EU i Kinas järngrepp: En fallstudie om motsättningarna mellan EU:s ekonomiska intressen och normativa ambitioner

Sammanfattning: This essay examines the contradiction between normative ambitions and economic interests in the European Union’s foreign policy. More specifically, how strongly these two respective factors influence and dictate the EU’s political actions, which is examined in the case of the EU’s bilateral relations with China. The conclusions drawn are that both economic interests and normative ambitions in practice have a significant influence on the EU’s foreign policy toward China. The economic interests play an important role since the Chinese market and trade with China has become increasingly important for the EU at a rate that is unprecedented in modern European economic history. As a cause of China’s continuous and recurring crimes against human rights and general anti democratic development, the normative ambitions of the EU are becoming increasingly significant to the foreign policy of the EU towards China. These two factors nudge the EU to act in a certain manner, but both the economic interests and the normative ambitions influence the foreign policy at the same time. Pursuing normative ambitions through for example sanctions would mean jeopardising the important trade relations, whilst pursuing the economic interests solely would mean neglecting the, for the EU, normatively unacceptable development in China. The contradiction between these factors constitutes the subject for analysis.