On 10 November 2021, the China-CEE Institute invited Prof. FENG Zhongping, Director-General of the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the President of the China-CEE Institute, to deliver a lecture entitled “China-Europe Relations: Opportunities and Challenges”. Prof. CHEN Xin, Executive President and Managing Director of China-CEE Institute, and Deputy Director-General of the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, moderated this lecture. The Institute’s non-resident researchers and researchers from partner institutions participated in the lecture. 

Prof. FENG evaluated China-Europe relations and concluded that the state and quality of China-EU relations are the most critical for the entire world. The European Union is currently undergoing two major transformations: economic and diplomatic. Meanwhile, China is experiencing “great changes unprecedented in a century,” and according to FENG, EU countries are continuously adapting to a China that is quickly developing and becoming increasingly powerful. As a result, China-EU relations have been strained. Prof. FENG believes that the next most essential thing for both China and the EU is to find ways to create a suitable atmosphere and environment to break the current deadlock and return to a normal track as soon as possible. 

The lecture lasted about one and half hours in total. During the Q & A session, the participants posed several questions about how China’s modernization affected by US Cold War-like foreign policy, the key areas of potential cooperation and conflict between the EU and China, and how bilateral cooperation potential could be enhanced and eventual conflicts be successfully managed, etc.