust in Europeans; though there are significant differences between different Chinese groups concerning controversial issues in the China-EU relationship. Overall, the book concludes that the Chinese public opinion supports a strong bilateral relation.

    Part 1: Introduction 1. Project Chinese views of the EU Zhengxu Wang, Lisheng Dong and Daniela Stockmann Part 2: Citizens 2. Chinese Views of the EU: An Overview of Survey Findings Li Zhang and Ying Yu 3. Attitudes towards the EU: In search of an explanation Henk Dekker and Jolanda van der Noll 4. Knowledge of the EU brews affects Zhengxu Wang and Bogdan Popescu 5. Chinese Affect towards European Culture Christian Welzel, Stefanie Reher and Timo Graf  6. Chinese Trust in Europeans: Exploring determinants and consequences Jan Delhey and Timo Graf 7. Interest, knowledge, and travel in Chinese View of EU and international Affairs Philip Everts Part 3: Elites and citizens 8. Chinese Elites’ Assessment of the Most Controversial Issues in EU-China Relations Lisheng Dong and Zhou Lüjun 9. Elite and Public views of EU and Europe: A comparison Long Sun 10. Media influence on public opinion about the EU and Europeans Daniela Stockmann 11. History textbooks about Europe: From antagonist to model? Nicola Spakowski 12. Methodology Zhengxu Wang Long Sun and Daniela Stockmann

    Biography

    Lisheng Dong is Professor of Political Science at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

    Zhengxu Wang is Deputy Director of the China Policy Institute and Lecturer at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham, UK.

    Henk Dekker is Professor of Political Socialization and Integration at the Graduate School for Social and Behavioural Sciences of Leiden University, the Netherlands.