For Europe, 2015 is a year of "troubled times" agonized by "multiple crises". The EU-China relationship, however, blossoms with continuous highlights. Of course, they are not directly linked.
Impacted by the 2008 international financial crisis, sovereign debt crisis broke out in 2009 in parts of Europe. After years of hard work, the European economy climbed out of the crisis. But its recovery is so far slow with a sluggish growth, hindering the EU's integration process.
The outbreak of the "Ukrainian crisis" in 2014 drew the EU-Russia relations into a dangerous situation of confrontation and sanctions against each other. Although relations have been eased to certain degree this year, its far-reaching impact is difficult to be resolved in the short term.
In 2015, the Greek debt crisis once again fermented. The creditors, the "troika", led by Germany, launched "fierce battle" to Greece's radical left-wing coalition government, which is on the verge of financial bankruptcy. Though a compromise was finally reached, the debt itself is not fundamentally resolved.
In the second half of the year, as the battle worsened in Syria and the Islamic extremist became more rampant, large number of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa poured into European ferociously. This influx became the prime crisis disturbing European stability, and also caused serious differences on how to apportion the refugees with member states of the EU.
In addition, after bloodshed of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo at the beginning of the year, Paris was targeted by a series of coordinated attacks by terrorists in November; and Britain's referendum on whether to quit from the EU, are issues tormenting Europe.
Despite the above-mentioned difficulties, EU-China relations have made remarkable progress both in the breadth and depth, with some new features. The reasons might be that: there is no direct conflict of interest from the geopolitical perspective between China and Europe; there is no historical legacy of grievances or disputes; China's economy is experiencing a favorable development and presenting broad prospects. In addition, China-EU economic structure is highly complementary, and mutual demand has increased for both sides.
First, China-EU relations have been upgraded to a strategic level, and spirit of pragmatic cooperation is on the rise, with the three major countries, the Great Britain, France and Germany, competing to seek cooperation with China.
President Xi Jinping received a grand, warm and friendly reception during his UK visit. Beijing and London agreed to build a "21st Century global comprehensive strategic partnership", and the British side pledged to be China's "best partner" in the West, which opened a persistent, open, and win-win Sino-British relations of "Golden Age".
Heads of State and leaders of Government of China and France exchanged visit within this year, what's more important, the "Joint Declaration on Climate Change" issued by the two sides has made important contributions to the success of the Paris summit on climate change.
Angela Merkel made her successful eighth visit to China within her tenure, and the two sides have launched high-level financial, diplomatic and security strategic dialogues.
All these indicate that China's relations with these three major powers in Europe have been boosted.
Other examples worth noting include: Great Britain, resisting United States pressure, was the first Western nation to declare to join in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Germany, France and other countries then followed suit.
Representatives from some EU-Countries, including French Foreign Minister, attended the China's commemoration on the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
