China's booming economy and voracious appetite for energy and natural resources are turning it from a regional into a global power. Wherever the EU looks in the coming years - such as Africa, Central Asia or the Middle East - China will be there too. And whatever the EU wants to achieve on global issues - from climate change to weapons proliferation - it will need China's consent or co-operation. The EU finds it hard to concert its efforts effectively when it deals with China. However, the economic impact of the undervaluation of the renminbi against the euro, which includes a Chinese trade surplus that is soaring to record levels, is forcing the EU to think more coherently about China. The EU is trying to persuade China to open up its economy; if it fails, the result could be much greater protectionism within Europe.

The negotiation of a new partnership and co-operation agreement between China and the EU, now under way, offers the chance to build a stronger and more focused relationship between them. However, the EU often finds it difficult to think about China in strategic terms. Its relationship with China covers a huge range of subjects, ranging from social security reform to higher education to the transfer of environmental technology. But the EU is not good at focusing on a few, key objectives. Short-term commercial rivalry between EU countries sometimes frustrates long-term their goals. Furthermore, the EU's lack of interest in Asian regional security has the potential to lead it into serious conflicts with the US. if the partnership between the EU and China becomes more strategic, China is more likely to evolve into the 'responsible global stakeholder' - to quote former US deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick - that both the EU and the US hope to see.

The CER's China programme involves a series of publications, as well as seminars in Beijing, Brussels and London. It is designed to do four things:

To deepen European policy-makers and business's understanding of the drivers of change within China, so that they can better grasp the country's growing international role.

To build a 'Track Two' process on EU-China relations so that senior European and Chinese opinion formers and policy makers can get to know each other and begin to look at global issues from a similar perspective.

To start a transatlantic dialogue on the significance of China's rise, so that it does not become the next transatlantic train crash.

To ask strategic questions about the economic impact of China's rise. These include the impact of China's export success on European trade policy; the barriers faced by European exporters and investors in China; and the difficulty of managing the relationship between the dollar, the euro and the renmimbi.