The EU is now China's biggest trading partner. European companies are ploughing billions of euro into the booming Chinese market. The EU offers Beijing help in areas such as fighting pollution and writing better laws.
With George W Bush re-elected to the White House, many Europeans are gloomy about the future of transatlantic relations. The EU's relationship with Russia has also soured, and not only because of Moscow's attitude to Ukraine's fraudulent elections.
Opinion piece by Mark Leonard The Guardian, 11 September 2004
In my local curry house I was greeted like a long-lost friend. A huddle of young waiters gesticulated excitedly towards me. Eventually I realised they were pointing at my bag, picked up during a recent trip to China, and emblazoned with the Chinese script for Shanghai.
Bulletin article by Edward Bannerman, 01 February 2001
The United States has long cast its shadow over the formal meetings of Asian and European ministers. "How will this play in Washington?" was the unspoken caveat to the normally unexciting conclusions of most Asian-Europe Meetings (ASEM).