Opportunities and Limits of EU-China Security Cooperation
May-Britt Stumbaum
In its European Security Strategy, the European Union defined the People's Republic of China (PRC) as a strategic partner and envisaged comprehensive cooperation with it, including in the security sector. China and the EU often use the same terms, but the connotation of these terms differs due to fundamentally different security concerns. This article critically assesses the possibilities, prospects and difficulties from a European point of view of pursuing Sino-European cooperation in security matters. It concludes that given basic differences in perception, cooperation is likely to be successful in such fields as environmental disasters and pandemics, but will remain limited in such areas as non-proliferation, the fight against terrorism and energy security.
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The International Politics of the Chinese Arms Embargo Issue
Nicola Casarini
The Chinese arms embargo issue has gone beyond Sino-European bilateral relations to become a matter of significance - and concern - for East Asian and US policymakers. Thus, an eventual solution depends not only on the interplay between EU and Chinese policymakers' interests and considerations, but is now interconnected with China's domestic developments and regional posture, the security concerns of China's neighbours (especially Japan and Taiwan), the evolution of US-China relations and transatlantic relations.
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China's Energy Policy: from Self-sufficiency to Energy Efficiency
Franēois Godement
China's energy policy is traditionally based on self-sufficiency. While energy bottlenecks have often been cited as a limitation to China's economic growth, China has been successful at producing energy using its domestic coal - albeit putting a strain on transport and producing a high degree of pollution. Aggressively after 2001, China has started to search for external resources, both to supply its voracious appetite for oil and to insure its economy against possible geopolitical disruptions - including the threat of sanctions. This has given Chinese companies a life of their own, making them large international actors. Today, China is both saddled with new responsibilities for the developing countries in which it owns sizeable exploitation rights, and influenced by a new thinking on energy security, based on the idea of improving energy efficiency before developing resources. This offers opportunities for the West - and Japan - in cooperating with China, a huge energy importing country, to lessen the dominance of producers, create business opportunities for energy efficiency equipment, and also to cap CO2 and other emissions.
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New Trends in China's Foreign Investment Strategy
Lorenzo Sasso
China now holds the world's largest foreign exchange reserves mainly thanks to dynamic export activities. In order to invest and manage these foreign exchange reserves, the Chinese government recently announced the constitution of a new State Foreign Exchange Investment Company (SFEIC) aimed at improving the yield on them. This new investment vehicle will face multiple challenges ranging from showing solid financial gains to establishing effective rules for corporate governance that guarantee transparency in company management. In addition to the legal aspects, numerous economic and political implications will arise from this new government-controlled tool.
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Opinions

Fostering Economic Growth through a "European" Debt
Maria Teresa Salvemini
Economic growth in the EU area is one of the European Union's tasks and the Union's budget should be used to finance actions aimed at development. It is hard to imagine that an increase in budget revenues or a significant reduction in spending in other areas can provide the resources for this purpose. The proposal put forward is to allow for debt financing of investment spending and to downgrade the current constitutional status of the rule regarding a balanced budget. A "European" debt, it is suggested, could strengthen the international role of the euro. If such a reform were not to find consensus within the Union as a whole, it could, alternatively, be adopted in the Eurogroup.
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