Europe's relations with China appear to be back on track. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's recent tour of Europe was by all accounts a success, with both sides eager to put behind them last year's unpleasantness — a high-level China-EU meeting was canceled because of China's objections to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to meet with the Dalai Lama. Yet all has not been settled.
Mr. Wen skipped France on his tour and the prime minister found himself in unfamiliar shoes — or dodging shoes. That is certainly not the image that Chinese leaders want to conjure in the eyes of their citizens or the rest of the world.
China and Europe are eager to build a more robust relationship. Both seek a multipolar world and see stronger ties between them as the means to that end. Economics provides the foundation for their broader relationship. The EU's exports to China totaled $92.7 billion in 2007, and that figure expanded 12 percent in 2008. China is Europe's fastest growing export market; its exports to Europe reached 232 billion euro. All is not well, though, on the trade front as China's trade surplus reached $210 billion last year, creating its own tensions.