Out now: European Public United on China: selective cooperation in spite of negative perceptions - first CHERN Policy Paper

In my new paper with Richard Turcsanyi , Una Bērziņa-Čerenkova and Jelena Gledic, we find from a poll on China in 10 European countries that Europeans are skeptical of the PRC but continue to prefer selective cooperation.

The ten-country survey, run in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden, shows a relatively homogeneous picture of low trust of China among the public in these countries.

The key policy take-aways are that (i) policy makers in the European Union (EU) and in its national Governments should listen more carefully to public opinion; (ii) perceptions of China are increasingly negative in the EU; (iii) European public opinion broadly supports considering China simultaneously as a partner, competitor and systemic rival, depending on the topic being covered, but demands further clarity and pro-activity on the role played by the EU in each of these three contexts; (iv) European public opinion encourages its governments and institutions to engage and co-operate further with China in areas such as climate change, pandemics and counterterrorism, but does not accept any softening in Europe’s insistence that China respect its values and human rights; and (v) differences on these matters among national public opinions are not significant, so a coherent EU policy on China is possible.

Read the full policy brief here, together with the survey that informed it.