Europe, US, China. The past, the present, the future. Who will benefit from the triangular relationship

Abstract

This paper will argue that the qualitatively new relationship between the EU, China and the USA can be captured through the use of the concept of hybridization, based on a coming together of different units and in the process the creation of a new reality, a hybrid reality. It will be claimed as a result of my study that China will want to use the biggest market in the world, the EU market, to avoid dependence on the US market for its exports and economic well-being and will claim that the relationship with the EU also fits exactly with its attempt to simultaneously accept and to change international relations – the relationship with the EU is about managing the world of a declining US rather than creating a new world order. In turn, the EU wants more room to manoeuvre for its foreign policy independence and so it can work well with China’s criteria for a relationship of ‘mutual trust’, ‘equality’ and ‘coordination’. In essence, rather than having ‘hard power’ worth talking about, both have ‘soft power’. On the other side of the coin, the US wants to control and incorporate the EU and contain China. In addition, both the EU and China are respectively weak and the US, despite some problems is (still) strong, but both really have the same question: how enduring is the American hegemony? In conclusion, the paper will be the affirmation that the EU China-US relations are now in flux in a way they have not been since 1949, leading to tectonic shifts. Both the EU and China will benefit from this relationship and the hybridity of their relations will lead to a new quality in their relationship with an important US always looming in the background.